The Young Turks - Pentagon Press Corps Becomes Complete Joke With The Likes of Laura Loomer - December 4, 2025

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TYT and use code TYT and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Benjamin Netanyahu is once again publicly opposing the creation of a Palestinian state. Pete Hegseth reportedly asked a top admiral to resign after months of internal conflict. Trump’s renewed focus on the drug war is creating massive new opportunities for defense startups. New documents show Jeffrey Epstein assisted Alan Dershowitz in attacking Mearsheimer and Walt’s Israel Lobby. Hosts: Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I don't know if you all know this, but according to Christy Nome, hundreds of millions of Americans have been saved as a result of the illegal strikes on fishing boats in the Caribbean. that are so small and have so little fuel that they didn't even have the capacity to reach the United States. We're going to get to that a little later in the show. Really looking forward to that. Welcome, everyone. You're watching The Young Turks. I'm Anna Kasparian. And today's show is so lit. There were so many topics that we couldn't even fit into the rundown. But I don't want to waste any time today because it is a jam-packed rundown. Lots of stories to share with you. We've got some foreign policy. We've got some domestic news. We're going to talk about Waymo's.

Are the Waymo's crashing in to police officers? Is that what was happening in the Los Angeles recently? We're going to give you the details. But before we get to all of that, lots of foreign policy news to get to updates on Venezuela and the like. But as always, I just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream if you're watching us live on YouTube. It does look like certain channels right now that have been aggressive in their truth telling about what's been happening in the Middle East are being. punished either by the algorithm or through organized campaigns to basically flag mass, you know, mass flag channels. So if you are watching, you know, liking this stream and

sharing it would be greatly appreciated. Help us fight back against those who want to silence us and censor us from, you know, speaking our minds and talking about what's actually happening in the world as opposed to sugar coding it for everyone. All right, with that all in mind, let's get to our first story. recently hosted NBS at the White House, who said he wants to be part of the Abraham Accords, but that there needs to be a path to a two-state solution. How do you square that with your view, I believe, where you have said there will not be a Palestinian state?

For anyone paying attention to everything that's been going down in the Middle East, not just over the last two years, but over several decades, you know exactly how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to answer that question. But I do think it's important for you to hear it yet again because it is another piece of evidence that Netanyahu, the Israeli government, and Israel in general, has been one of the major obstacles to peace in the Middle East. Take a look. Well, there was a Palestinian state. It's called Gaza. That's exactly what it was. It was a de facto state. And we didn't get peace. What we got was the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. episode is brought to you by prize picks. It's the holiday season, the best time of the year for everything, including sports. You've got bowl games, basketball matchups, playoff pushes. It's all happening at once. And while you and I are out here making decisions every day, what gifts to buy,

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putting my knowledge to the test. So download the PricePix app today and use code TYT to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code TYT to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Price Picks, it's good to be right. Except Gaza was not a free and sovereign Palestinian state, as we all know. While it's true that Israeli settlers and Israelis in general did leave the Gaza. the Gaza Strip in the early aughts. It's also true that Israel has had complete control of the enclave, of that area of land, ever since Israelis had left the Gaza Strip, right?

So Israel controls its borders for the most part. Israel controls what goes in, what goes out, meaning Israel controls trade in Gaza and has, I mean, before the genocide started, they had cut Gaza off. from being able to participate in the world economy. As we all know, Israel has controlled Gaza's electricity, its water. And ever so often, the IDF soldiers would go in to mow the lawn, meaning just slaughter Palestinians. So to say that Gaza was a Palestinian state,

and, oh, precious, innocent, Benjamin Netanyahu allowed them to have their state. And he was thanked by the Palestinians through this act of violence that was carried out by Hamas is ridiculous, especially when you remember that Netanyahu himself facilitated the funding of Hamas. That's what he likes to do. He likes to fund or facilitate the funding of various groups. And then he points to those groups, says that they're a problem, tries to go to the United States to fight them, or uses the groups that he propped up as justification to carry out atrocities and genocide. side. So what else does you have to say? Let's take a look.

If you ask Israelis now, and it just covers an enormous spectrum, I mean, from left to right, we had a vote in the Knesset. We have 120 Knesset members. 99 to 11, 10 abstain. 99 to 11 opposed being forced on a Palestinian state. I mean, that tells you something. Okay. So this conversation he's having is with Andrew Ross Sorkin for the New York Times annual deal book summit. And he goes on to fear monger about Palestinians and say all sorts of disgusting things about them. If you want to watch it, you know where to find the video. It's on YouTube. I'm not going to play that here because it's a waste of time. And I don't want him repeating his disgusting bigotry here on the show. But nonetheless, I will say that the argument that the entire This is the argument he's making that the entire Knesset also likes to dehumanize the entire population of the Palestinian people and essentially rob them of their freedom and human rights isn't really the own that he thinks it is. That's not really much of an argument. You're just, you know, it's an indictment of the Knesset. But, you know, it's interesting because Netanyahu isn't

really telling you the full story here. Because just recently, the Knesset held a vote to codify President Donald Trump's so-called peace plan, which I've been very critical of, okay? But if you're a big believer that Donald Trump's peace plan is, in fact, a real peace plan that will lead to a two-state solution, I question that. But if you believe that, understand that the Knesset holds the vote. It does pass, but it manages to pass despite the fact that the Lakud Party boycotted the vote. And the Lakud Party, of course, is the party that Benjamin Netanyahu identifies with. So Netanyahu should be asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin, why is it that you and your party called

for the boycott of a vote in the Knesset that would have codified the peace deal that was brokered by President Donald Trump? That would be an interesting question to ask, but unfortunately we didn't get any of that. Now I do want to just give you one other piece of video here from the conversation that he with Andrew Ross Sorkin, because if you ever questioned whether Benjamin Netanyahu has a lust for war, I think this next clip will answer your questions. We will change the face of the Middle East. We will win this war, because it was clear to me that we were not only fighting Hamas, we were fighting Hezbollah, we were fighting the Assad

regime, we were fighting the militias in Iraq, we were fighting the Qutis, we're fighting Iran, And we did. We won this war. We won this war, but it's never ending. It's like, you know, if you have cancer and you take it out, you know, it can still come back. It's certain types of cancer. But if you don't take it out, you die. I really wish the Israeli people understood the cancer that the current Israeli government happens to be. Now, I know a lot of people think, no, this is part and parcel of the Israeli society. I think that societies can change. I think that there are some insane, you know, sentiments that have mass appeal in Israel right now. And it really makes me sad. But it wasn't always that way. But when you want to talk about, I would argue the biggest enemy to the well-being of Israel,

it's people like Netanyahu. Because you just heard him say that the war never ends. Because he doesn't want it to end. He's never wanted peace. fact that the Lakud Party boycotted that vote to codify Trump's peace deal is just more evidence that these people do not want peace. They have proven it time and time again. And so again, when people tell you who they are, you should believe them. Netanyahu tells us who he is day in and day out. So we should believe him. I know I do. All right, let's move

on to some other news today. I want to talk about the ongoing backlash and fallout. in regard to President Donald Trump and the Pentagon's actions in the Caribbean. Let's get into it. If it is found that survivors were actually killed while clinging on to that vote, should Secretary Hepseth, Admiral Bradley, or others be punished? I think you're going to find that this is war, that these people were killing our people by the millions, actually, if you look over a few years. I think you're going to find that there's a very receptive ear to doing exactly what they're doing, taking out those boats.

And very soon we're going to start doing it on land too. The Trump administration continues to be on the defense as a result of the backlash they're receiving from the potential war crimes that have been committed in the Caribbean. these alleged war crimes have to do with the fact that a fishing boat in September was not only struck by the U.S. military, but afterwards when there were two individuals who were essentially clinging onto the wreckage of the boat, it was clear that they had survived the first strike. The military ordered a second strike to kill the other two individuals. And that is considered a war crime. So you have the Trump administration. you know, really changing their story, which I think is an admission of guilt, you know, Hegsith denied ordering it. Then they tried to place the blame on someone else. So we'll go over that right now. But it is really interesting to see what's going on here because I think for the first time in my adult life, I'm seeing politicians in Congress on the left and the right. Not too many of them. Let me just be clear. But enough of them to give me a little bit of hope that maybe Congress is

waking up to the fact that seating their power to the executive branch as it pertains to military action was a really, really bad idea during the aftermath of 9-11. So let's talk a little bit about what happened today because something interesting did occur in Capitol Hill as a result of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who want to investigate potential war crimes being carried out by the Pentagon under Donald Trump. So this morning, lawmakers met with Navy Admiral Frank Bradley, and we've talked about him before. He is the individual who allegedly, you know, greenlit the second strike in that September 2nd mission. And as he was meeting with these lawmakers, he apparently showed them the video footage, the full video footage of the operation.

Right? Because we've seen bits and pieces of the video, but the Trump administration hasn't really been transparent. They haven't released the full footage for all Americans to see. And according to Democratic representative Jim Himes, the footage clearly shows that the United States forces were targeting survivors clinging onto the wreckage of the boat who pose absolutely no threat to American security. And that's, by the way, that is the important thing to keep in mind. Now, we talk a lot about the importance of due process. It's part of our Constitution. I think I would argue it's an important part of our Constitution. But you can carry out a strike like this if the individuals who are being targeted pose an imminent threat to our soldiers or to U.S. national security. But that was not the case here. Remember, these fishing boats are not even capable of reaching the United States, which is why this whole argument that we're hearing from the Trump administration about how they're doing this

to counter narco-terrorism is just completely ridiculous. But here's what Representative Himes had to say. He's a Democrat from Connecticut saying that I reviewed the video and it's deeply, deeply troubling. The fact is that we killed two people who were in deep distress and had neither the means nor obviously the intent to continue their mission. And by the way, the other thing is, if they were narco-traffickers who were dangerous, and a threat to U.S. national security, I mean, you could just share that information with

the American people. Like, what's the data? What's the evidence? The fact that there's been no transparency here from the Trump administration is also part of the reason why so many Americans and even a bipartisan group of lawmakers are starting to get more and more furious about this. So in the Washington Post's original reporting, they indicated that Secretary of war, Pete Hegzeth, ordered his subordinates to, quote, kill them all. Now, Hegzith denied it. And then later, during a White House press briefing, Caroline Levitt, confirmed it. Trump denied it. I mean, they just keep changing their story. But what's really interesting is the latest reporting indicates that Bradley decided to provide cover for Hegseth. So here's reporting from the Hill.

the admiral confirmed that there had not been a kill them all order and that there was not an order to grant no quarter, Heim said. He declined to provide further details, leaving the meeting with the top lawmakers on the intelligence committee, Bradley declined to comment. I don't believe him. I think that Hegsith did say kill them all. And the reason why I say that is because, first of all, I mean, there's the changing stories that we've been hearing from very, members of the Trump administration. Why do they keep changing their story? It looks like they're trying to cover something up. But I also think it's important to look at Pete Heggzith as a whole. And what I mean by that is, I don't know about you guys. I can't stop thinking about that email

his mother wrote about him, the allegations made against Pete Heggzith by his ex-wife, allegations that he was abusive, that he was belligerent, that he had substance abuse issues, was an alcoholic. The actions that we're seeing in the Caribbean right now seem to line up with the type of temperament that we suspected that Pete Higgsath has. Now, this is an admiral claiming that there was no order. Again, I don't believe him, but he's an admiral. He's been in the military, you know, for a while. And we've never heard anything bad about this guy. We've never heard anything about him carrying out war crimes. I mean, maybe he has, and we just don't know about it. But I don't believe for a second that this admiral is going to carry out a double

tap that he very likely knows is a war crime unless the Secretary of War ordered it to happen. Now, I'm speculating here. Actually, our producer Alyssa speculating, but I actually think this is great speculation. It lines up with what I would think. Now, why would he lie? Why would the admiral lie? So he might want to provide cover for Hegsith, sure, but maybe he has some sort of promise from the Trump administration that he won't get fired if he comes out and says that Hegsith didn't do anything wrong. He didn't order a double tap. Who knows? He could also be lying just to protect Hegseth and avoid the same fate as, well, someone who was pushed into early retirement, and that was Admiral Alvin Halsey.

Let's talk about Admiral Alvin Halsey. Because back in October, Pete Heggzith unexpectedly announced that Adam Alvin Halsey was retiring. Now, Halsey was the head of U.S. military operations in the Caribbean, but now he's retiring less than a year into his tenure. So I'm sorry, Hegsith announced in October that he would be joining the Defense Department. But again, I mean, less than a year into his tenure, he's gone. And the move shocked several experts and lawmakers, mainly because of the fact that, you know, during his confirmation hearing, he made it abundantly clear that his area of expertise was countering drug trafficking. And the Trump administration purports to care so much.

about drug trafficking, even though they just pardoned the former president of Honduras, who was very much involved in drug trafficking that negatively impacted the United States. That just happened, by the way. But, you know, Halsey said some interesting things during his confirmation hearing. So here's one statement. He said, quote, my first deployment to the Southcom area of responsibility was over 33 years ago conducting counter drug missions. He told lawmakers at his Senate confirmation hearing in September, arguing for a more muscular approach to dismantle the drug cartels responsible for tens of thousands of American deaths. So Representative Adam Smith, who is the top Democrat in the House Armed Services Committee,

stated once it was announced that he would be retiring, never before in my over 20 years on the committee, can I recall seeing a combatant commander, leave their post this early and amid such turmoil. So what happened here? Well, the latest reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicates that he was effectively pushed out by Pete Hexif. It began days after President Trump's inauguration in January and intensified months later when Halsey had initial concerns

about the legality of lethal strikes on alleged drugboats in the Caribbean, according to former officials aware of the discussions. So Hegseth really did make it known that Halsey or made it known to Halsey that he just absolutely would not tolerate any questions or anyone within the Pentagon questioning his orders. That's another reason why I don't really believe that Admiral Bradley is telling the truth when it comes to the orders that Hegseth has been giving. But moving on. So Hegseth apparently told him after Halsey was confirmed, you're either on the team or you're not. When you get older, you move out fast and don't ask questions. Oh, I'm sorry, when you get an order.

When you get an order, you move out fast and don't ask any questions. This is not funny. This is scary stuff, right? Because we're literally talking about killing people in the Caribbean, just targeting fishing boats. I think Hegzith is completely unhinged. I don't think he's well. And I worry about, first of all, killing innocent people. I'm not convinced that we're actually targeting and striking people who are in danger to this country, number one.

But I'm also worried about backlash. I'm worried about blowback. The way we're behaving internationally right now is really not the way you make friends. And he asked questions and objected to Hegseth's orders. So late in the summer as the military began striking alleged drug boats, Halsey was initially concerned about murky legal authority for the boat strike campaign. And that's according to former officials.

with other military units under separate chains of command also involved, including elite special operations units, Halsey objected that parts of the operations fell outside his direct control, they said. So even before the strikes began, Hegsith had allegedly lost confidence in Halsey and basically was actively looking to replace him. But, you know, here you have an admiral who... has principles, knows what the international laws are, the laws pertaining to, you know,

war crimes, and he decided to go the moral route. And it's pretty devastating that the person who is, you know, really the head of the Pentagon, our so-called secretary of war, is just an unhinged lunatic who also fails to take responsibility for his own actions. It's not really the mark of the leader. It's the mark of a loser who is risking all of us to carry out his G.I. Joe fantasies. That's where we are right now. But when we come back from the break, I do want to talk a little bit about the war profiteering that's already taking place in regard to our military actions against these fishing boats. So we'll get to that and more when we come back. Don't miss it.

We're going to be able to be. What's up, everyone? Welcome to our first social break of the day. Jenks left tricep of Fury is asking about Jenk being out. You mentioned his knee surgery, which means he's talked about it publicly. So I'll just say, yes, he had his knee surgery today, and he'll be back soon. Let's go to Hakuna Matato, who says, watched Anna on Pierce Morgan. How someone could critique Ms. Rachel for having a Palestinian child on her show is something

I will never understand. Anna was very correct in saying Ms. Rachel is a national treasure. She's a very, like, she's an incredibly sweet person. And I'm not just saying that based on like her public content. You know, she's been targeted pretty viciously and she's not, she's not me. And what I mean by that is I do this for a living and as a result, you know, it welcomes all sorts of pretty horrible people attacking me for all sorts of reasons. But I signed up for it. She is a child, child content creator. And so while most people are laughing about the stop anti-Semitism list, I know that it hit her really hard.

Because she looks at that and she thinks to herself, how are we living in a world right now? where simply wanting to recognize the humanity of Palestinian children makes you a bad person. She really loves kids. I mean, she's dedicated her life and her career to it. Like, it just breaks my heart. And I'm, I've tried to console her about it because I don't think she should spend even a minute, even a second feeling bad. But that's what these, you know, terrible harassing groups do to people. And show her some love if you can because she's a wonderful person. Let's go to Dragons Don't Know I'm Not Real Bacon. Okay.

It says, it's weird the double tap is a big issue when there has still been and will never be, wait, when there has still been and will never be any evidence released that these are actual drug boats. Yeah, I'm against the strikes in general. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans aren't. We're going to get to that a little later in the show. But I think most Americans who are in favor of these strikes genuinely believe that they're so-called drug boats. And I try to be understanding of people's perspectives. And I think about how a lot of people might just buy what the Trump administration is selling. They might just take it at face value.

And if you live in a community that's been absolutely devastated by, you know, drug trafficking, drug addiction. And a lot of communities have been, yeah, you want revenge. you know, you want action to be taken. So I think that kind of explains the reason why some Americans are in favor of these strikes. I'm not because I know better. I don't trust our government. I know our government lies to us. And that's not a partisan argument I'm making. The Biden administration lied to us over and over again, especially as it pertained to foreign policy. And so we as Americans should take full advantage of what our constitution affords us. And that gives us the ability to question our government and not just by their lies, hook, line, and sinker. Anyway,

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That's 707 TYT help to speak with a trusted advisor today. All right. Well, we're not quite done talking about Venezuela yet. I wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, some of the incentives in, what's happening in the Caribbean. Because while we know that for Marco Rubio, it's ideological. For Trump, there's certainly a necessity of oil resources that he wants to get his hands on. In reality, there are other interests playing a part in this. And the war profiteering is pretty obvious because they're saying it out loud. Let's take a look. So the defense industry startups are now

absolutely racing to get rich off of the Trump administration's military buildup off the coast of Venezuela. That's not a good sign because when moneyed interests are aching for war because they're looking to profit off of it, chances are they're going to get what they want. And so far, that has been the case. So let's get to some of the details here because Mark Kansian, who is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, and a retired Marine colonel, stated simply, and this is a direct quote, hold on to your butts, there's priority and money for business that's good. He's talking about Venezuela. It's upward of 80 people have been killed as a result of the U.S. striking these like random fishing boats that don't even have the

capacity to get to the United States. But they're being, you know, labeled narco-traveled, traffickers, narco-terrorist, drug boats that are trying to get dangerous drugs into the United States. You want to know what Venezuela is responsible for when it comes to the drug trade in the U.S.? Cocaine. Okay, what percentage of the cocaine trade in the U.S. is Venezuela responsible for? 10%. This is not about countering drugs that are being trafficked in the U.S. Let's be absolutely clear about that. Now, Aubrey Mains, who's a senior director at the Venovar Labs, that's a startup that provides intelligence to national security agencies also opined on this ongoing, you know, I don't even want to call it a war because Venezuela isn't fighting back. There's no war. The U.S. is just striking random fishing boats and engaging in a military buildup. But here's what Aubrey Mains had to say about it. The counter-narcotics mission has already opened new,

anticipated revenue lines. I just, they just say it out loud. Okay, they just say it out loud. It's amazing. Benevar Labs, by the way, he uses AI to locate transnational criminal organizations and China-based suppliers. And what we're doing right now in the Caribbean has nothing to do with China, which actually provides, you know, the material for the fentanyl, which then gets smuggled into the United States through Mexico. That's the reality of the situation. And fentanyl is the top

reason why drug overdose deaths are happening in the United States. The second drug that is killing Americans is meth, which is also smuggled through Mexico. So, you know, her connection to China suppliers or at least identifying the China suppliers has nothing to do with her cheerleading for what's happening in the Caribbean right now and the military buildup off the coast of Venezuela. They also, by the way, use AI technology to estimate public support for the Trump administration's attacks on alleged drug boats. But I will say this real quick. We're going to go to a CBS and UGov news poll. We're not going to go to any of her data, but like, Is anyone really going to trust her data?

Like, think about that. Oh, we provide, you know, AI technology that helps to estimate public support for the military operations that my company is profiting off of. Yeah, you could take that data and shove it. I mean, there's a conflict of interest here. Like, Trump shouldn't trust it at all, but I'm sure that he will. Because Trump will trust anything that bolsters what he already wants to hear or already wants to believe. So let's go to this poll from CBS News and you gov. So it asks whether Americans

favor, you know, using military force to attack boats suspected, not proven, but suspected of bringing drugs into the United States. The majority, 53% approve, 47% disapproved because it's 2003 all over again and people will believe anything. And I don't know, like, I don't know. Like, at what point the United States is going to just completely crumble and fall. But the continuation of neocon type foreign policies, where we do like preemptive wars and we strike random fishing boats that we suspect of trafficking drugs, that is going to crush this country. We're already $39 trillion in debt.

We can't afford this. We shouldn't be doing this, but we're going to do it anyway. And by the way, it's going to do nothing to help the very real situation on the ground here in the U.S. of people struggling with drug addiction and in many cases dying as a result of that drug addiction. You know, it'd be really nice if maybe Congress spent a little bit of time allocating funds for rehabilitation centers because I know that there are a lot of people struggling with drug addiction who desperately want to go through detox, they want to get rehab,

But it's very expensive. And in blue states, I mean, I think the intentions were well-meaning, but blue states have really moved away from rehab. And instead of funding that, they've focused on so-called harm reduction. And I don't think that it has worked. I think a lot of people who want to go to rehab instead are having trouble affording it for obvious reasons. So there needs to be a little more support in that area. but obviously Congress is useless.

And right now, they're just finally realizing that they ceded a lot of power to the executive branch and they're trying to figure out if there's a way to get it back. But we'll see. I mean, I doubt it. An overwhelming majority of Americans want the Trump administration to show evidence that the boats really are being used for smuggling drugs into America. So 75% say they want to see the evidence.

25% say, I don't care. Nah, I don't want to see the evidence. It's okay. strike the boats. Who cares? But luckily, 75% do you want to see the evidence? We haven't seen that evidence yet. And likely we'll never see that evidence. So the Trump administration, again, has refused to show us what the Pentagon has discovered about these boats. Like, what's the justification for striking them? Now, other startups involved with the buildup in the Caribbean include Shield AI and Overwatch imaging. So both of them specialize in drone technology for

surveillance. The U.S. government has billions of dollars to throw at these startups. So the president's spending bill in July, for instance, gave the Department of Homeland Security an extra $165 billion over the next decade, including $6 billion to expand U.S.-Mexico border security technology, such as surveillance. I thought, you know, if you're spending all this money to secure the border, why are we so worried about these tiny little fishing boats that don't even have the capacity to reach the United States. Weird. It also gave the Pentagon an additional $1 billion for anti-drug and border missions.

And then finally, the Coast Guard received $4 billion more for cutters to patrol open waters and $350 million for robotics and autonomous systems. And we all know that money goes to private military contractors, weapons manufacturers, tech companies that develop the AI technology. That's why the United States has been in perpetual war. I mean, I don't think most Americans know. We've been bombing the crap out of Somalia for decades, for decades. It slowed down a little bit under the Biden administration, but Trump has really ramped it up.

So Palantir CEO Alex Karp would not confirm or deny whether his, company was involved with Latin American military operations. But instead, he stated, if we are involved, I am very proud. I'm sure you are, Alex. I'm sure you are. I believe that fentanyl is a scourge on the working class of America. Oh, Alex Carp, real concerned about working class Americans, so concerned that he's lying to our faces about how these attacks on fishing boats have to do with fentanyl. They have nothing to do with fighting back against the fentanyl trade. He's sick.

He really is. Let me give you the rest of his statement. Scourge was affecting non-working class. I'm sorry. Okay, if we are involved, I'm very proud. I believe that fentanyl is a scourge on the working class of America. And that if this scourge was affecting non-working class people, we would use extreme violence.

And so I support what they're doing. I love that he's trying to use, like, class-based messaging to sell us on something that he very clearly is looking to profit off of. I mean, he's certainly profited off of the atrocities and mass slaughter campaign that's been carried out in Gaza. So far, we've mostly focused on surveillance or AI companies, but we haven't even touched the biggest five military contractors, you know, the ones we talk about often on the show, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, RTX, and Boeing. Contractors collected an enormous amount of money from the government.

Like, for instance, between 2020 and 2024, 54% of the Pentagon's discretionary spending went to military contractors. And a majority of those contracts went to the five firms that I just listed. So what are those companies using the money for? Oh, look at that. They're helping the working class. No, they're not wrong. actually what they're doing is they're buying our politicians and undermining our democratic process because our politicians clearly do not care about us. They are far more concerned about the

desires and fantasies of their donors. So the arms industry spent nearly $151 million on lobbying and over $43 million on political contributions in 2024 alone. So they profit off of war and then they use a chunk of those profits to buy our politicians to egg on more war. And military contractors increased cash paid to their shareholders by 73% from 2010 to 2019 versus the year 2000 to 2009, all while decreasing spending on research and development and capital investment, which I'm okay with, to be honest with you. So, I mean, I'm not okay with them, you know, engaging in war profiteering. But I think the area of innovation that we can do less with is the, you know, war machine that we've been dealing with for many, many decades now.

All right, we have to take a break. When we come back, a story that I've had produced and ready to go for like over a week now, we're finally going to talk about it. The Epstein files and emails that have been released have shown that one of my favorite political scientists was targeted by Alan Dershowitz and Epstein. They were conspiring to destroy him. Who is it? What did they do? We've got that story and more coming right up.

Thank you. All right, Panda Pants Dragon says, he's a giant bag of Richards, which I am amused by. I don't know who we're talking about specifically. It could be Hegsith. It could be Trump. Who knows? It could be Alex Karp. But I love the comment.

Anyway, let's go to our members section. Welcome to our new member, Sidlife, 365. And thank you to, oh, CDN, Norse Dog. dad 5119, who sent one TYT gift membership. Really, really appreciate the support. Make It Make Sense says, funny news, an artist named Beeple has gone viral for, has gone viral after mocking tech billionaires and famed artists, including Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg, by creating them as realistic robot.

I did see this. Creating them as realistic robot dogs that defecate NFTs. Pretty accurate depiction, if you ask me. Scandinavian alien dragon says, at this rate, anyone in the Trump administration can be paid off to take responsibility for a crime, get sentenced, and then get pardoned. Yeah, in fact, Trump just pardoned a pretty gross private equity guy. Who knows what that private equity guy paid him to get that pardon? Who knows what kind of favors are being met? We'll see.

But yeah, I mean, this is probably probably the most corrupt administration. And the competition, the bar is very, very high. But, I mean, it's just brazen corruption right in our faces every single day. It's incredible. Let's go to Mark Francis, 0764. Both Hegseth and Patel won't make it another year. Let's cross our fingers. Although, at the same time, I mean, who are they going to be replaced with?

It's not like Trump is picking the best people. So I am worried about who their replacements will be. But Hegesith is a problem. He really is. He terrifies me. I don't think he's well. And I'm not saying that simply to insult him. I'm saying that because we should be concerned because he's someone who's supposed to be making

the types of decisions that keeps this country safe. I don't think he's able to make the right decisions to keep himself safe. He seems totally unhinged. As shown, 77. says stuff gets real fun if Trump doesn't know his name two months from now. Disrupt Daily says, I'm worried about our soldiers. Yeah, that's the other thing. I mean, if you are a military family, if you have a family member who's in the military, it is currently deployed, I mean, how are you not worried? It just seems like a total circus and clown show. They just play with

people's lives, man. I don't understand it. I really don't. And like the older I get, the softer I get in some ways, like where, I don't know, I'm just a softie when it comes to human life, I guess, you know, and like just flippantly killing people, being brazen about it, unapologetic, pretending like you're a hero for doing it. It just, it disgusts me. Anyway, all right, we've got a lot more to get to. Let's get back to the show. You're going to love the next segment. Nerd Ferguson is cracking me up in the members' comments. And it's just a joke, everyone, No one's being serious about this, but it's kind of, you know, making fun of the Trump administration. So nerd Ferguson says, you know, the Trump administration realized what a problem meth is.

So they just started bombing RVs in New Mexico. Like, that's how ridiculous what's happening in the Caribbean is. But anyway, I appreciate your comment. Thank you for writing in. Now, I want to tell you a little bit about Mobile Noble, you know, if you've got a cell phone plan that you don't like, well, I've got good news for you because we have partnered with Noble mobile mobile. It's the only cell phone plan that pays you to use your phone less. You get unlimited data for just $50 a month.

But the real game changer is the cash back you get for your unused data, which is pretty incredible. So the less data you use each month, the more cash back you get. So every month you use less, if you use less than 20 gigabytes of data, you know, most people only use about 10 gigabytes. I'm not sure I really believe that, but whatever. you'll earn cash back. So as long as you use less than 20 gigabytes, you will get cash back.

And you might be asking, is the money real? Yes, the money is real. And you can do whatever you want with it. So if you want to learn more, all you have to do is go to t-y-t.com slash switch. That's t-y-t.com slash switch. All right. Let's get into our next story because I think that John Mearsheimer is a treasure. He has always been one of my favorite political scholars.

He was someone I read when I was getting my master's degree in political science. And I don't know if there's a single video of him out there that I haven't watched. I watch Judge Napolitano show every single time Mir Shimer's on. So I have a lot of respect for him. I think he's very smart. Sometimes he's gotten some of his predictions wrong. But overall, I think he's a really intelligent person who adds a lot to the conversation. But he has, the ire of Alan Dershowitz has been directed toward him.

And that's been the case for a long time. Even when he didn't know that Alan Dershowitz was buddy, buddy with Epstein. Let's get into it. But first of all, your reaction to these emails that have come out, which reveal what was going on at the time between Jeffrey Epstein and Alan Dershowitz. I certainly knew at the time that Alan Dershowitz had us, me and Steve Walt, in his gun sights and he was doing everything he could to smear us. I had no idea that he was cooperating with Jeffrey Epstein in that endeavor. But I'm not surprised at all now that I've seen a few of the emails that Dershowitz

and Epstein were cooperating with each other to smear me and Steve. I'm about to speak to Alan Dershowitz before I go to him. Do you have any message for him? No, not really. Thanks to the House Oversight Committee releasing some of the Epstein files, meaning Epstein's emails, we now know that Epstein's attorney who secured that sweetheart deal for him, Alan Dershowitz, colluded with the child sex predator, Jeffrey Epstein, to roll out a vicious smear campaign against academic John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt over their paper detailing the influence of the Israel lobby. So the Israel lobby began as a paper and then was

later published as a book in the London Review of Books. And whether you read the paper or I highly recommend reading the full book, just do it because I think that it's even timely now, although it was published, the paper was published all the way back in 2006. Now, when it was published, oh boy, there was a lot of backlash, even though both Mearsheimer and Walt made it abundantly clear that when they talk about the Israel lobby, they're not talking about Jewish people, right? Because the Israel lobby isn't just Jewish people. It's also evangelical Christians who are very much in favor of this unmitigated support for Israel, regardless of what Israel is up to, regardless of what types of atrocities are being carried out by its military. So Mearsheimer and Walt

described a loose coalition of philanthropists, think tanks, advocacy groups, and Christian Zionist organizations that routinely pulled U.S. policy toward the Middle East away from America's national interest. Sound familiar? I think we're seeing that play out right now as the U.S. was being drawn into a military quagmire in Iraq. So this was an incredibly important book, and the reason why it was so provocative is because not only did it talk about the influence of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy, but it also talked about one of the motivating factors behind the U.S.'s preemptive war and invasion into Iraq. And, you know, the Israel supporters didn't want us to know about that. So it was always considered incredibly provocative. to talk about it. This book talked about it. Other special interest groups have managed to skew U.S. foreign policy in directions they favored Walton Mearsheimer wrote. But no lobby has

managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical. And as we know, certainly, you know, primary, example would be what happened with the traitor to the United States, Jonathan Pollard. We know that what's in the best interest of Israel is not always aligned with what's in the best interests of this country, the United States. Sometimes there's a conflict. But the point that Meersheimer and Walt were trying to make in their book was that the Israel lobby is so powerful that they can literally buy our politicians to carry out policies that are detrimental to our

own country. As you can imagine, someone like Alan Dershowitz is not going to favor that type of information being published. Now, keep in mind, we're not talking about cranks either. Okay, these are highly distinguished political scientists. Walt had been serving as an academic dean at Harvard's Kennedy School since 2002, Mearsheimer taught at the University of Chicago. But both of them were met with swift and brutal backlash, and the anti-defamation League announced that their work, denounce their work and essentially called it, you know, anti-Jewish screed, which is not true. In response, the Kennedy School even removed its logo from the paper and put out a statement to distance themselves from it, even though, you know,

we're talking about one of their top scholars writing it. And they decided to distance themselves from it. Now, at the time, little did anyone know that the man behind the smearer, campaign was child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein and his lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who would sign up to, again, defend Epstein's lascivious crimes and predatory behavior. So we now know all of this, thanks to a trove of emails obtained by the nonprofit whistleblower organization, distributed denial of secrets, and provided to drop site news. And drop site news, as we have repeated over and over again on the show has been doing an excellent job in its reporting. If you want to bolster your media diet on foreign policy, I highly recommend anti-war.com

and the dissident over at Substack. But anyway, let's get into the receipts here because what you're about to see is one of the emails. So on April 1st, 2006, Epstein received multiple early drafts of an attack piece that was written by Dershowitz titled debunking the newest and oldest Jewish conspiracy. Now, I want to be clear, I think everyone knows, but in case people are sleeping and aren't paying attention, this is not a trope. The Israel lobby lobbies lobbying groups like APAC, for instance, are incredibly powerful. That is not an indictment on Jewish people. It's an indictment on our political

system, which now has legalized bribery. It's baked into our system. But that's not an indictment of Jewish people. So to say that writing about this, writing about a lobby's influence, you know, recycles a Jewish conspiracy is sick and it's just not true. In it, Dershowitz accused Meersheimer and Walt of recycling discredited trash from neo-Nazi and Islamist websites, accusing them of authoring a modern counterpart to the protocols of the elders of Zion. I mean, who takes this guy seriously? Epstein responded to Dershowitz's email. Terrific.

Congratulations. The guy, by the way, just did not know how to spell. But somehow was hired to be an educator at the prestigious Dalton School. Anyway, later, let's take a look at the next graphic. Epstein received another message from Dershowitz's email address, signed off by an assistant. The assistant asked Epstein to help circulate copies of the attack piece writing, quote, Jeffrey, were you going to distribute this for Alan? If I should forward this to someone in your office, please let me know. Now, Epstein replied in the affirmative saying,

yes, I've started. So the smear campaign worked and the consequences were absolutely swift. So the Chicago Council on Global Affairs canceled a scheduled talk by the pair in 2007 after there was extreme pressure from pro-Israel supporters. Institutions that had previously welcomed them to speak at their various events were basically no longer invited. Their opportunities were limited thanks to the backlash, which narrowed their platform in media, academia, and think tanks for years to come. come. But I'm really happy that they survived all that, you know, especially Meersheimer,

who I hear from a lot in the various shows that he appears on. I find his analysis valuable. Now, even before the paper was published in the London Review of Books, the Atlantic had paid the academics to kill the story. And in fact, Meersheimer talked about that a little bit during an appearance on Tucker Carlson's show. Let's take a quick look at that. I want to make it clear that we worked very carefully with the Atlantic to get our final draft up to their standards, right? We did what they wanted. And it's the two of us working with the editors at the lower rungs of the Atlantic Monthly that produced what I thought was an excellent article. But anyway, it was killed there.

And we couldn't get it published. Kind of proven your point. Yes, exactly, exactly. And by the way, I probably shouldn't tell this story, but I'll tell you. We told the editor at the Atlantic as we were going through the process that we thought he was getting cold feet. And he was quite offended by that. And he said to us, just to prove that that wasn't true, he would give us a $10,000 kill fee. That means if they didn't take the article, they'd give us $10,000.

So I said to Steve, I remember it very well. That's the fastest $10,000 we ever made. I'm happy they found a publisher for their work eventually. But as DropSight News puts it, in other words, wealthy and well-connected men were deploying their financial resources and connections in order to undercut a paper claiming that wealthy and well-connected men were using their wealth and financial resources for the benefit of the state of Israel and against the interests of the United States.

And what's even more insane is the fact that during the same week, Dershowitz and Epstein were coordinating together to ruin the careers of Mearsheimer and Walt. They were also brainstorming on ways to basically do character assassination of a girl who had accused Epstein of sexual abuse. This was all happening. This was all transpiring simultaneously. It's like so disgusting. So in 2005, Epstein came to the attention of the Palm Beach Police Department after a 16-year-old girl and her family reported a sexual assault two years earlier when she was 14 at his mansion on El Brillo Way.

So just understand this. You have a girl who's 16 who claims that when she was 14, she was preyed upon by Emma. Epstein. And as Alan Dershowitz is colluding with Epstein to destroy the reputations of Mir Schimer and Walt, he's also working hard to destroy the reputation of a girl who was allegedly preyed upon when she was only 14 years old to help his buddy Jeffrey Epstein. By the way, one of the things that you'll hear Dershowitz talk about over and over again is how he allegedly really, really wants the Epstein files to be released. not because he wants justice for the victims, but because he wants to smear them.

We'll get to that in just a minute. So the investigation eventually identified dozens of alleged victims over the following year, and Epstein's case was taken to the state's attorney, Barry Krish, yeah, Krishar. So on October 10, 2006, five days after Dershowitz published his response to the Israel lobby working paper, Epstein sent him. Dershowitz, who was also his lawyer, some information obtained by a private investigator to consider sharing it with the state's attorney to undermine testimony against him. The letter from Epstein accused his underaged accuser of consuming drugs, shoplifting, and engaging in other sexual

activity. He's disgusting. He's disgusting. I can't even finish reading that. Disgusting. I'm happy Epstein's gone. I don't think he killed himself. That's my personal opinion. But I'm happy he's gone. People like that shouldn't exist in this world. Anyway, smearing people is Dershowitz's specialty, though, as he tried and failed to do to me just last week. Take a look. This is an issue of powerful elite individuals engaging in criminal behavior, in bad behavior, and cover-ups of their buddies and for themselves. This is not about partner. This is about justice for the survivors, and it's about knowing whether or not we have disgusting pedophiles governing us in the government.

Respond to that, Alan, and then I'm going to move us on. Sorry, I have to say something. You sound just like Joseph McCarthy. We have pedophiles running our government. We have imposition authority. That's what Joseph McCarthy did. I have a list of pedophiles who are running America. You are a McCarthyite.

You are the worst violator of due process. you are exactly what this country has to be afraid of shame on you. This brings me exactly. I would be more afraid of a guy who signs up to be the defense attorney for said pedophile, the guy who in 2018 provided legal counsel and advice to Harvey Weinstein. Hershowitz also published an op-ed years ago where he made the case that the age of consent should be lowered. Anyway, Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty to reduce state charges in 2006. The plea deal basically made the other co-conspirators immune from prosecution.

And that also allowed him. That sweetheart deal allowed him to evade federal prosecution. He served only 13 months in prison with six days per week on 12-hour work release outside the jail. That's what Dershowitz did for Epstein. And, you know, in the meantime, Epstein colluded with him to destroy the reputations of two political scholars who were just trying to get important information out to the public in general. So I'm really happy that Alan Dershowitz is being revealed for who he really is. And he's flailing right now. He's desperately trying to pretend like, oh, I'm proud of everything I've done.

I don't know about that. And I really do believe all things dark come to light. Can't wait to find out more about Dershowitz. For now, though, we got to end the first hour. When we come back for the second hour of the show, we'll talk a little bit about the new press corps over at the Pentagon and just how laughable it is. 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, wait, I don't see. Oh, yeah, I do see it. 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 gonna be super easy? I know, man. Now you just stay away from your phone and watch the money roll in. I can do that. Here, you got phone, yeah. What the f-

Jank, you still there? Andrew? Oh, well, at least I got Noble Mo. It was really just one tape. The whole thing is wild. It's in my shoes. This in my shoes. Hi, I'm Brett Ehrlich with Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich.

This is Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich. Hi. Better E. Care. According to EPA head Scott Pruitt, climate change is not happening. He cited a meme on Facebook he 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. You are the media revolution. You are much needed. TYT, TYT, TYT. The place is like 95% TYT on. You guys, the Young Church, which is my favorite channel,

we're getting that message out. And the young turks do an extraordinarily good job. No matter what mainstream media says, you have to listen to the young turk. The people who support us on the internet, that's what gives us strength. That's what allows anyone who was in there who was undecided to think. One side seems to be winning. They seem to have a bigger army. It might be a reason for that.

So thank you guys. We're going to be able to be. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show. Faye Scott Smith 3511 says, Hi, Anna, I watch you more than anyone else now. I feel connected to almost everything you have to say. Faye, that makes me super happy.

Thank you for watching. I don't know if you've been a long time viewer or a newer viewer, but I appreciate you being here. We've got so many comments. And we are going to have a bonus episode. for our members today, you know, I know Jank is doing his whole revolution thing and I think it's not behind a paywall. But on days when he's not doing it, we're going to have our bonus episodes behind a paywall. And today, I really want to kind of dedicate the bonus to

commenting and responding to our member comments, comments from our Twitch audience. Some of our super chatters might not be members. So I will read, I will prioritize the super chat. during the live show. But for our members, I'll get to your comments, or at least the bulk of them in our bonus episode. All right. Without further ado, I want to get into some more of the conversations that took place during the New York Times annual deal book summit. Because I think Erica Kirk said something that I wanted to respond to a little bit. And then it kind of gave me an opportunity to talk a little bit about what's coming for a potential war in the Middle East between the United States and Iran. So we'll get to that in the second half of this segment. But

let's talk about this first. What do you make of Mamdani here in New York? Young women in the city look to the government as a solution to put off having a family or a marriage because you're relying on the government to support you. Just find it so ironic and so interesting that a heavy percentage of the individuals that voted for him, we're female. Erica Kirk, Charlie Kirk's widow, sat down for a conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times annual deal book summit. And as someone who lives in Arizona and seems to be, you know, pretty well off, she's

communicating here that she's having a difficult time understanding the appeal of Zoron Mamdani, the left-wing mayoral candidate in New York City, who won the election recently. Now, here is a full understanding, full context of what she had to say. Take a look. What do you make of Mamdani here in New York? And the reason I ask is he was somebody who really actually was able to persuade the younger voter. I mean, he really captured, but obviously on the complete opposite end, if you will, of where someone like Charlie would have been. I'm going to come at this from a female voter because a high percentage of his voters were female.

I think there's a tendency, especially when you live in a city like Manhattan, where, again, you are so career-driven and you almost look to the government as a form of replacement for certain things, relationship-wise even. So you see things a little bit differently. What I don't want to have happen is women, young women in the city, look to the government as a solution to put off having a family or a marriage because you're relying on the government to support you instead of being united with the husband where you can support yourself and your husband can support and you can guys all combine together. But I just find it so ironic and so interesting that a heavy percentage of the individuals that voted for him were female. I don't find it strange at all because contrary to what Erica Kirk believes about women living in New York City, I don't think the majority of them want to avoid having families. I think most people, even though our birth rates are significantly lower than they were decades ago,

I really genuinely believe that most people want to find love, they want to find a partner, they want to have a family, and I support that. I have no problem with that. I actually think, look, I'm just going to be fully honest and candid with you all. I love my career. I feel fulfilled by my career. But nothing compares to the happiness I feel when I'm around my nieces, when I'm with my family. So I understand the argument she's making in regard to the importance of family and how it really adds and adds to it, it riches your life.

That's absolutely true. But what I think she maybe has a difficult time understanding is she's not really in the same position as most Americans, certainly not in the position as average Americans trying to survive in one of the most expensive cities in the country. And so if you want to have children, if you want to start a family, well, you're more likely going to do it if you feel that you live in the type of society that supports you in that effort. Right. So living is already expensive in a place like New York City. It's even more expensive if you're a single woman. So the idea that like, oh, women want to put off getting married because they want the government to take care of them, I don't think is necessary. But here, I'll help her out with why Zoran Mamdani was appealing to the people of New York City. Mom Doni made implementing universal child care a cornerstone of his affordability-centered campaign. The promise to deliver it to families with children between six weeks and five years old stands to be his best shot at making good on one of his policy prescriptions in the near term. And shockingly, Governor Kathy Hokel has said that she's committed to working with him ahead of what promises to be a tough re-election run next year. So I don't think it's shocking that her tough re-election run is probably what's motivating her willingness to work with Mom Donnie.

But putting that aside, Mom Donnie's campaign identified and validated the concerns of people living in New York. city. And it wasn't just that he did what Trump did, right? Where Trump will kind of pay lip service to the economic frustrations that Americans are facing, but doesn't really have any concrete solutions or policy proposals. In Zaron Mamdani's case, he does. And whether it's going to work, whether he's going to succeed or not, let's give him a shot and see how it plays out. But the point I'm trying to make here is that, no, it's actually the opposite of what Erica Kirk thinks. Zoran Mamdani's messaging is about supporting people who might want to have families but feel

like they're unable to because of how expensive it is to, A, just live as childless people in New York City to begin with. But adding a child to that equation, obviously, is going to make it a lot more expensive. And people want to survive. People want to be able to take care of their children and offer them decent lives. And as much as the conservative trad community wants to think that, you know, you can survive in a single income household where the man works and the woman stays home and takes care of the kids, that is a luxury these days. That's how bad the economic situation is. Inflation is killing Americans right now. Food prices are out of control. So you do need a dual income household to survive. Why do you think single people typically have? have roommates. I would venture to say most of them would like to have their own place,

right? But they can't afford it. So having roommates helps them afford rent. So it's just the same kind of disconnect from working class Americans that we see time and time again from people who aren't really wanting for anything because they're doing pretty well. Plus she's living in Arizona. She's not living in New York City. She has in the past. And she said in that conversation that she was like one of the boss babes living in New York City back in the day, and that Charlie Kirk plucked her out and took her to Arizona. And she's very happy, but, you know, also don't throw stones when you live in a glass house. She's now, you know, the head of Turning Point USA, which is a massive organization.

She's a CEO. She's a boss. So there's nothing wrong with that. My point is we should be welcoming of the type of society that just supports a Americans, regardless of what they want to do with their lives, as long as they're not looking to harm people, of course. But also, it seems like we do tend to reward people or corporations and bad actors who harm people all the time. Let's focus our ire on them. But for now, let's wait and see how Mamdani performs. But make no mistake about it, I think the reason why

he won is just plainly obvious here. But, you know, since we saw a little bit from Erica Kirk at this deal book summit, I couldn't help but get into something else, T.P. USA related that I really want to talk about. So let's get into that. One of the things that Charlie Kirk was extremely vocal about, and I was happy he was vocal about it, was his just absolute fear that the U.S. was going to get dragged into a lengthy war with Iran. He did not want that to happen. In fact, he even went to the White House to have a private conversation with President Donald Trump to discourage him from engaging in a war with Iran. Now, I give you that information because something really interesting has happened

following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It really does seem like his thoughts and his views on foreign policy have kind of been erased. And now they're kind of pushing forward with the type of framing that is reminiscent of the neocons of the early aughts. And if you're wondering what I'm talking about here, here is Turning Point USA reporter Monica Page speaking to a spokesperson. This is a press conference for the Department of War. And there are reports that Iran's been planning on rebuilding its nuclear facilities. Iranians president has said that it plans to rebuild its nuclear facilities with, quote, greater strength. Can you provide us on any sort of update on

where that currently stands? I can tell you that Operation Midnight Hammer was an absolute resounding success. Iran's nuclear capabilities were totally obliterated and experts estimated that it would take two years for them to recover. So thanks to President Trump's bold and swift action, we were able to dismantle that threat to the American people. And I think it was also a historic operation by virtue of the fact that there was a clear end state. We have seen this department get marred down in the Middle East in endless wars and nation building. That has stopped under this president and this secretary. We now have a clear end state, a clear mission set. And Operation Midnight Hammer was a success in dismantling that. I will take my wins where I can get them. Now, I like the answer from the

Department of War spokesperson there. Okay. I mean, obviously the Trump administration is engaging in a regime change, potentially a regime change war in Venezuela. But all of the messaging I've seen from the Trump administration following the 12-day war in Iran has indicated to me that at least for now, Trump is not persuaded in wanting to go back in, and that's a good thing. But for the purposes of this conversation, I want to focus on the framing of the question that we just heard from Monica Page, because clearly it was framed in a way to drum up support for military intervention in Iran, which we absolutely should not do. So this conversation was posted on X by Frontlines TPSA. That's the account that posted it.

It says Iran's nuclear resumption almost six months after Operation Midnight Hammer. The Iranian president vowed to rebuild its nuclear facilities with greater strength. our Monica Page asks Department of War for an update on its nuclear capability so far. Now, I think that the reactions and the mentions to that posts are, for the most part, pretty fantastic. Remember, these are conservatives. And these are the conservatives who don't want forever wars. They don't want to get dragged into a war in Iran. Jamie Duff writes, with Charlie out of the way, T.P. USA is now openly lobbying the Pentagon to bomb Iran, incredible stuff. Another person who goes by Rick says, so TPUSA has changed their position on Iran.

Charlie was one of the biggest voices against us being dragged into that war. And there were countless other comments that you can read for yourselves. But it does highlight the divide within the, you know, conservative political groups in this country. Younger conservatives certainly have been more savvy when it comes to U.S. foreign policy and how detrimental it's actually been to our soldiers and to America. And so they're pushing back. Older conservatives tend to be more in the neocon camp, which is pretty devastating. But luckily, I think their influence seems to be waning a little bit. Now, here's what we should really be concerned about, because it turns out that in reality, Israel is planning to attack Iran again. And it's likely that Trump knows about it

and is kind of keeping quiet about it because there might be an agreement that any war effort would take place after the midterms. Now, this is speculation on my part. I want to be clear about that. But it's not ill-informed to speculation. And here's what I mean. So all you have to do is kind of pay attention to the Israeli media. I love reading Israeli media. It's fantastic. It makes you way more informed about what's happening and what's going to happen as opposed to just simply relying on American media, which is very much in the pro-Israel pro-war camp. And so let's take a look at something that was published on I-24 News, their YouTube channel. They came out with this banger. It's titled, Israel prepares new weapons for next war with Iran. Amazing.

So let's watch a little bit of how that conversation went down. Do you think President Trump would be on board with another round of fighting? He has repeatedly held his hand out to Tehran, hasn't he, offering a potential new nuclear deal? I think if Israel really presented with solid intelligence that, look, they're rebuilding, for example, their missile program, and this is going to make Iran even more intransigent and more hard-headed at the talks, and it's going to actually give them the confidence not to return to the nuclear table. And they could also use it to attack U.S. and Israeli targets. So we have to take a decision.

We have to make a decision. Then he may find it difficult to refuse. And he may find it difficult to turn down such a decision. And he may go to war. I think what was said there was very interesting. Right. So they're planning on framing this to Trump in a way. that makes him think, look, you want to have negotiations with Iran.

But maybe it makes more sense to preemptively strike Iran because it looks like, you know, they're building up their arsenal here, their missiles. What, Iran's not allowed to have missiles? Are you insane? Like, what's wrong with Iran having missiles? And that's the thing. Like, they keep moving the goalposts. Oh, we're worried about their nuclear weapons and how much Iran's nuclear weapons would pose a threat

to Israel a nuclear power that's not, you know, part of the nonproliferation treaty that won't acknowledge their nuclear weapons, even though when Kissinger got upset with Israel and threatened some of the U.S. military aid that goes to Israel, the response to him was to threaten nuclear war. That's according to Jonathan Pollard, by the way, the former CIA official who, is now a convicted traitor to the United States because he was selling our secrets to Israel. It's according to him. And he said just a few months ago, maybe we need to threaten the use of our nuclear weapons more. He's a terrible person, absolutely terrible. But anyway, now you have Israel kind of fearmongering about how Iran is going to have these missiles. And since they're going to

have these missiles. Oh, well, the peace talks are going to be more difficult. Iran's going to be more belligerent. So maybe you want to do preemptive strikes on Iran. That's what they're going to try to sell to Trump. I mean, that was just abundantly clear from, you know, the tactics that were just described in the video you watched. But look, if you want to say to me, that's just one video, one outlet, that doesn't mean that Israel's actually planning to go to war with Iran again. Oh, you'd be mistaken. So on November 11th, the Times of Israel reported, senior official says Israel aims to topple Iranian regime by the end of Trump's term. Tehran said revamping advanced missile systems and other officials, as another official official says, Jewish state will respond much more aggressively in future confrontations than in the past.

Okay, so Israel can't fight Iran by itself. So the U.S. would get dragged into it because Iran is not some little rinky dink country that has no military capabilities. It would be a devastating war even with the United States involved. But Israel is so thirsty for it. It's crazy. So Trita Parsi has been warning about this for months. In fact, he wrote a piece that was featured in Foreign Policy Magazine back in August, titled,

The Next Israel-Iran War is Coming. Both countries strategic calculus suggests it will be even more violent. Oh, goody, we've got something to look forward to. He writes that Israel's June war, that's the 12-day war, was never solely about Iran's nuclear program. Rather, it was about shifting the balance of power in the Middle East, with Iranian nuclear capabilities being important but not decisive factor. For more than two decades, Israel has pushed the United States to take military action against Iran to weaken it and restore a favorable regional balance, one that Israel cannot achieve on its own. So this is the whole plan that was drafted

by the neocons under the Bush administration. It was the memo that the neocons then sent to Benjamin Netanyahu that indicated that the U.S. would essentially engage in all these regime change wars in the Middle East in order to install various leaders that would be far more deferential to Israel. And it would shift the balance of power in Israel's favor. And that has already happened in multiple countries. It certainly happened in Syria, where we now have an al-Qaeda terrorist leading the country. Syria is already being balkanized, you know, when you think about the fact that Turkey has annexed part of Syria. Israel has already annexed parts of Syria. So, you know, Libya was very much part of this plan as well. And then you look at reporting

from the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. This piece was from July. Here's what they wrote. IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Yal Zamir, stated on July 20th that the latest confrontation with Iran was merely one phase in a prolonged campaign. According to him, we are now entering a new chapter based on the achievements of the operation. We disrupted Iran's nuclear and missile programs, and we must remain vigilant. And then you have defense minister Israel Katz, who's also featured in this piece. He echoed Zamir's remarks, warning on July 22nd, that there is a high likelihood of renewed fighting. say it out loud. But I'm sure. People like me and Dave Smith and all the people who warn

about stuff like this are going to be told, oh, you guys were wrong. We didn't get dragged into a lengthy war with Iran, as if this is all over. No, it's not over. It's not over. Finally, during a strategic assessment with senior IDF officials, a decision was made to formulate a strategic plan to prevent Iran from restarting its nuclear program. As part of this, Israel will accelerate production of aerom missiles and increase the readiness of its air defense systems, including Iron Dome and David Sling, stuff that we are going to pay for as American citizens, because God forbid Israel ever pays for any of their wars or any of their weapons or defense capabilities. Now, Parsi argues that Israel's 12-day war in June had three objectives, right?

So to draw the United States into a direct military conflict with Iran, which happened. Luckily, it wasn't prolonged or anything like that, but we could get dragged into something much more serious, much longer than a 12-day war. The other two objectives were to decapitate the Iranian regime. They failed at that. And to turn the country into the next Syria or Lebanon, and they failed at that. So Iran will be more difficult to destabilize compared to Syria. Because, you know, in the case of Syria, it did start out with an organic

uprising that was then co-opted by proxies like Turkey, Israel, the United States, Russia. But contrary to Israel's expectations, the killing of senior commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps did not lead to mass protests or an uprising against the Islamic Republic. Instead, Iranians of all political stripes rallied around the flag, if not the regime itself as a wave of nationalism surged across the country. You know, one of the arguments that the Israelis used to drum up support for an invasion in Iran is that, oh, but the people of Iran want regime change so badly. They wanted so badly.

They don't like the Ayatollah, which, by the way, there are indications that's true. But they don't want Israel to come in, destroy their country, bomb the crap out of it, and then install a puppet government that puts Israel first. So we'll see how this plays out, but I believe the reporting. And I believe the Israelis, when they tell us what they plan to do, we should believe them because they always end up doing it with the help of our government and our tax dollars. We got to take a quick break.

When we come back, I'll tell you just how much Americans are struggling with loans and more. Don't miss it. Here we go. All right, everyone, Gargwell Dragon writes in and says, it's stories like this that remind me of an old curse. May your legacy crumble in front of your eyes, your children forsake your name, and you vanish from history after you pass. And we think that this was a reference to the Epstein and Dershowitz story.

I don't think Epstein had any kids, luckily. I don't know about Dershowitz, but there's certainly some people who perish and I'm not saying I celebrate it, but I don't shed any tears. Sheldon Adelson's one of them. So in Liberty and Guns, we trust. I voted for Trump and I can't get on board with the dirty work of his administration or Republicans. It's insane to see loyalists who obey Trump even when he clearly Fs up. It's like they can't think for themselves. So People are probably going to get upset at me for saying this, but don't get upset with voters. Don't get upset with ordinary people who might be let astray, might believe things that aren't true. I think the reason why I'm a little bit of a softy on this is because I feel like I believed all sorts of things that weren't true. And when I realized it, I felt a lot of remorse.

I genuinely think most people in this country are good people. We just have a really messed up political system. And so I don't, I used to have the mindset of, I wouldn't say hate, but like, disrespecting people who voted differently, right? And that was the wrong mindset to have because you look at this political system and it's like, ugh, I'm so sick of, oh, vote for the lesser of two evils. Like the Biden administration, guys, I know most of you are on the left and I know most of you are going to get upset, especially given what we've experienced. under Trump in the second term, which has been way worse than the first. But at the same time, I couldn't stomach Biden after seeing what was happening in Gaza. And when I saw that Kamala Harris was unwilling to just flat out say how she would handle the situation differently,

I'm not going to cast a ballot for her. No way. I didn't vote for Trump either. But my point is, I think Americans are trying to make do with a deeply broken political system. And some people haven't woken up to the fact that we're dealing with dishonest actors who don't give a damn about us. So my advice, I guess, would be try to meet people with grace and try to engage in conversations where the starting point is a place of understanding. Because I think the biggest mistake we all make, and I make this mistake all the time, is assuming that everyone knows what we know, or assuming that everyone has come across the same information that we've come across. And yeah, I'm sure there are some people who have all the information,

they know what's going on, and they support it anyway. And those people, you can't really do anything about them. So don't waste your time. But I do think most people, they get hoodwink by our politicians all the time, all the time. All right. Let's go to our member section where Cat Dad, 1, 2, 3, 4 says, yo, the break time music is a banger. All right, I'm glad you like it. I mean, look, DJ, DJ Bart, he knows what he's doing. And we're out of time.

So let's get back to the show. Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Anna Casparian, and I think maybe we need to break up all the heavy stories we're covering today with a little bit of humor. Although when you really think about the fact that journalists have been banned from these press briefings and you have absolute clowns who are loyalists. to Trump asking the questions, it's not really that funny, but let's try to find a little humor in this. So the press corps is a little different in the Trump administration. And there's a very specific reason why, which we'll get to in just a minute. But why don't we start with this? So you were speaking earlier about the Washington Post report concerning the

Secretary of War and Admiral Bradley. And my question, is, does the Department of War plan on pursuing any sort of legal action against the Washington Post? And what consequences will there be for lying to the American people? You just heard a person who presents themselves as a journalist asking whether actual journalists should be prosecuted for doing journalism. That's what just happened. And that was during Tuesday's Pentagon press briefing, just insane. Now, there's a reason why the quality of questions you're going to hear at these Pentagon press briefings have devolved a little bit.

And we'll get to that in just a minute. But in case you're unfamiliar, the Washington Post piece alleged that war crimes had been carried out by Secretary of War Pete Heggzeth after he gave a command to kill everyone on the first so-called drug boat, which we've still haven't seen a single shred of evidence that it was a drug boat. And after striking the boat the first time, there were two survivors who were clinging on to the wreckage of the boat and a second strike took place, which is a war crime. It's called a double tap. Now, we have more clips from the press corps briefing, including Laura Lumer. Apparently she gets dogged on. That might be fun. But there are some incredibly important

bits of information I want to share with you all here, especially the important context. So in order to gain press credentials at the Pentagon, journalists had to agree and basically sign on to this agreement that they will not solicit information that is not officially authorized by the Department of War, which flies in the face of journalism. Because the whole point of journalism isn't to carry out and regurgitate the messaging of the powerful. And in this case, we're talking about the government. We shouldn't just trust our government. We should question everything that comes out of a government agency spokesperson's mouth.

But they don't want that. And so Pete Hegzith insisted that the press corps signed on to this agreement, and most of them, most actual journalists, said, no, we're not going to do that. You know, one of the other things is, as a journalist, if you come across classified information that was leaked to you, you are legally allowed to cover that. Now, journalists might make a decision that, okay, this classified information shouldn't be reported on because there's a national. security threat in doing so. And that has come across in various news stories in recent years, but it's not illegal to have leaked emails, for instance, or classified information that is leaked to a reporter. Oftentimes, there are whistleblowers who reach out to reporters and share classified information with them. Edward Snowden is a good example of that. I believe it was in 2012,

if I'm not mistaken, around that time, he reached out to Glenn Greenwald to inform him that the NSA had been indiscriminately spying on every single American in this country. And Americans were furious about that. We deserve to know about it. This is our government. We're supposed to be living in a democracy,

and we should be able to hold our government accountable when they're engaging in behavior that we don't agree with. Now, almost every single mainstream news outlet forfeited their press credentials rather than sign on to this ridiculous agreement that Hegseth insisted on. But one person who did sign the agreement, unsurprisingly, is Laura Lumer, who asked the following question during Tuesday's briefing. Now that the president has started the process of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign Islamic terrorist organization, will the Department of Wars still proceed with selling

F-15 fighter jets to Qatar? And how will they be able to, to train Qatari pilots at their air base in Idaho if Qatar is included in the designation. Thank you for the question. We take very seriously our partnerships and we always do thorough valuations to make sure that they protect our intelligence, our operational security, and that they serve the best interests of the American people. The U.S. military has a longstanding partnership with Qatar. But given the fact that the Qatari royal family and Qatar itself is the biggest financier along with Turkey, of course, the financier of the Muslim Brotherhood, would that relationship and partnership be re-evaluated since the designation could

possibly include Qatar? I'm not tracking any reevaluation at this time, but again, the secretary really keeps national security top of mind, and this administration does as well. So we will always make sure that American assets are protected. I don't know if Laura Lumer is informed about this because she's obviously a propagandist for Israel, so she might know and she's intentionally, you know, concealing the fact that the United States worked with the Muslim Brotherhood. Like, it's amazing to me because this is what keeps happening over and over again, right?

The United States engages in talks with the Muslim Brotherhood, you know, whether it be in Syria, for instance, I believe, you know, there were other countries where our, you know, the U.S. literally met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood in an effort to advance various foreign policy goals that aren't necessarily beneficial to the United States at all, but certainly beneficial in the power shift that Israel is seeking in the region. But now the Muslim Brotherhood apparently

isn't so convenient for Laura Lumer and the Israelis, and so we need to what? Okay, we're going to call them a foreign terrorist organization and what is this setting us up for? You know, what new prolonged conflict is the U.S. going to get dragged into? Anyway, and by the way, you want to talk about terrorists. You want to talk about terrorists. I don't think the Trump administration has a leg to stand on when it comes to Islamic terrorists.

Okay, he just had two of them in the White House, one of whom had a $10 million bounty on his head as he was trying to kill American soldiers in Iraq. And of course, that's Ahmed al-Shara, the new leader of Syria, who Trump apparently has some weird love affair with anyway. But apparently later in the briefing, Loomers' question got turned on its head. Let's take a look at that. And if I could follow up on Laura's question, actually, but from a different angle, she mentioned that are we reassessing our relationship with Qatar because of funding of the Muslim Brotherhood?

But it's been widely documented in mainstream Israeli papers that the Israeli government funded Hamas, which we also designated as a terrorist organization. Are we therefore reassessing our relationship with Israel because of this? That would be a better question for the State Department, as they're the ones who have those foreign diplomatic channels. I would have loved to see Laura Lumer's face as he was asking that question. Anyway, I want to go to the last video here. And, you know, Matt Gates did agree to the provision that Pete Hagsith insisted upon, but he did also ask an important question at this very press briefing that I want to give

him a little bit of credit for. But it did seem to go over the Pentagon Press Secretary's head. Her name, by the way, is Kingsley Wilson. Let's take a look at the question. Kingsley, if Nicholas Maduro leaves Venezuela today, what role will the Department of War have in a post-Moduro Venezuela and describe the process the administration will use to determine whether or not current members of the Venezuelan military or Venezuelan government have a role in a post-Moduro Venezuela.

Thanks for the question. So the department has a contingency plan for everything. We are a planning organization. If anything were to happen around the world, we have a response planned and ready. So we stand at the president's back and call our commander-in-chief to do what is needed. called upon. And that will be what this department continues to focus on and continues to prepare for in regards for ongoing operations in the Southcom region. Again, our focus is taking out narco-terrorists. Following the departure of Saddam Hussein, there was this desire to name

every bathist a terrorist. Does the administration take the view that any person who served in the Venezuelan military or Venezuelan government is definitionally a narco-terrorist? That would be a determination for the president to make, but I can tell you that every single person who we have hit thus far, who is in a drug boat carrying narcotics, to the United States is a narco-terrorist. Our intelligence has confirmed that and we stand by it. Well, we can't believe that until we actually see the evidence and see the intelligence. So I'm not going to just take her word for it about the fishing boats and the various people that have been killed as a result of the U.S. striking them. But going back to the question about

debathification. Debatification contributed. to the insurgency in Iraq, if not outright created the insurgency. And so that was a really good question by Matt Gates. So the term refers to how the United States removed everyone serving in the bath party and prevented them from returning to public service. And that left hundreds of thousands of soldiers suddenly unemployed in one fell swoop. Gee, I wonder what will result from that. And so before long, the U.S. Army was in combat with many of those former soldiers.

So Matt Gates agreed to the provision, but I'm happy to see that he's actually asking some interesting questions, but he really got a non-answer from Kingsley there, unfortunately. Anyway, everything in this country has been degraded, and it's not just during the Trump administration. This has been going on for several decades now, but I think for the first time most Americans who have been paying attention see how much things have been degraded. And it's terrifying when it deals with, you know, the Pentagon, our national security and questions of life and death. Life and death in the Caribbean, in the Middle East, in Venezuela. Scary world out there, that's for sure.

Anyway, let's take our final break. When we come back, we've got more news for you. I'm not sure what I want to talk about next, but we've got a lot. See you there. In Liberty and Gunsweek trust says, yeah, I don't regret that I've voted for Trump. It's more about keeping our guy in check. I'm willing to call out his dirty laundry, whereas some are willing to allow anything and everything, it's accountability.

Yeah, I totally hear what you're saying. And prior to the election, I would have predicted incorrectly, by the way, that if there's a loud MAGA contingent pushing back against Trump's policies, you know, in his first term, he was definitely more willing to listen to them and change course. That's not what's happening in the second term, pretty much at all. I mean, there might be a few examples you can provide, but it's not the same as it was in his first term. He's got a little bit of a, I don't give enough attitude, especially when it comes to the naysayers in his own base. I mean, look at the way he responded to people in his base who wanted the release of the Epstein files. Like that

moment where he's like, are we still talking about the Epstein files? And he's like, angry that, you know, part of his base wants them released. It's pathetic. Anyway, let's go to our Twitch community. P.B. Cupcake says, oh, by the way, thank you. And congratulations on your 65 stream streak. Simple comment. Let's do it. I don't know what you want to do, but sure, let's do it. No Math Dragon says, any boat owner knew that boats, Any boat owner knew that boats couldn't reach the United States. Those big outboard engines use lots of fuel. The first strike took out the fuel.

That boat was dead. Marco Rubio was such a bad guy, man. Like, oh, your little ideological pet project. Like, you're going to drag the U.S. into it. It's insane. Bradshaw crew says, hey now. and 25 stream streak, nice. Let's go to the Green New Dealer Dragon.

Captain Morgan made me do it. That's really funny. Hamilton Slade says all Trump needs is for them to shoot at one American vessel or personnel and bam invasion. I think you're right about that. And it's kind of amazing how much restraint Venezuela has had because they don't want war. They don't want war. That's why Nicholas Maduro is like, I will give U.S. oil companies access to our oil reserves, let's please not go to war. And both Marco Rubio and Trump are like,

no, we're going for it. Because they want him to step down. And that's the one thing that he's unwilling to do, I guess. Cal Ross says, all right, since they'll only work for their owner donors, maybe the American people can go do a go fund me and buy some politicians of our own. Okay, so I don't even think you need to do that. I think what you need to do, and I think we saw that with Congress and the vote to release the Epstein files, money is not going to save these moneyed interests if you have a groundswell of backlash against what they're trying to do. And so it worked when it came to the Epstein files.

I think that we should start organizing right now when it comes to avoiding. a war with Iran, because that's coming. That's definitely coming. And I think it's going to come after the midterms. So money isn't, you know, necessarily the determining factor in how things turn out. And we saw that in the last presidential election where Kamala Harris outraised Donald Trump. I don't want to get excited too early. I get let down quite a bit by Congress. Nonetheless, something interesting is happening. There's some movement on policies that would maybe remedy something that's been bothering me about what our members of Congress have been up to.

Let's get into it. I just left the floor with Representative Birchah. And after our bipartisan coalition and talking this morning, we have decided. because of a lack of movement from House of Representatives to initiate the discharge petition on bidding insider trading, meaning it is live now. Now if leadership wants to put forward a bill that would actually do that and end the corruption, we're all for it, but we're tired of the partisan games. This is the most bipartisan thing in U.S. history, and it's time that the House of Representatives

listen to the American people. Anybody making 600% return on their dadgum investment, piece of league watching, and then you get their butts up to Wall Street. Go to Wall Street. Yeah, go to Wall Street, leave the halls of Congress. We need actual lawmakers who are more interested in serving the American people as opposed to engaging in insider trading. That's what the story is really about.

You just heard from Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who has officially filed a discharge petition to try to force a vote on a congressional stock trading ban. Now, this isn't our first rodeo, and we've been let down on similar legislation in the past. But I do care about this issue deeply, and I am hoping that there's some positive movement on it. So I want to give you the detail. So the petition is a way to get around Speaker Mike Johnson, who is just detestable and has basically failed to bring the bill to a vote on the House floor. Now, Luna first said in September that she'd give Johnson until the end of the month to bring a bill to the floor. That timeline was derailed because of the government

shutdown. But now Luna says, no, time is up. We got to do something about this. Okay. So if she's successful, which I hope that she will be. She's a Republican. I don't care. I think this is a good effort in remedying a really big problem in Congress. This, hold on one second. Okay. So if she's successful, this legislation would do a lot of what we want to do, but it wouldn't go all the way necessarily. So basically, it's a proposal first introduced by Representative Chip Roy. It would be brought to the House floor. Roy's bill is the Restore Trust in Congress Act. It was introduced back in September with the support of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, which is good news. That included Democrats like Seth Magiziener, Primala Giacopal, and AOC. Then you have Republicans like

Brian Fitzpatrick, Tim Burchett, and Napolitano. So it truly is a bipartisan effort, and that's really good to see. And the legislation already has 102 co-sponsors. It would ban members and their spouses and dependents from owning or trading individual stocks, which is really good, okay? But there is a catch. So unlike some other proposals, it would not allow other proposals that wouldn't allow blind trust. Okay, so unlike some other proposals,

it would not allow blind trust, and it would apply only to Congress, not the president or vice president. Remember, the fact that the previous bill would have applied to President Donald Trump is what derailed it. He was like, oh, I'm totally in favor of this legislation. I want to ban, you know, insider trading for Congress.

And then once he realized that it would also apply to his administration, he's like, no, I don't want this because he's a crook. But anyway, let me give you more. So enforcement would fall to the House and Senate Ethics Committees and fines would be tracked on a public website, according to the bill. It would require sitting members of Congress to sell off all of their individual stock holdings within 180 days of the bill's enactment, newly elected lawmakers would have 90 days to do so. So here's Anna Paulina Luna's argument for why a ban on congressional stock trading is necessary.

I can tell you the American people overwhelmingly 86% of Americans actually support banning of the single trading stock because it is such a problem with insider trading here in Washington, D.C. Members in Congress, they are personally controlled by the top three Black Rock Vanguard and the pharmaceutical companies, Black Rock is contributing to the housing crisis in this country where young single, single families can't purchase homes because they're being bought up by these corporations. And then also in addition to that, when you have over one and three members of Congress that are exposed to whether it's Big Farm or Black Rock, do you really think that they're going to cap prescription pill prices and codify President Trump's executive

order? And the answer is no. How could you ever be expected to truly advocate on behalf of your constituents when you're working and you're benefiting personally from the deals that some of these corporations are getting. And so it's my job to call it out. I've been made wildly unpopular on the hill because of it, but wildly popular among the American people. And that's what you should want as a public servant. Who cares what other members of Congress think about you? I mean, you obviously have to forge various deals and work with people to get legislation passed. But at the end of the day, these are lawmakers who are supposed to serve the people, not their reputations with other members of Congress. And this is important because

More than 20 members of Congress made almost double the S&P 500 average gain of 24.9% last year. The top five performers, Representative David Rouser, Republican from North Carolina, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat out of Florida, Ron Wyden, Democrat from Oregon, Roger Williams, Republican from Texas, Morgan McGarvey, Democrat from Kentucky. So they increase the value of their portfolio by more than 100% according to a new report. So the crooks aren't just on the right or the left. You know, this kind of gross behavior doesn't really discriminate based on party affiliation. Now, I just want to be clear that Mike Johnson is not in favor of Anna Paulina Luna's efforts here. That is very clear, and he made that clear just yesterday. He told Punch Bull News that lawmakers should still be able to own stocks, saying that the speaker said that he opposes people cheating the system and abusing their office, but that there's probably a way to do that that still allows for lawful conduct by members.

You don't want another deterrence for good people running for office. No, no, no. Allowing them to trade individual stocks is giving the worst people an incentive to run and be part of. of our government. So he's just a liar here when he frames it that way. Now, that's a change of tune from a few months ago when Johnson spoke favorably about a congressional stock trading ban. And oftentimes they'll do that, knowing that the bill is not going to pass, but they want cookies for claiming that they're in favor of such a ban. So just be careful in giving these lawmakers too much credit. It's easy to talk to the talk. I want to see them walk the walk. And in this case, you know, I don't know.

I don't know if this is going to pass. We've been here before. What I do know is I really, really appreciate the fact that some members of Congress haven't dropped this issue. They haven't forgotten about it and they're still trying. And regardless of what their political affiliation is, they earn my respect if they're genuine in trying to get a bill like this past. All right, bonus episode is next.

We'll see you there. Thank you.