The Young Turks - Price of War - July 22, 2026

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Donald Trump says the U.S. will "probably pretty soon" strike Iran’s heavily fortified Pickaxe Mountain site, signaling another potential escalation just as Pete Hegseth says the war has already cost $37.5 billion and the Pentagon is seeking even more funding from Congress. Thanks to today's sponsors: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/tyt Get 40% OFF the Ground News Vantage Plan when you sign up at ground.news/tyt Stay informed without the media spin at ground.news/tyt Visit www.sleep.me/tyt to get up to $255 off your Chilipad 2.0 with code TYT Use less data, get paid by switching to Noble Mobile: https://go.tyt.com/getnoble Posting a job is easy at upwork.com Check out new podcast series by searching for Future Hindsight wherever you get podcasts Hosts: Ana Kasparian 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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Sit responsibly. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Casparian. And it is hot A.F in the United States. Well, it depends on where you are in the United States. I'm in the San Fernando Valley. It is so hot that I just, I don't care. Yeah, I'm wearing something in the United States.

appropriate for the show today. You're just going to have to deal with it, okay? It's too hot. But you know what's not hot? A lot of what's going on in the news today, obviously stories that you want to know about, you want to get the deets, I'm going to give them to you. But lots of bad news, unfortunately, including the fact that Trump is considering military operations in yet another country allegedly to fight al-Qaeda, but doesn't he like al-Qaeda leaders? Doesn't he like to spray them with perfume? Now, I know a lot of people think that Al-Shara in Syria is like a totally reformed man. Sure, sure, sure.

Anyway, we'll get to that story a little later. We're also going to talk a little bit about Pete Hegseth's hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. That took place yesterday. And he made a fool out of himself because when you lie, it's very easy for members of Congress who are also liars, by the way, to call you out on those lies. So we're going to get to that as well. As always, just want to encourage you to like and share the stream if you're watching us live. It's a great, free, easy way to spread news that we cover, the word of TYT, the message of TYT, which is actually genuinely America first, right?

We care about justice for the American people. We want representation for the taxation that we are providing the federal government and the state government, depending on where you live. And we're just not getting that. So if you believe in our message, if you want to support us and you want to do it for free, just like and share the stream. You can also become a member by going to t.yt.com slash join. For today's members only bonus episode, I will be interviewing Murtaza, Hussein, he is one of the fantastic reporters over at DropSight News. and he had this fantastic interview with Ryan Grimm yesterday that I would like to, I would like to have him elaborate on.

And it really has to do with Iran's military strategy, which if it actually is carried out effectively and successfully would be devastating for Israel. So we'll get to that. But again, that's members only. TYT.com slash join to become a member. All right. Without further ado, let me just start with some news that broke a little while ago. I didn't have time to produce a, you know, robust segment on it, but I'm going to give you the important

details. So let's get to it. Well, it looks like Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, might be getting what he wants in merging the Israeli defense forces with the United States military. Want to know why? Well, it's because of the fact that the House of Representatives has voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act with Section 219 in tact. Now, of course, that's the provision that allows for the merging of certain parts of the Israeli military with the U.S. military. Clearly, Americans are not in favor of it. It is not something that is even being covered deeply by legacy media outlets, likely because they know that it would be very unpopular with the American people.

But I don't want people to give up hope because while this has passed in the House, the National Defense Authorization Act needs to pass in the Senate for it to become law. And there is some good news because of the good work that you all have been doing in pressuring your elected Congress members and pressuring senators. The Senate did strip section, well, their version of Section 219. It has a different provisional title. But they stripped their version of it from the Senate National Defense Authorization Act legislation. So obviously you can't pass a different version in the lower chamber. So they're going to have to go back and forth until they finally agree on a final version of the National Defense Authorization Act.

But I don't want you to think that it's over. Netanyahu's getting what he wants. The Israeli military is now baked into the U.S. military. That is not true yet. So there is still a fight to be had. And it's really up to the Senate now, which is a little bit devastating because I don't really trust any member of Congress at this point. But the fact that we have seen some success in stripping the, you know, provision from the Senate version does give me a little bit of hope. Now, with all of that in mind, we need to name names. Now, unfortunately, the vast majority of Republicans voted in favor of the NDAA with Section 219 intact.

Seven Republicans, though, did defect and they deserve credit. Now let's go over to the Democratic side. where the vast majority voted no. However, six Democrats voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act with the inclusion of that provision, which allows for the IDF to partly emberged with our military. And I want to name their names. Congressman Don Davis, Jared Golden, Adam Gray, Vicente Gonzalez,

Marie Glucentcamp Perez, and of course, Henry Quayar. Henry Quayar, you know, the congressman who is incredibly conservative socially, but aside from that, he was the candidate that Nancy Pelosi when she was House Speaker, pushed real hard to get elected in a Democratic primary where he had a progressive challenger. Fast forward to today, and you have Henry Quayar, voting in. favor of a Pentagon funding bill, which by the way, is budgeted to the tune of $1.1 trillion. $1.1 trillion. He votes in favor of that and agrees to the treasonous provision of merging a foreign country's

military with our military. So when people ask me why it is that I see both parties as. two sides of the exact same coin. This is what I'm talking about. And I know people like Destiny are going to have like a panic attack about it because he sees his legitimacy as a mouthpiece for a failing corrupt Democratic Party. But I would like accountability from the people who sign up to represent us. And the fact that you have six Democrats who voted in favor of $1.1 trillion to a Pentagon that has failed every single one of their audits and includes a provision that I've find absolutely loathsome and disgusting, which merges a foreign country's military with our own,

I just, destiny and people like him really do not have the upper hand or a moral leg to stand on here. Okay, their arguments are not righteous. Their arguments are just partisan-brained. And we didn't sign up to be public servants for members of Congress. They signed up to be our public servants, and they're doing a pretty poor job on it, especially the Democrats who purport to be such strong fighters against, oh, big bad Trump. What have they done? What have they done in their big fight against Donald Trump? Nothing. I mean, literally last night for the first time, AOC posted something about Section 219 on X and talked about the importance of voting no on the National Defense Authorization Act. The reason why I'm so hard on AOC is, well, because she has been

disappointing in some areas for sure. But aside from that, She knows what kind of power she has. I mean, the second she opens her mouth, everyone's paying attention, both her haters and the people who love her or the people who are indifferent. People pay attention to what she has to say. It would have been far more effective and it would be something that I would personally appreciate deeply if she had pushed a campaign, much like Rokana, to strip the National Defense Authorization Act of Section 219, but she didn't do that. So I do have high standards for her because she told us to have high standards for her. And unfortunately, she hasn't delivered to the extent that I think she could deliver with the type of power she has in this attention economy.

So we'll update you guys on what happens in the Senate. But right now, the House is a massive disappointment. And Don Davis, Jared Golden, Adam Gray, Vicente Gonzalez, Marie Glucentcamp, Perez, and Henry Quayar are disgusting. and they should suffer political consequences for what they did today. All right, well, let's move on to some other news because I did want to kind of inform you guys on some of the more unhinged things that Trump has been saying lately about the ongoing quagmire war that we have engaged in against Iran.

As President Trump says, from this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by missile, rocket drone, or any other device or weapon. The United States will bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant, including those located next to or in the capital city of Tehran. The 11th night of American airstrikes in Iran came as diplomatic efforts have shown little signs of progress publicly. President Trump has threatened once again to destroy or target Iran's civilian infrastructure if he doesn't get his way with the free flow of transit through the Strait of Hormuz. So he's arguing if Iran strikes any vessel that's attempting to transit through the strait,

we will go ahead and attack their civilian infrastructure. Now, Trump has tried this method before, as we all know. He does the same thing over and over and over again. And does it yield any positive results with the Iranians? Trump has previously used such rhetoric to push Iran to reopen the strait. The Geneva Convention's prohibit strikes on infrastructure acknowledged to be indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. Not that he cares about international law or the Geneva Convention or anything like that.

But the point in sharing that little excerpt from that political article is the fact that Trump just keeps attempting the same failed strategy over and over again and committing war crimes while he's doing it. Now, with all of that in mind, for its part, Iran has made abundantly clear that they will not relinquish control of the strait, and why would they? The strait of Hormuz is where they have their leverage. They also have leverage when it comes to the Red Sea, because Trump's escalation of the war, the fact that he decided to reignite reignite the war against Iran has certainly led to the Houthis, who are of course backed by Iran, to carry out a blockade in the Red Sea. And the Red Sea route for the transit of Saudi oil was

really the loophole, the go-around that the Saudis were relying on. And now that has been closed. Now, let's be clear, the United States has lost this war and has lost it badly. And at this point, it would probably be far better for us to just withdraw entirely. But Trump seems poised to remain in this war, poised to see more of our service members get killed as a result of this war. And this is all happening while military experts, people like Joe Kent say over and over and over again, there is no military option here. There is no military option. Real quick, let's talk about something that holds way too many businesses back. You've got a great idea, you've got momentum, but you're stuck because you don't have the right person to execute

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killed in this war so far. Nearly 500 soldiers have been wounded, and while any commander in chief would be absolutely devastated at the loss of American service members in a war that's being fought on behalf of a foreign country, Trump's comments ahead of the dignified transfer of their remains at the Dover Air Base, Air Force Base prove otherwise. Just take a listen to what he had to say. I'll be going to Dover for something that I feel is, it's a great honor for me to do it. These are people that want it and they feel like I do that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It's a very simple dictum. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.

He has, first of all, it's my honor. No, I think he's trying to seem empathetic. I'm gonna give him, I don't know why, but I just want to be fair. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. he thought maybe he was being respectful by saying it is an honor to receive the remains of the American soldiers who were slaughtered in a war that I decided to enter on behalf of a foreign country. He probably thought that was a kind, honorable thing to say. But it wasn't, in my opinion. And I don't like the fact that he is speaking on behalf of these fallen service members.

We don't know what their views on Iran was. We don't know what they thought about Iran possessing nuclear weapons. They signed up to serve our country and unfortunately found themselves under the leadership of a commander-in-chief who values the priorities of a foreign country over our own. Isabella, the 19-year-old service member who was killed just this past weekend, she signed up for the military. after Trump got elected. I don't know who she voted for. I don't care. But it would be devastating if we learned that she signed up for the military

because she was under the impression that Trump was a peace president, that he wouldn't start new wars. But he did the exact opposite. So who would, again, who would be honored to attend the transfer of service members remains? Like, I just, this guy doesn't think before he speaks. But other ways in which the United States has lost this war includes, of course, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which was open and free for transit prior to the war.

And then you couple that with the Iran-backed Huthis shutting down or blockading the Red Sea. And then amid all of this Iran-war-related chaos, Trump is beginning to lose support among his base. And there have been multiple polls in recent days that have proven this. So the latest is actually a poll carried out by Politico. So they found that 37% of self-identified MAGA Trump voters say the U.S. should continue its involvement only if it doesn't increase costs. That's a low percentage. And there's a caveat only if the war doesn't increase costs, which of course it will. It does. It has been. So that's an incredible number. 37%.

He doesn't even have the support of 50% of his base at this point when it comes to this war. Laura Ingram, longtime host over at Fox News is like, wrap it up. Let's wrap it up. Bad I, wrap it up. I guess she's an anti-Semite. We're all the Zionists. Is Laura Ingram an anti-Semite now? What a weak, pathetic argument from people who don't have an argument.

Oh, you're an anti-Semite. Okay, well, with that in mind, let's go to Trump's reaction to just how unpopular this war is with his own voters, with his own base. Well, Americans aren't against the war. A poll just came out. Americans don't want to have gasoline prices, but they're not against the war. That just came out loud and clear in a poll. Nobody wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon. No one really cares about Iran having nuclear weapons. Literally, no one cares. I've said this on the show. before I stand by it. Israel doesn't care. It was always a cover story for a regime change war against Iran. I don't care. I don't feel threatened by Iran. I feel threatened by my own government. I definitely feel threatened by my own government. You know, the government that's going around and labeling American citizens, terrorists, domestic terrorists, because they're not adequately

supportive of Israel. Insane. Absolutely insane. But what's also insane is how delusional Trump is about where the country and his own voters are on the issue of this war. This is not a popular war. It didn't begin as a popular war. And as we predicted, it became less and less popular as the weeks and now months went on. So Trump likes to take orders from the Israelis. And nothing makes that clear to me. Then the fact that he has basically carried out everything Netanyahu wants.

No other administration was willing to carry out Netanyahu's war. against Iran, but Trump did it. And we are all suffering the consequences of that. Defense contractors are making money. Oil companies are making money. Limited supply. It means we can charge a lot more, a lot more. And that's what they're doing. I'm worried about our national security for literally the first time in my life. And why am I saying that? Well, we are running out of missiles, missile interceptors. We are depleting our strategic petroleum reserve. We are making enemies all across the globe. There was a financial times article investigation in fact into how the United States was supposed to share

the profits of Venezuelan oil with Venezuela. They haven't shared a dime. They just stole the oil. They just stole the oil. We are making a lot of enemies. And we're doing it with an incompetent Secretary of Defense, Pete Hagsith, total moron, we'll get to him later in the show. And Donald Trump, who, I don't know if he's all there, to be honest with you. Like, there's something up with him. The energy is low. He's surrounded by a bunch of snakes who might not be giving him accurate information about what's really going on. There is a possibility that Trump is genuinely under the impression that this war is deeply popular with the country, including with his own voters and base?

Because he's surrounded by snakes. He's surrounded by people who literally worked on Netanyahu's re-election campaign in 2020, including his chief of staff, Susie Wiles. So are we really certain that accurate information is getting to Donald Trump in the first place? I don't know. What I do know is that he is the president of the United States. He's at least supposed to be one of the most powerful people on the globe. and if he had a modicum of intellectual curiosity,

then maybe he would, you know, do a little digging on his own and venture outside of his pro-Israel Netanyahu-controlled bubble. But God forbid he venture out of that. I want to move on to a different element to this story, which has to do with Trump opening up yet another theater of war in a different country, and it is related to the so-called threat of Islamic terrorism. I'm going to talk about that a little bit when we come back from the break because we're out of time. But don't miss it because it's important to know that Trump might be the president who has betrayed his voters more than any other previous administration.

And I'm not saying that lightly because we've had a lot of terrible administrations who have reneged on a lot of promises. But man, did this guy successfully brand himself as the peacenik, the peace candidate? And it was easy for him to do it because Kamala Harris was so stupid that she decided to campaign with Neocon, Liz Cheney, the architect, one of the architects of the Iraq War. I mean, the optics of that were just chef's kiss, kiss perfect for Trump. But it turns out, and this was predictable, he is anything but a piece, Nick. So let's take a break. When we come right back, I'll tell you about what he's planning to do to a West African country. Merge. What's up, everybody?

First of all, thank you to, wow, I don't know who did this because it's an anonymous contribution, but thank you to the anonymous individual who made this contribution. It actually, it really, really means a lot to me. It means a lot to the company because we choose to cover stories that we know will get demonetized or that we know will hurt us economically, financially, but we choose to do it anyway. I hate fundraising. So I have a really hard time asking people for money. But this contribution shows that you guys appreciate the work that we're doing.

And I appreciate you. So thank you so much for that. Fed up to purchased a monthly membership. Thank you so much. Welcome to our new member. We've got Wedge who says, end of the United States as a sovereign nation, traitorous scum. I was on Pierce Morgan on censor today. And one of the people I was debating was Jenna Ellis. And she argued that Mom Doni threatening to arrest Benjamin Net Yahoo threatens U.S. sovereignty. And then when I said, we're not a sovereign country. I mean, think about the undue influence of Israel. She like totally denied that that's even a thing. It's amazing. It really is. Let's go to Jack 380, who says, we have extreme heat the past week in New Orleans. Feels like 110 plus degrees. I know it's, it is so hot. I went outside.

for like five minutes and I couldn't handle it. I had to come right back in. Let's go to ZMK 3592. Hi, Anna. Love your West Coast hairdo. Thank you. Beautiful hair. I try. I try. All right, one more comment. Let's go to our Twitch section where Ford Country 420 says anybody who voted for this is guilty of treason and should be treated accordingly. That's on the NDAA. Obviously, I totally agree with you. Let's get back to the show. Back to the show, everyone. So I guess yesterday, mark the 10 year anniversary of Alex Jones crashing our set during our live broadcast at the Republican National Convention in 2016. And it is so crazy to think about how I felt emotionally as it happened and soon after

it happened because I was not happy about it. I was really angry. And I also think about how funny I find it. Like I find it entertaining and funny now. Just because it was such a chaotic moment. I just want to say at the time, it was the last day of the convention. We were running on fumes, no sleep, and we had just finished producing the live show that Alex Jones decided to crash. And so I was pretty furious because a lot of work goes into this show, a lot of research, a lot of time to produce these stories.

I just wanted him to get off the stage. But now I feel like I would probably have fun with it if it happened. I mean, I'm not encouraging it. Please don't do that. It's actually incredibly disrespectful to interrupt someone's live broadcast. Like, you want to troll me like at any other time. Please do so. I don't care.

But during the live broadcasts, like just respect the producers, all the people behind the scenes who worked on the show, running on fumes. So anyway, but after watching that video again today, I think I'm going to go back to Brunette. I think I miss my brown hair. Anyway, let's move on to our sponsor, Noble, They've got a family plan. Who doesn't love a family plan?

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Okay, let's get back to the show because I literally can't believe this is happening. But it looks like Trump is considering, it hasn't happened yet, but he's considering launching another war. I mean, he won't call it a war. He'll call it an operation. He'll call it a conflict. He'll call it anything other than war because he doesn't want approval from Congress to do it. But let's talk about the details here. There's no shortcut for saving time. But saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. The Trump administration is carrying out, sorry, the Trump administration is considering carrying out military strikes against yet another country, a new country, the West African nation of Mali. Now, why would you want to do that? Well, because he likes to take orders from the Israelis.

So this all started when Israeli intelligence decided to leak a little report to the Wall Street journal. And their so-called intelligence basically fear-mongered about an al-Qaeda offshoot in Mali that needs to be dealt with. And look, to be clear, Mali isn't a lot of trouble. It's official government is a problem. And yes, there is ISIS activity in Mali. And this al-Qaeda-linked group has also caused some problems. But I also think it's problematic for America to, A, get involved in any of this. And more importantly, B, take the side of Mali's government because we're talking about two bad sides here. And there's really nothing that we can accomplish for the American people, certainly, by getting involved in this war. There's nothing in it for, why are we doing this?

Why are we policing other countries? So let me give you the details. So the times of Israel had reported about the Israeli intelligence, you know, that wonderful Israeli intelligence, that's totally accurate all the time and isn't made up. were manufactured to drag us into their wars, you know, that kind of intelligence. The same intelligence they gave us in the lead up to the Iraq war. Remember those weapons of mass destruction that we didn't find? Yeah. Anyway, Israeli intel said to show Iran has moved thousands of, oh, I apologize.

This is something entirely different. My bad. Let's move on to the Mali thing. Okay. So, all right. So you have this Mali situation with the, al-Qaeda offshoot, or this one al-Qaeda offshoot, okay? So Trump wants to target that offshoot. It's called Jinim, J-N-I-M, okay? And it would add an eighth nation to the list of

countries where President Donald Trump has ordered strikes since the start of his second term, okay? So a vocal advocate for using force is the National Security Council's senior director for counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka. So there you have a tie to Israel, honestly, because he's a huge Israel supporter, so much so that he has been going around labeling American citizens who are critical of Israel as domestic terrorists. That includes, by the way, Tucker Carlson. Say what you will about Tucker Carlson. You could totally disagree with his politics. He's not a domestic terrorist. So Gorka's behind this. And then when the White House was asked for comment,

administration official would not disclose whether the president intended to move forward with military strikes, but said the United States has been urging governments in North and West Africa to purchase U.S. equipment and services to support their war efforts against the terrorists. So Janem has been causing problems. I don't want to downplay that because they have been causing problems in Mali. It is a landlocked country that is dealing with a lot, 25 million people. Their government isn't great and these insurgent groups aren't great either. So last year, militants with the al-Qaeda affiliate mounted a fuel blockade that paralyzed much of the country. This spring, they launched coordinated nationwide attacks that included militants roaming the streets

of the capital of the country, seizing a strategic city in the north from, Mali's military and the Russians and killing the country's defense minister in a suicide attack. So you might be wondering Russians. We're talking about Mali. What are the Russians doing in Mali? Well, now we get to Mali's government because to combat the violence, Mali's junta government, okay, hired Russian mercenaries first with the Wagner group, now with the Africa Corps, which is more closely aligned with Russia's defense ministry. And so last year, and it's important to put this all in perspective, last year, Mali's military and its Russian partners were responsible for 925 civilian deaths.

And that's according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, compared with 232 by the Islamist militants. So both are bad. But the reason why I want to put this in perspective for the audience is, wait, why are we siding with Mali's government when they're brutal? And I don't want to downplay these Al-Qaeda groups. I don't want to downplay ISIS. But I also don't think that it is our problem. I don't think we should get involved. Like what are we going to, like, what does Trump think we're going to do? Like, we're just going to drop bombs on Mali.

And that's somehow going to destroy the al-Qaeda link to. group, you can't bomb your way to success. I know people think that that's possible, but it's not. And in fact, what it does is it perpetuates more extremism. It kills innocent people, which feeds into extremist ideology. It's easier to recruit people who have lost family members as a result of U.S. bombing campaigns. Like, this is so dumb, we shouldn't get involved. But I want to be clear about something. The intel that was leaked to the Wall Street Journal wasn't about Molly, I mixed up two different things. The Israeli intelligence specifically focused on Iran and Pickaxe Mountain.

So I mixed up those two things. I wanted to apologize and clarify that. It's just kind of a blur because there's a lot going on, but I want to make that correction. But with that in mind, let me just quickly move on to the Pickax Mountain portion of this story, because it's important to talk about that briefly as well. So, President Trump has announced that he is likely going to strike Iran's pickax mountain. Now, you might be wondering why, what does that have to do with anything? I mean, aren't we bombing the hell out of Iran to begin with? Well, this whole incident, this whole situation and Trump's decision to potentially strike

pickax mountain started with the Israelis leaking intelligence to the Wall Street Journal. And I don't trust Israeli intelligence. I believe that they fabricate things in order to drag the United States into wars, much like they did with Iraq. They claimed that there were weapons of mass destruction. There were no such weapons. And we got sucked into a war that was devastating for our soldiers, for our economy, and for our standing in the international community.

But here's what we learned from Israeli intel. Israeli intel said to show Iran has moved thousands of centrifuges, centrifuges to Natanz's pickax mountain. Iranians estimated to have transported the enrichment devices in months of activity at underground nuclear site, unclear where the centrifuges came from, probably because they don't exist, Trump has threatened to bomb the site. Now, last week on Hugh Hewitt's show, Trump said in response to this Israeli intel, which was leaked to the Wall Street Journal that, you know, maybe, maybe this isn't really true.

Maybe this isn't confirmed. Let's put that graphic up real quick. There we go. Pickax is a possible target for a nice big fat shot right near the front door. We see no activity there. They're not doing well with their nuclear situation. We'll probably give pickax a shot relatively soon. Like, okay, keep the graphic up.

I want you guys to read that for yourselves. Read it slowly. Okay? We see no activity there. They're not doing well with their nuclear situation. So naturally, the next line should be, we're not going to strike it because we are low on missiles. And it makes no sense to strike anything until we have confirmation that the strike would

actually accomplish something, right? So then Trump was asked about Pickax Mountain again. And here's what he just recently said. Do you believe that Iran has moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain? And when you say we're not done yet, what is left to finish? Well, I think that they may have, we don't have it on record. All we do is read the fake news. You know, we see through the, the news is so wrong so many times. So, you know, maybe this one they have right, but it's okay. It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. You're talking about the centrifuges?

Yeah, it doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. They don't have, we follow the material. That's where the action is. And we'll be hitting that area very, probably pretty soon. And there's not a, not a thing they can do about it. Okay, I mean, does he sound like an intelligent person? We don't know. There's probably nothing going on. They probably have the intelligence wrong, but we're going to strike them soon. Nothing Iran can do about it, you know. Okay. So let's talk about what would be accomplished by striking Pickax Mountain based on unconfirmed Israeli intelligence, which everyone should take with a grain of salt.

Well, interestingly enough, there was a statement from Mario Knopfall of all people. Now, he spends his entire day talking to all sorts of experts on questions of Ford policy. And apparently one of his guests said something really fascinating about whether even a bunker buster bomb could cause some damage to centrifuges that are buried under Pickax Mountain. Let's take a look at what he had to say. This is video five. So one of my guests did mention to me that Mario, even a tactical nuke cannot destroy pickaxe mounts. And I'm like, there's no way. Let me check that. It's actually true.

It is so freaking deep that a tactical nuke, I don't know if there's different degrees of how powerful nuke is, maybe multiple nuke's. I'm not an expert. But I just researched if a tactical nuke could destroy the facilities. It could cause damage in different ways, depending how it's built, but it won't destroy it. And that's a tactical nuke putting aside bunker busters, which have no chance of destroying it. So the only way if you want to destroy it or get whatever is in there is through a raid, through having boots on the ground. Through having boots on the ground, which is what, of course, Israel is pushing for.

But what I also thought was really fascinating is what Joe Kent had to say, what his fear is in regard to this whole narrative that's being built about Pickax Mountain in Iran. And it has to do with nukes. Let's take a look at what he had to say. The Israelis leak to the Wall Street Journal that Pickax Mountain is where all the highly enriched uranium is being stored. You know, implying that they got the highly enriched uranium out of the three sites that we bombed and now it's all at Pickax Mountain. So they leaked that at the same time. I get nervous with that.

And then what we talked about last time I was on your show last week when you had Netanyahu, winking and nodding about, oh yeah, I went and I visited the tech style facility in Demona, basically saying that like, yeah, we still have this nuclear capability. first time he's brought it up in quite some time. And like we talked about last time I was on the show, the more you play out the military scenarios, if you have to have a military solution and your goal is like the Israelis, and that is to have the regime completely crumble. And we want basically, the president's even saying, you know, he wants, like, he wants Iran basically to give us everything that we want. They're not going to do that. And so I think what they've done with this messaging coming out of the cabinet meeting and saying, like, we don't want to be part of the American

campaign, I believe that they've kind of given us, possible deniability. That way, if they were to go and they were to use a nuclear weapon, potentially on Pickax Mountain or somewhere else, they made a public statement that we can point back to. We can be like, hey, we didn't know the Israelis were going to do that. That wasn't us. That was the Israelis. That's my big concern. Wendy's 99 cent Frosty is back. And Frosty farmers couldn't be happier. Made with Canadian dairy, they grow up cool, creamy and mighty thick. It's farm to Frosty. Get a small 99 cent Frosty until the longest second and participating Wednesday's Texas Extra.

We are fighting a war against Iran under the false claim that they are a threat to our national security because they are attempting to build nuclear weapons that they actually were not attempting to build. Yet Israel has a clandestine nuclear program for nuclear weapons, not for energy for nuclear weapons, not for civilian use, not for hospital use, for nuclear weapons. Multiple public figures and politicians in Israel have threatened to use their clandestine nukes against, in some cases the United States, as was the case with Jonathan Pollard. He admitted as much.

And sometimes by Netanyahu, when he references it in regard to the war against Iran. The threat to world peace has been Israel. The threat when it comes to nuclear war is Israel. We got dragged into a war on behalf of Israel because Israel is very afraid of Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons. That's where we're at, folks. That's where we're at. It's just so pathetic. Anyway, speaking of pathetic, when we come back from the break,

I want to talk a little bit about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegzitz. performance yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Committee. It was embarrassing to say the least, but you got to hear how much money the Pentagon is demanding from Congress. We'll be right back. Just remember, don't pop any bubble wrap because all that air comes from China. Another good point. What's up, everybody? Welcome back. I just want to apologize again for mixing up the Mali story with the pickax story when it came to that Israeli intelligence. At least I caught it. At least I caught the mistake in real time. But there's just a lot going on. It's hard to keep up with everything and just keep everything straight in my mind.

Chanty writes in and says, yes, Anna, I'm a color. Ooh, you're a color analyst. I love that. And I'll tell you your natural hair color, even if it goes gray, will never betray you. It will always suit you. Maybe, maybe. I mean, I like the blonde, but I think I'm ready to go back to Brunette. Anyway, let's go to Black Mamba 97.

Anna, how do you feel about Alex Jones nowadays? He's a coup, but he does make me think. sometimes. Bohemian Grow, for instance, I'm with you. Look, I will never be able to, for whatever it's worth, I mean, who cares about my forgiveness, right? But I would never be able to forgive Alex Jones after the whole Sandy Hook thing. But yeah, he definitely had some theories that people thought were kooky and then it turned out to be true. So I hear you on that. And I don't know. I just, I think I'm a different person these days where I know when people are doing things for attention. So rather than taking the bait, why not troll back? Why not have fun? I'd have fun. Oh my God. Catch a butterfly says, who cares what sex pestony thinks? I mean, I don't, but that was hilarious. Okay. Thank you to our new members. Welcome to our new members. That includes Matthew Stacy and Paige Turner.

you're going to love the interview tonight for our members. I love the reporting that Murtaza Hussein does. And he has really interesting insights in regard to military strategy and stuff like that. So I'm looking forward to that conversation. I hope you guys enjoyed as well. Let me read some super chat. So I'm not behind. Let's go to Master Zen 107, who says this country is sick.

More people are mad about Mamdani's words, yet not a single one of them even questioned the war crimes. P.S. Nice job on Pierce. Your passion is beautiful. Thank you. I'm trying to learn to make the same arguments I make without getting angry. But it's so hard. It's so hard. I think I did a decent job today. Elliot writes in and says, can you please interview Hunter Gordon? He's running for Washington's first district against Apex's good friend Susan Delbean. Thank you. Definitely. I know for a fact that Jank would want to interview that candidate. And I'll look into it and see if it's a good fit for the main show as well. Dav Mill says, I would remove all U.S. bases from foreign soil and all foreign aid and withdraw

from NATO for $40 trillion in debt. Here here, Dav, you're totally right. And in fact, I would love if we cut the Pentagon's budget and maybe considered using effective soft power. Like, I do think U.S. aid was like some of the programs were insane. I agree about that. But there were also programs having to do with the U.S. flexing soft power, which I think were both important in that it would help people. It would save their lives when it came to diseases and things like that, certainly like the AIDS programs that were funded through

USAID. I think helping people across the globe and fostering strong alliances through those partnerships, those, you know, something that's mutually beneficial is far better than just attacking countries to get what we want, bullying countries the way that we've been doing. I don't think that's good for our national security. It's certainly not good when it comes to the fiscal health of our country, the economic health of our country. So you're totally right about that. Okay. Let's move on to Pete Hagsif. It's going to take a lot for me to not lose my mind because there's something about him in particular that really triggers me. I think it's because of the unearned confidence and the fact that he has such an important role in the Trump administration.

But to me, he's one of the most incompetent people we have ever had in government. And I don't say that lightly, lots of incompetent people. But Pete Higgsith takes the cake. Watch. Not funding this department at $1.5 trillion, I believe, is the greatest threat that our nation faces. Either we invest in our warriors at this moment of step change on the battlefield and growing threats, or this is all just talk. Did you hear that? So our Secretary of Defense thinks the biggest threat to our national security is not giving the Pentagon all the money that they want.

Now, Hegsith was testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and that's of course general Dan Cain. And well, it's amazing because this hearing in particular is a perfect encapsulation of why it's easy to look like a fool when you just lie all the time. It's so easy to catch you in a lie. And that's really the theme of this entire hearing. Now, the point of the hearing also included the request from the Pentagon, from Pete Hegseth, to provide additional funding to the Pentagon. to the Pentagon as this war against Iran reignites. And that's a little bit of a disaster because we had a National Defense Authorization Act

Bill that passed. And it was close to a trillion dollars. A trillion dollars wasn't enough. So what Hegsith wants is a supplemental Pentagon funding bill in order to close that gap when it comes to paying for the war against Iran. The war that we're fighting on behalf of Israel. Are the Israelis having congressional debates or parliamentary debates about providing more funding for the war against Iran? No, of course they're not.

Because the stupid Americans are the ones bankrolling their war. So before we get to some of the highlights or low lights featuring Hegseth in this hearing, I do want to give you the important context here, and that has to do with the numbers, the figures, the spending. So when it comes to additional spending on the Iran war, Hegseth put the cost of the Iran war so far, at $37.5 billion, but that was up from the roughly $30 billion figure he presented to lawmakers earlier this month. Not in April. Earlier this month, he's like, well, we just, you know, you guys provided like a trillion dollars for the Pentagon, and that was great. But now we need $30 billion more. And then weeks later, he's like, make that $37.5 billion.

Okay. And by the way, Hegzith is lying in regard to how much we've already spent on the war against Iran because the defense department's internal overall cost for the war so far is $80 billion to $100 billion, including the cost of repairing damaged U.S. military bases. Just pull out. Please pull out. Pull out like a college freshman. Pull out. We don't need those bases. But anyway. Repairing damaged U.S. military bases, replacing destroyed aircraft, and fully replenishing American weaponry, according to three U.S. officials. So he's lying under oath, of course. He's done it before. Why wouldn't he do it again? There's no consequences. There's no justice. Now, while Hegseth lied and told senators that the war has only cost $37.5 billion. He also said that the Pentagon needs to double that amount to close the Pentagon's budget gap through September. the defense department is asking Congress for $67 billion in supplemental funding. After $891 billion, close to a trillion dollars, was approved to carry the Pentagon through September 30th.

But apparently it's not enough for the portion of the government that can't pass a single freaking audit. Where's that money going? Someone pocketing it? How are they unable to account for all that money? And more importantly, this is the more important part. How is it that Congress, year after year, continues to increase the Pentagon's budgets when the Pentagon has failed every single one of their audits? Is that how the real world works? So you tell me, if I decide I'm going to take out a bunch of credit cards and just go nuts.

I'm just going to charge up a storm, max out those credit cards, and then refuse to pay them. Let's say that I am, you know, I don't know, a year late on making a single payment. Do you think another credit card company is going to provide me a line of credit? No, of course not. But when it comes to the Pentagon, they get whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want. It's disgusting. And today, Congress, the House in particular, voted in favor of passing the National Defense Authorization Act with the inclusion of Section 219, which would merge the IDF with the U.S. military.

Regardless of how much these members of Congress want to pretend like that's not what it would do, that is what it would do. You should read the provision for yourselves. But nonetheless, the House Republicans are currently working hard to provide the Pentagon with $73 billion in that supplemental funding bill. Remember, the Pentagon's asking for 67 billion. House Republicans are like, oh, that's a lot of money. It's a lot of money, you know, national debt. We're fiscal conservatives.

We know you want the 67 billion. We're going to give you 73 billion instead. Okay. So with that very important context in mind, let's watch Hegsif fail and flail during this Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, starting with Senator John Ossoff, a Democrat, calling Hegsus public statements about the war in question. On day 14 of this conflict, Mr. Secretary, day 14, nearly five months ago, you stated that Iran's military had been, quote, destroyed and, quote, made combat ineffective.

That was on day 14 of the war. Was that an accurate statement? They didn't have a Navy any longer. It was completely sunk. Their missiles were buried underneath a lot of their underground facilities and their defense industrial base has been almost completely destroyed. So as far as a military assessment of Iran's capabilities, it didn't mean by any stretch of the imagination absolute zero, but they're considering the lowest level they've been a very long time. On day 14 of this conflict in the second week of the conflict, you stated that Iran's military had been, quote, destroyed and quote, made combat ineffective. Was that an accurate statement? Yes or no? Iran's ability to challenge the United States of

America at the level of which we're capable of. That's not what I asked you, Mr. Secretary. You said on day 14, Iran's military had been, quote, destroyed and, quote, made combat ineffective. Yes or no, was that an accurate statement? What the American military has done to the Iranian military is a historic military defeat. Will you answer the question? And they're ineffective in that context. Three weeks later, you declared victory.

That was now nearly four months ago. My name is Peter Parker, but I'm also Spider-Man. This July, we're faced with a threat. That can be anyone. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker. I'm just a neighbor, friendly neighbor. But he hasn't forgotten them. Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing.

That's my responsibility. Talk to Banner? I didn't know you could get that big. Spider-Man, brand-new day in theaters, July 31st. So you see what's happening here. So on one hand, you have the television promoter version of Pete Hegzith, who's like, oh, yeah, we're so big and bad, we destroyed, we demolished, we obliterated Iran, they're devastated, we won the war.

Okay, great. Then why are you here asking for $67 billion in additional funding for the war? Like, why are you doing that if, you know, you keep saying over and over again, that we've destroyed Iran, that they don't have the capability to, you know, retaliate, that we've destroyed their Navy, that they can't build nuclear weapons anymore. We obliterated them. Why are you asking for money? By the way, Asoff wasn't done yet.

Here's more. Early in the conflict, day three, you said one of those core objectives was to, quote, destroy the missile threat. And as you restated on day five, to quote, obliterate it. Iran's missiles and drones. Those were clearly and repeatedly stated core objectives of the campaign, which four months ago you declared had been completed victoriously with every single objective achieved. Were those objectives achieved four months ago? No one ever stated that every single missile was gone. Ultimately, combat ineffective means

they're not able to dig them out of their UGFs and shoot at us. It doesn't mean they don't have underground facilities where they put missiles in them and hold on to them because they're the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. So we never expected they would stop having capabilities to shoot. The question is at scale against a opponent like the United States of America, which went toe to toe with him and Iran couldn't you stated on March 8th, day nine of the war on 60 minutes, you assured the American people of Iranians surrender. Does that remain your prediction? Ultimately, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon to threaten the United States of America. That has been the objective and it remains so. Yeah, he didn't answer the question. Iran is not surrendering. Iran would never surrender.

And right now, the current objective for this war, according to the Trump administration, is unclear. They keep saying Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. By the way, Trump just made a deal with Saudi Arabia that would allow them to have a nuclear program, basically setting the stage with war. I guarantee you the United States will be at war with Saudi Arabia somewhere down the line. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. But anyway, putting that aside, I'll cover that in more detail a little later in the show today. This guy is embarrassing. Hegzith is embarrassing. And he is a far bigger threat to the national security of the United States than Iran is at this point. He's incompetent. He's bloodthirsty. I mean, he's proud of how bloodthirsty he is.

He's made so many enemies against the United States through his rhetoric, through his actions, and through his boastful nature every time innocent people get killed. And then he makes a fool out of himself in front of Congress like this. It's amazing. Now, CNN actually put together a split screen featuring Heggsett's obvious lies. And I just, I love this because it helps you really visualize what a piece of crap he is. Take a look. Epic Fury decimated Iran's military and rendered it. combat ineffective for years to come. Iran's Navy is at the bottom of the sea.

They would try to impose their will on the on the waterways in ways that would they told it would not like call it a toll, call it a fee, call it an exchange, call it control. They would do something that they would try to hold it at issue. There is a crisis with those stockpiles right now and private industry. That is a manufactured to it in front of Congress. And ultimately we are our stockpiles are great and they're only get stronger. we face critical shortfalls that threaten our ability to also simply pay our service members, rapidly replenish equipment and munitions, and sustain vital operations without disruption.

So there you have it. He's an obvious liar. Just a side note. I love Senator Kennedy. What they told it in the middle of that hearing. That was great. Anyway, so the real question here is, why? Why lie? Why not just be straight with the American? people. Why not actually tell us what's going on? Because here's what I would venture to say. I'm never going to be supportive of fighting a war on behalf of any foreign country, including Israel, obviously. So there's nothing that Hegsith can say. There's nothing he can change about his own conduct that would make me change my mind about how stupid this war is. However, I do think that there would be Americans, certainly members of Trump's base. Of course,

We're a little upset because they were lied to, but I think they would be a little more generous toward the Trump administration if they stop lying incessantly to all of us. If they stop treating us like we're morons. So why are they lying? What's going on here? Why not just give it to us straight? Tell us what's really going on? Well, one reason could be, you know, market manipulation.

If you've noticed, Trump and his cronies tend to talk about like, ooh, peace deal, peace deal. There's a peace deal on the horizon. They try to make it seem like the war isn't that bad. They downplay the war just to manipulate the markets. And then they ramp things up days later. So that's one explanation. But there's another explanation. I think this one's really important to the Trump administration and to the Republican

party. And that has to do with what we're learning through public opinion polling. This is an unpopular war with the American people overall. It began as slightly unpopular with Trump's base, but is now increasingly unpopular with Trump's base. And with the midterm elections coming up, I think the Trump administration, including Pete Hagsith, were under the impression that they could lie to us about what a success this war has been, mission accomplished, mission accomplished. I mean, George W. Bush, he is so happy.

He's like, oh, they took my mission accomplished foible when it came to a very. rock and just did it over and over again to the point where I look like I'm not that bad. There is no mission accomplished here. We have lost the war and there is no military option to win the war. So let's get into the polling real quick because a new Politico poll shows the following. Only 37% of self-identified MAGA voters say the U.S. should continue its involvement only if, only if it doesn't increase costs. And that's up from 29% who said the same in May. So 37% are like, if this is going to increase cost, we don't, we want nothing to do with this war. And remember, Pete Hegesith is sitting

before the Senate Appropriations Committee asking for more money to fight the war in Iran on Israel's behalf. There's more. Nearly one in five MAGA voters believe that the U.S. should end its war in Iran, regardless of the costs. So even if, this is like a fantasy scenario, this doesn't exist, but even if the war could continue and we wouldn't spend a single penny on it, you still have one in five MAGA voters who believe the U.S. should end the war. Only 21% of MAGA believe the war is worth higher costs, while 28% say the U.S. should not continue the war regardless of costs. And when asked why gas prices have increased since, the president took office, the majority of respondents blamed the conflict, including 57% of MAGA voters

and 63% of non-Maga Trump voters. So the majority of Trump voters are blaming the war accurately. Okay, they're accurately blaming the war against Iran for higher gas prices at the pump. And I am so relieved to hear and read that they, they're based in reality. That's good. That's a good, not all of them, but a lot of them. That's good news. So that's why you have the Trump administration lying about the successes of this war. They're hoping to, I don't know, maybe launder how devastating this war really is so they don't

suffer the very real political consequences they're about to suffer in the midterms. 24% of MAGA voters blame the higher gas prices on supply chain disruptions, by the way, which is obviously associated with the war. I don't know why Politico had those two options in this list of reasons why gas prices are up. They're like the Iran war. And then supply chain disruptions. That's the same thing. That's the same thing.

I'm sorry about that. So Trump's poor handling of the economy, 14% of mass. voters feel that that has contributed to higher gas prices, and 38% of voters overall feel that that has contributed to higher gas prices. But one thing is clear, they're all blaming higher gas prices. Or higher gas prices is the main reason that they cited for why the war against Iran is the main reason they cited for higher gas prices. Anyway, I can't help myself. We just got to play one more video and then we'll wrap it up. And we're going to have a great interview with Julian Andrioni from DropSight News. He's been asking some Congress members some pretty provocative questions.

So we'll talk about that in the second hour of the show. But one more highlight from the Hegsith hearing. The missiles that we saw hit recent targets are actually somehow more lethal, more deadly, more maneuverable than what we have seen in the past. So they're obviously improving their munitions. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed, reminding everybody, it was open before the war. Prices were lower for everybody until the war, and it still remains closed. And of course, tragically, people, service members, our warfighters, who we care deeply about, are still dying. So what's different? I think your characterization of this incredible effort as a failure is reckless. And I think it's irresponsible. And I think

it smears the sacrifice to the troops that are out there making on behalf of the American people to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Shame on you and others who call this a quagmire and a failure. And then you want to turn around and say you support the warfighter. If you listen to my comments, you told you would have heard me say how amazing our war fighters are. I heard failure. I heard failure. I will tell you how I use the word failure. Because I use the word failure to their leaders. You, sir, are the failure. He is a failure. He's definitely a failure. The fake outrage that you just saw from Pete Hegsif, that reminds me of Israelis, number one, right? Where they don't have an argument so all they can do is shout anti-Semite over and over again.

It has been years now. And literally, that is their only argument. Oh, my God, I don't have anything that can rebut what you just said. You're an anti-Semite. Literally, it happened today when I was debating Jenna Ellis on Pierce Morgan uncensored. In this case, with Hegsith, I am so offended that you don't respect our service members. No, bitch, you don't support our service members. You are sending them to their deaths on behalf of a foreign country, you piece of crap. And you have the audacity to argue that anyone who poses an adequate, responsible question about our involvement in this war, it hates our troops? No, no.

It's not 2003, homeboy, okay? you're not going to be able to pull a fast one on us by claiming that we don't respect or love the troops in order to go to us or pressure us or bully us into pretending like this war is a great idea. It's not a great idea. It's not good for our service members. And the fact that we lost 18 service members already for a war that we are not going to win, that has no military option for success, that has killed our own and injured hundreds of our own on behalf of a foreign country is infuriating. So the only people who have the right to feel genuine offense right now

are the family members of those fallen soldiers and the American people who are forced to bankroll, this devastating war that has led to inflation in our economy. That's it. We've got to take a break. We'll bring it back. Some things are better when they're kept simple, like simply lemonade made with real lemons and cane sugar, giving you a fresh, all-natural taste that shines through in every sip. It's the kind of drink that turns an everyday moment into something a little more special.

Bright, refreshing, and crafted for people who appreciate the real thing. Visit the chill juice aisle in your local grocery store today and say yes to Simple. Disputable is still the fastest growing news show in America compared to CNN, Fox News, and 30 other networks. We tell the truth on indisputable because the truth is indisputable. We go places that other news, media outlets refuse to go when there were human rights abuses happening at the Victorville prison. Guards and members of the community contacted us. You, through your investigative reporting, unearthed, very troubling allegations about specific forms of abuse and discrimination in the federal prison system. It really doesn't take much to be a trusted voice.

All it takes is to be fearless, report on matters, be an advocate. I called it the bullpen intentionally because it's a place of preparation. We present individuals who may have an opposing view, so we debate. Sometimes we interview individuals because their stories deserve to be heard. A survivor of significant police misconduct and his attorney. We covered this story earlier in the remind you of the horror of one man being shot at damn near 100 times by the police. time on this show to showcase the tipper tantrums of carins in the wild. We do this not because we want to see people's emotional outburst in public, but because these incidents are emblematic

of a bigger societal issue taking place across the nation, and it has to be checked. My friend, my big homie, attorney at law, Benjamin Croft. I just want to thank you, man, an educated, articulate brothers like yourself speak truth to power. It makes a great difference and changing the landscape in America. Listen, no matter what you do, don't allow the politics of ideology to evaporate the soul that still exists inside of you. They don't stop, I don't stop. Racism won't stop. I won't stop. Systemic bias won't stop. I won't stop. People still need health care, so I won't stop. People still need criminal justice systems reform, so I won't stop. I'm wearing one of our pieces of merchandise. So the funny thing about the Dragon Swat,

and that's what our viewers call themselves. That's the name of the group. But every individual chooses their own name. You might have Cincinnati Dragon. You might have Harry Potter dragon. We have a Grandma Sunshine Dragon is one of those that I remember. These are people that like to have an element of themselves, their lives with significant to them reflected as a part of the community. But the concept of the Dragon Squad is just something I threw away as a joke. I was mocking the proud boys,

these right-wing groups that come up with a name for themselves that they think is cool, but it's actually really lame. And I thought, you know, off the top of my head, I can come up with something that's still kind of lame, but much cooler. And so I threw out Dragon Squad, and I just moved on with my life. But everybody liked it. And so they kept it going. And so we've embraced it.

And I think again, it was, this was during the period of the pandemic. I think it was, it was sort of nice to have a renewed sense of community, a feeling that you're a part of something when everything seems so chaotic. And as a result of that, we've got independent artists online streaming, making beautiful digital art of dragons. We've got, you know, we've released a number of pieces of merchandise that people love sending us photos of them. And then by the way, for me personally, people send me, like you can probably see in the background, like a knitted dragon, someone sent me. There's a

dragon book they sent me. Dragon board games they send me. People have done like custom iron works making dragon bottle openers. Like the fans are super invested in diamond art and things like that. And so it's great that they send this stuff. Sometime we're going to have to set up a wall of all of it. But yeah, it's definitely brought the community a lot closer together. fact that we were no longer in this big studio, I felt a lot more personally attached to people. It felt very immediate. And I know that I personally needed the connection. So everyone, before we get to our interview, just a few comments from our members because I enjoyed them. Starting with Box, who I assume is talking about Alex Jones here. When he got

divorced and started doing drugs, I found it hard to follow him. That sounds about right. Like, there was a period of time when Alex Jones wasn't fully unhinged. Like he had wacky theories, which, you know, were fun. But then he fell off. But it looks like he's trying to get back on. I don't know. I don't really follow him that closely. I don't really care either way.

But thank you for the comment. And then I did want to also read this from Stephen 6965, who says, if you don't give AOC a hard time, she will sell out. She was already leaning that way. And I agree with you on that. that it's important to hold our politicians accountable, regardless of how much we might love them or favor them. They're working for us. We're not working for them. It's not our jobs to do PR for politicians. It's their job to serve as public servants. And so I wholeheartedly agree with you.

You know, one of the people who asked AOC a very important question about military aid to Israel was a young drop site reporter by the name of Julian Andrioni. And we're going to interview him In a few minutes, but before we do, I just want to give you a little taste of the kind of work he does, just so you're familiar. Take a look. Marco Rubio said last week that he wants to dismantle the International Criminal Courts War Crimes Tribunal. Why would the United States, a country that supposedly is not engaging in war crimes, have any interest in dismantling a body that investigates war crimes? Well, I think it's because the United States has been striking desalonization plants, bridges, water reservoirs, telecommunications towers, among other civilian infrastructure during this war. But I wanted to ask members of Congress, should we be disbanding the body that investigates war crimes?

Are we committing them? I don't know anything about desalinization plants, but if you add up the level of war crimes that Iran has committed over the last 47 years, they've got, it's about 100,000 to 2. And we should be doing it because of that. You just watched a young drop site reporter by the name of Julian Andrioni. You might have caught some of his viral moments with lawmakers like Alexander Ocasio-Cortez on the question of military funding for Israel. And luckily, we have Julian with us today to talk about the work that he's doing on behalf

of DropSite News and the kind of feel he has toward members of Congress as he has, asks them tough questions that long time veterans of legacy media refuse to ask. Julian, it is wonderful to have you on the show. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. It's really an honor. It's my pleasure. And I love the work you're doing. I love the fact that you're asking the right questions. And just to give the audience a little more info on this Marco Rubio ICC issue, you know, the Wall Street Journal reported that Marco Rubio says that, you know, we're going to go ahead and dismantle the international criminal court. So here's what Rubio wrote. He says, the ICC is backed and run by a

powerful network of leftist non-government organizations, smug globalists, and hostile third world governments united by their enmity toward the United States, using all the tools at our government's disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC brick by brick if necessary. So he goes on to explain that the ICC has clashed with the Trump administration, probably because the ICC prosecutes war crimes and things like that. But what he does not mention is more revealing because Rubio never brings up Israel, even once in his op-ed.

And that's what this is really about, okay? The ICC currently has an active arrest warrant, as we've learned, through the whole Mamdani debacle, right? Has arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Joav Galant. The ICC is also allegedly preparing an arrest warrant for finance minister Basilel Smotrich. But none of that was mentioned in what Marco Rubio wrote. It probably won't surprise you to find who's very thrilled about Marco Rubio's announcement.

The International Criminal Court seeks to become the unaccountable arbiter of a new global law he says, Marco Rubio says, empowered to prosecute and arrest our citizens and will ex-ecentially threaten American sovereignty. That's funny, Julian, that same argument was regurgitated by Trump's pathetic lawyer, Jenna Ellis, during a debate I had with her on Pierce Morgan on censored today. And so she didn't want to get into the Israeli war crime. So she's like, this is about Trump. They're coming after Trump. I don't think that's what this is really about. I think this is about dismaying. the ICC to carry out Israel's bidding yet again. But I'm curious what you think. Yeah, it's basically like a win-win for the Trump administration because the U.S. is committing

war crimes and Israel's entire military operation is based on committing war crimes. Striking desalinization plants, as I mentioned in that interview, but also striking telecommunications towers, obviously buildings that are housing civilians, which is a huge issue. And I think that the members of Congress are holding water for the Israeli government. And whenever they can criticize other people or accuse them of holding water or carrying water for the Iranian government, it's just projection. And so, yeah, it doesn't surprise me that all these people are shying away from mentioning Israel because it's becoming increasingly indefensible, even for the people who are paid off by that country. I mean, you even saw during the Epstein file release that Marco Rubio was essentially given $5 million. by Larry Ellison. And he was texting or emailing with one of his friends or colleagues and

said, hey, I'm going to go and check out Marco Rubio and make sure he's all good. They met with them, left. And he said he's good. And he donated him the $5 million. So I mean, these people, it's predictable. You can see it years in advance. That's exactly right. And so you took it upon yourself to ask members of Congress about what Marco Rubio was threatening to do to the ICC. By the way, I do want to note that when it comes to the ICC, they do successfully prosecute, you know, world leaders, military leaders who have committed war crimes. It is not lost on me that most of them happen to come from African countries. So that stands out.

Now, obviously, I think it's better to have the ICC than not have the ICC. But when it comes to violations of international law, it does seem like most of the prosecutions are focused on a very specific group of people, while others literally get away with murder. But you did take it upon yourself to ask members of Congress about this. So I want everyone to watch a little more from your reporting. Take a look. United States, you know, we are the greatest superpower that's ever known to humankind. And we don't have to really abide by some of these ICC, left-wing, Soros-affiliated groups that infiltrate the courts over there.

That might be the viewpoint of the ICC. But I think in general, I have confidence that the United States military gets legitimate targets when they're at war. So strike and desalinization plans. I don't have any comments on that. I got to get going. But thank you anyway. Okay. Thanks.

I think the president's been very clear that he's not going to tolerate Iran killing American soldiers. And has responded accordingly. Yeah. And you think that that would justify it. You know, the Iranians killing an American soldier would justify bombing civilians. infrastructure. Well, listen, there's, you know, a lot that goes into this stuff. So, you know, the details matter. Yeah, it's not legitimate. And it's not legit. Let's just get rid of it. You know, the U.S. has been striking desalienization plans, telecommunications towers, bridges.

Those would under international laws. Let's get rid of the ICC. I don't think they even really, truly, they shouldn't exist. I don't, I don't like them. Do you think we should be able to commit war crimes like to? Listen, war is war. Julian, what stands out to me with the various responses you got from Republican lawmakers is, I just, it's not just Republican lawmakers. It's just Congress overall. They're not sending their best. I don't like them. I don't like them. Get rid of them. Get rid of them. Like, what is that? Yeah, you know, there's a couple things in there. Number one, you know, Marco Rubio, you read off his sort of editorial on it or his op-ed, and he said, you know, that they're acting as this like non, you know, or this sovereign body that prosecutes

crimes. That's what international law is. You erect an international body that enforces laws across countries so that there isn't bias in enforcing them. And Abe Hamaday, who was the representative from Arizona, who was in that clip, basically in much more blunt terms, said, the U.S. doesn't have to abide by the law. He said, we are the greatest power on earth, and we don't really have to follow all of these international bodies. We get to do what we want. After that, there's a clip from Jared Golden, who's a Democrat, and note that on one of the war powers resolutions, it failed 214 to 213. He was the one Democrat who voted against the war powers resolution. The war could have been ended earlier. But he was the deciding vote, and he decided to vote

with all of the Republicans to prolong the war. Now he's not running for reelection. There's a Bernie Sanders endorsed candidate up there, Matt Dunlap, who's running in Maine's second district. But he said in there, you know, I'm confident that the U.S. military strikes legitimate targets. What about the girls' school in Monab? What do they go, 165 girls? I mean, this is, this is- I don't like them. Get rid of them. But you just don't like the ICC, so you can just, I guess, disband them, even if the United States government strike legitimate targets, except for the girls' school, the telecommunications tower, the desalienization plants.

I mean, it's ridiculous. It is ridiculous. And look, the United States through various conflicts and wars that have been carried out, certainly after 9-11, has committed all sorts of war crimes, has violated international law. Like, we're not signatories to the ICC. I get that. And I get how weak the ICC is because it is a sovereign international body that doesn't really have a real enforcement mechanism. Now, if you are someone like Netanyahu who has an ICC war in. out for your arrest, if Netanyahu travels to certain countries that are part of this, you know, ICC agreement, that country could arrest Netanyahu. So there are some consequences potentially. However, you know, it's incredible to me that Israel is so sensitive that even knowing how weak the ICC is in enforcing international law, they're still getting Rubio to like threaten the ICC. They're getting Rubio to write his cutesy little op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Like, it's so pathetic.

And more than anything, it's both embarrassing for Americans on the international stage because it's very clear that we are not a superpower when you have a tiny little foreign country manipulating our government like this. But aside from that, are we really a superpower when we just showed the entire world our asses? And what I mean by that is we're running low on missile interceptors. We're running low on missiles, period. Okay, drone warfare has obviously advanced to the point where, you know, cheap little drones just do a number on our military assets.

And so we are actually creating the type of environment, in my opinion, that makes the United States less safe. So this whole notion that we can go around the world doing whatever we want, in my opinion, is a total illusion. And at some point, I am concerned that the chickens are coming home to roost. Is there anyone in Congress that you have spoken to who shares a similar concern? Yeah, I think there are some people, but it's quite few and far between. I mean, Ilhan Omar would be one of them. She talks about this pretty bluntly. I've heard Rokana talk about it.

But they tend to be from that wing of the party and very specifically as such. I mean, I think that there's something really interesting to point out from the interview from the interviews that we spliced into that compilation that you played, which is that whenever I bring up that the U.S. is committing war crimes or that Israel's committing war crimes, the immediate response from the Congress member, whether it's a Republican or a pro-Israel Democrat, is to say, you know, do you condemn that the Iranians did X?

Do you condemn that the Iranians hung, you know, protesters in the street or whatever? And my answer is usually, yes. do you condemn that we're striking desalienization plans? And the reason why they asked that question and they're surprised, like you saw with Dan Moiser, who froze up when I said yes and later on in that clip, they're surprised because they expect that other people are beholden to governments in the same way that they are. They think, oh, well, because I carry water for the Israeli government and I defend everything that they do, and because I carry water for the U.S. government and I defend everything that

they do, then this reporter who's criticizing those governments must carry water for another government. And no, I only pursue the truth, right? I am only after the truth. And the truth is, is that the U.S. and Israel are killing civilians in mass, and they are not operating within the rules of war. War is horrible as it is. But if you're not operating within international law while you're conducting a war, that's even worse. And when I go up there and ask about it, they're shocked because as you mentioned at the beginning of the show, all of the other reporters from legacy media outlets and corporate media papers and stations, I'm like, sure. shocked by it. They're not asking any questions about the war or the way the U.S. and Israel have

been carrying it out. Maybe that's because Axel Springer's constitution was signed by all of those Politico journalists that have helped them to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Well, you know, you do ask important and provocative questions. And I think other members of the media are worried about losing access. They might also just agree with what the politicians are doing so they don't want to challenge them. Do you think Jake Tapper is going to ask tough, challenging questions about, you know, is Israel pushing us into a war against Iran on their behalf? Of course he's not.

Same with Dan Abash. Dan Abash fairly recently had Netanyahu on. And Netanyahu basically tried to launder Israeli settlers who have been raining terror on Palestinians in the West Bank. She didn't even challenge him on it. It was disgusting. But, you know, going back to you and how you're doing your job and more importantly, how you're being received. I am curious, you know, let's focus on something very specific. You

went viral after you asked Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whether she would stop providing aid to Israel. And that led to a firestorm because I was, you know, I made a starky comment basically telling her like, oh, well, why don't you fund there? Why don't you keep sending them more money for weapons? And I was referring to defensive capabilities, which I don't think we should be providing any money for it. Like, would you agree to sending defensive capabilities to Nazis? No, I don't think so. So, but anyway, that went mega viral. It led to some backlash toward AOC, but I also got some backlash for calling AOC out for previously supporting defensive military aid to Israel. I'm curious what kind of response or reaction you've received as the

reporter? Quite a bit of the same. I mean, there are people on the left who are playing or who are operating, and I'm not talking about politicians. I'm talking about people who are, you know, politically involved people are sort of operating the same way that MAGA does sometimes, where they latch on to a personality or they latch on to a party and they defend anything that the party does. And so if I ask a tough question to somebody who is, you know, on the left, when people perceive

that to be my team, which I don't even really believe, but if they believe that, they criticize me for asking the question. I had one account, and I'm not going to say it because I don't want to put them on blast. They're relatively small. But they said that it was disgusting that I would ask that question of her. And it's an account that generally supports our work and when we're asking the tough questions of Republicans or when we're asking the tough questions of pro-Israel Democrats. I think what a lot of people can't wrap their head around is that dropside news is committed to the truth. We are not committed to any ideology. We're not committed to any party, any politician.

We are the news source that gives you honest information. We're going to dig into the details where people don't want us looking. We're going to ask the questions that people don't want us asking because our purpose is rooted in the principles that define this profession. It is one of the tenets of our democracy and our democracy is crumbling. And we'll be the last one standing if it's, you know, the only thing we do. I love it. I love it. And I think your work definitely proves it, you know, just to give an example to our audience. I was away, but I, you know, at the time that this happened, but I watched the exchange between Jeremy Scahill and Congressman Rokana. And just to preface this, out of the Democratic politicians in the House, Rocauna might be my favorite at the at the moment or among my favorite. There's a few I like. And I love the fact that Rokana is willing to put himself in a challenging environment. where he's going to be asked incredibly difficult questions. He's been on our show multiple times.

I remember during the whole build back better debate, he did something that I totally disagreed with, brought him on the show. And I was not polite. I was actually very tough on him. But he came back after that, and I respect that. Now, that being said, we're living in this environment of such crappy journalism

that it was so jarring for so many people to witness Jeremy Scahill, do his job and pose difficult, challenging questions about military aid to Israel. And, you know, Rokana struggled a little bit. I think Rokana is where I was, I don't know, maybe three months after the genocide in Gaza had started. And what happens through, throughout the months, throughout the years of genocide is you become more and more open to the truth. truth is really hard to accept. It is hard to accept that a longtime U.S. ally has been such a detriment to the American people and to our country. It's hard to accept that. It's hard to accept

that we have been funding war crimes and this belligerent state has been using our weapons and our money to commit crimes against humanity. But that is what's happening. And so it is important for someone like Jeremy to ask the types of questions that he did. And of course, got a lot of backlash from the very crappy journalists who probably felt a little jealous that, hey, that's what I was supposed to be doing. But I'm doing the opposite. I'm providing PR to politicians who are failing us, whereas Jeremy Scahill is challenging them. And that's what journalism is supposed to be in my view. And so I really appreciate what you guys are doing at drop site. And I want to give you an opportunity to plug some of your work and, you know, just give us

some final thoughts. Yeah, I wanted to touch on that last thing there about Jeremy. I mean, Jeremy is an incredible journalist, and he is so dedicated to the facts. And he's also been around all of these people who are suffering the consequences of these war crimes, of genocide, of ethnic cleansing, of forced displacement. And so I think that that anger that you saw, that passion that came out of him is passion that he has felt and that's been festering. And it is towards the Israeli government. It's towards the United States.

these these entities that have been inflicting that type of violence on people who he's grown to know and perhaps even love. And I and report on. I mean, these are people whose stories he's hearing every day. They're being vulnerable with him. And so I think that that's what that was coming from. I don't think that he was angry at Roe Conner or anything. But I do think he did his job quite well there. And I do think Roe took it well. And I think that, look, journalism, like you said, is sort of a lost art. As soon as the 24-hour news, cycle started, advertisers got in, conglomerates started eating, you know, swallowing up all of the, the outlets and papers. And now, you know, news is fully corporate. You know, media is controlled

by this very corporate interest they're supposed to be reporting on and holding accountable. And I think that that's one of the things that's really encouraging about independent media springing up like DropSight. We don't have any corporate bosses. We don't have any donors who are trying to steer our coverage. We're funded by our readers. And it is so rewarding. to hear from our readers, to have them reach out, to have them suggest questions because we know we're being accountable to the people that we're doing it for. So with regard to plugging work, you can go to dropsite news.com. Our subscription is free. There's also a paid subscription for $99 a year.

That's less than $0.25 a day. And then for me, personally, my Twitter is just my full name, Julian Andrioni. And my Instagram is the Julian Andriani because the former was taken. And so I added a the, they don't think I'm a special. important. And I really appreciate everybody on the Young Turks. I mean, I was a viewer for a long time in high school. You know, you and Jank were, you know, a big part of like my introduction into becoming passionate about politics and to be on the show is a total honor. And so I'm really grateful for you guys. Well, it's an honor to have you. And just one word of advice, you know, drop site is still,

you know, a bit of a startup. It's got that startup feel. These are the Halcyon days. Sayver it. Trust me. We love it. We love it. All right. Well, thank you, Julian. And hopefully we'll have you on soon again. Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, everybody. We're going to take a brief break. And when we come back, we'll talk a little bit about that Saudi nuclear deal that was struck by Donald Trump as we are in the middle of a war against Iran because we don't want them to have a nuclear program. Anyway, we'll be right back. Fox in our member section says, my rage is welling up inside me. I know exactly.

exactly what you mean. I know exactly what you mean. Let's go to our super chats. Liz writes it. Liz Pari says his high knees workout said it all. Okay, that was the workout videos featuring Pete Hagsith. Part of the reason why I didn't clown him on that, I'm empathetic. Not because I try to do those workouts. I would never, okay, even though I am working on those gates. Look at that. I am working on those gains. However, there have been a few times where I've recorded myself shuffling, because I've been teaching myself to shuffle. Don't judge me. It's bad. It's bad. I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready to make my debut. So, you know, he put himself out there. I'm not going to judge him for that. But I have got to judge him for being an incompetent piece of crap. There's so many words I want

to use that I can't use on the show. Anyway, let's go to Dan 6688, who says Democrats debate with Truth Republicans, debate with ego Republicans in their insatiable thirst for control, have created chaos, pain, and financial burden with lies, greed, and hate. I think I agree with that. Janky Anchor says, I agree, I stand with these kids at dispensaries. Let's go to Dean Lofgren, who says the ICC reminds me of the UN sort of worthless. Look, the U.S. We have so many stories we haven't gotten to yet, so I'm not wasting time.

Let's get to the next one. I want to talk about this nuclear deal. It's insane. It really is. So Trump administration has just announced that they are green lighting a civilian nuclear program for Saudi Arabia in the middle of a war against Iran where we are targeting their nuclear program. What? Now, of course, the argument from the Israel firsters, well, actually not the Israel firsters,

Israel's furious, and we're going to get to that in just a minute. But the argument from those who want to provide cover for Saudi Arabia having a nuclear program, which in the future could lead to nuclear enrichment, by the way, is that, well, Saudi Arabia is our ally. So yeah, I mean, Iran isn't our ally. So they can't have civilian nuclear programs, but Saudi Arabia can. Now, I want to get to the details of the deal itself. And then we'll get to how Israel is responding to it because they are not happy. Remember, Israel's main goal is to be the hegemonic power in that region of the world. That's the reason why we're not even done with the war against Iran and they're already ramping up to start a war against Turkey. So the idea that Trump is opening the door to possible

uranium enrichment for the Saudis, that's infuriating them. So this is part of the reason why I think that what Trump has just done is open the door for potential war against Saudi Arabia, especially if we remain allied with Israel. So let's talk a little bit about the deal itself. I want to be clear that this is not a novel idea. This is not something that Trump thought up out of nowhere. This was actually part of negotiations that began under the Biden administration. So, Before October 7th, the Biden administration was considering a similar move for Saudi Arabia. However, they had a pretty big caveat. There was a condition. The condition was going to be that the civilian nuclear program would only be allowed if Saudi Arabia agreed to normalize

its relations with Israel, joined the Abraham Accords, that type of stuff. Now, fast forward to the Trump administration, and he is not going to tie this deal to Israel at all. So normalization of Israel is not part of, you know, the quid pro quo here between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which I particularly enjoy. I don't think that normalization with Israel should matter at all in any deal the United States makes with a foreign country. But do I think this is overall a good idea to do this nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia. Probably not because of what I think it's going to open the door to. I don't have a problem with any country having a civilian nuclear program.

So low-grade enriched uranium can be used for energy purposes. It can be used for medical purposes. However, this does open the door for them to enrich uranium to a higher percentage, much like the Iranians did, which creates an excuse to go to war because the Israelis are so scared. So there are a few catches in this deal that Trump has agreed to. So number one, American companies will be the ones developing Saudi Arabia's infrastructure moving forward. Other countries will be frozen out. Trump's got to look out for his real estate buddy friends, you know, you know, not looking out for the American people, not looking out for

world peace, not even looking out for what's in the best interest of the Saudis. He could care less. He couldn't care less. He is looking out for his real estate buddies. Okay, great. The U.S. would get a say in whether or not Saudi Arabia gets to enrich uranium. Now, this part is important because people are panicking about the prospect of them enriching uranium. And so according to this deal, the U.S. and Saudis, they're going to do like a joint study on the matter. Okay? If the U.S. then gives Saudi Arabia the go ahead to enrich uranium, American companies would develop a facility to enrich the uranium.

And I guess the idea here is, well, this is going to be under the control of the Americans. So everything's going to be okay. But if the U.S. says no, Saudi Arabia would be locked out of enriching uranium for 10 years. Kind of like the JCPOA, you know? So the Trump administration is claiming that thanks to the oversight that they're going to have built into this deal,

the U.S. can ensure that Saudi Arabia would not, use enriched uranium to build a weapon. But let's just pause for a second. The fact of the matter is, the United States government, its foreign policy, and the way the Trump administration has behaved on the world stage in his second term,

does nothing but persuade foreign countries to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent. We're not at war with Pakistan. We're not at war with North Korea. You want to know why? they've got nukes. They managed to develop the nukes before we could go to war to prevent them from doing so. So considering the fact that Iran leading up to this disastrous war, this devastating war,

did everything they could to prevent the war from happening, considering the fact that they didn't have nuclear weapons, weren't even working on nuclear weapons, but we attacked anyway, viciously. And so other countries, certainly in the region, are thinking to themselves, we better find a way to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent. And I think that's probably what the Saudis are thinking about here. And I can't blame them. How are you going to blame them?

I can't blame them. If I were Mohammed bin Salman, which I'm glad I'm not. But if I were in his shoes, oh yeah, I'd want to develop a nuclear weapon. And that's the Trump administration's fault. Other countries want to prevent the Trump administration from doing to it what's the the Trump administration has done to Venezuela, to Iran. You get the picture. Now, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says, rest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standard of nuclear safety and nonproliferation while relying on the world's best nuclear technology and scientists

designed right here in the United States. Thanks to President Trump, the American nuclear Renaissance is underway and will deliver long-term benefits to the American and Saudi people. You want to know where I want to develop nuclear energy, the United States of America. Can we do that? Can we please develop nuclear energy? You know, clean nuclear energy that closes the gap if we want to move away from oil or natural gas. Nuclear power is the cleanest form of power outside of renewables, which are just not reliant enough to replace fossil fuels with. But instead of thinking about how we can bolster our energy, our ability to be energy sufficient, we're like working on deals on behalf of private industry for Saudi Arabia's nuclear program.

Okay. So let's talk about the reactions because while Chris Wright and Trump clearly are in favor of a deal like this, others aren't so convinced. So the Israelis are absolutely livid. They are seething about this administration deal with Saudi Arabia. So heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu, who is a disgusting, deplorable human being, considering the gross genocidal statements he has made in the past. He's in the far right Outsma Yehudit Party.

Here's what he stated about it. We will do as much as we can in the international arena and in our foreign policy to halt the possibility that in the Middle East, a certain country, because we can't rely on it for the long term has a nuclear weapon. So I don't care what the Israelis want at all. Like Israel's main goal is to be the hegemon, the main power in that region of the world. So they want to weaken every other country. By the way, including countries that have been cordial, friendly, who want to have a relationship

with Israel. Like, these people are such backstabbing weirdos and losers. Like you can't have a military if you're a Middle Eastern country because Israel wants to be able to come in and crush you at any moment that they please. That's what they want. So there's more. Opposition lawmaker and former defense minister Avigur Lieberman also rage saying everyone needs to understand that the Saudi civilian nuclear program will end up with nuclear weapons and lead to a mad arms race across the entire Middle East. your behavior and U.S. foreign policy is what's going to lead to a mad arms race across the Middle East. But let me continue with the statement. He says, the Israeli government must act decisively against the American Congress to stop the process.

Well, to be fair, the Israeli government has acted decisively against the American Congress and the American people for a long time now, haven't they? You guys excel at that. You're really good at it. He called on Jerusalem and pro-Israel groups like APAC and others to fight the pact and convince Congress to vote against it, even if it means splitting with U.S. President Donald Trump, quote, we need to be firm and not stutter. And look, they're not the only ones who have a bone to pick when it comes to this deal. You have commentators and politicians alike who are speaking out against what Trump is doing here. They don't agree with allowing Saudi Arabia to have a civilian nuclear program. Let's start with Steve Bannon. We have to go through and check this math out on the cost of the war.

And I understand, hey, I don't completely get, but I understand, you know, on this Abraham Accords, there's kind of the substrate for everything that's going on. You know, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia's got to step up. Maybe before we give them a nuclear deal to let them get nuclear technology, they've got to start writing some big checks. This thing's got to be paid for. And it cannot be paid for any of the American people. people. All right. I don't really trust anything that comes out of Steve Bannon's mouth. But

you know, what do you said there is true? Like my biggest issue with this is setting us up for more war in the Middle East. And also the hypocrisy of it all. The fact that this is happening in the middle of us engaging in a war against Iran because we don't trust them to have a civilian nuclear program. But we trust the Saudis. Why do we trust the Saudis? What's the, the, dominant religion in Saudi Arabia. And when you consider some of the more extremist elements in Saudi Arabia, how is that any different from the extremist elements in Iran? I don't understand. Like, the way we get to determine who the threat is relies heavily and solely on who and what Israel poses, thinks poses a threat to them. And in most cases, they're not even really worried

about a threat. Like most countries are not looking to attack you, unless you're trying to expand your borders, unless you want to weaken them, so you're the hegemon in the region. And here's Democratic Representative Brad Sherman, unfortunately, my congressman, grilling Mike Walts about this. Let me point out that Senator Rubio and I in 2018 introduced the no nuclear weapons for Saudi Arabia Act. which mandated that any agreement with Saudi Arabia would have to have the affirmative approval of the United States Congress. And I miss Senator Rubio. The secretary Rubio takes a completely different position. Is there any reason we should be bombing Iran because they won't agree to limit their nuclear program while telling Saudi Arabia we give them the green light and they don't even have to agree to these additions?

Yes, absolutely. There's been half a dozen UN resolution saying Iran cannot and should not have a nuclear weapon. And they're the largest spot-upon-terrorism in the world. So yes, there's a reason we should be bottomed. Mr. Chairman, can you keep order? The only difference I see here is that Westinghouse stands to make an awful lot of money on this deal, whereas the Iranians were not enriching American companies. I mean, but Brad Sherman's correct in everything that he assessed there.

So I have to give him credit, even though I think he's a terrible representative. He represents my district. I'm familiar with him. He's not great. But what he said there is correct, he's calling out the hypocrisy of the entire situation. I just want the U.S. to stop. Just stop all of it. Stop all of it. Stop meddling in other countries.

Please stop. Please get out of that region entirely. I don't want to be the global police that goes around telling countries who they get to have as their leaders, who goes around bombing countries and retaliation. of, you know, BS demands. I'm just so sick of it. Please, we've got so many problems here in the United States. If Saudi Arabia wants to have a civilian nuclear program,

I think it's their right to do that. And if you don't want nuclear proliferation, then stop giving sovereign countries a reason to want to have a nuke for protection. But I guess that's too difficult. But I guess that's too difficult and too complicated to request here. All right, I want to actually skip ahead to F Block, Alyssa. This will be our last segment before we head on over to our bonus episode.

Let's get into it. Part of the reason those of us in the establishment struggled to beat Donald Trump is we were having to defend policies like open borders. Okay. And Trump walked right into that. All right. So the notion that there is just the establishment that led to Trump losing, I think is a misplaced. I think the establishment is a big part of the reason why Trump was able to win in 2024, not just the electoral vote, of course, also the popular vote.

And who you heard from there is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith. He engaged in a bit of a debate with Crystal Ball from breaking points on breaking points. And I appreciated the entire debate. They actually debated a whole host of topics, including foreign policy. But for the purposes of this discussion, I actually want to focus on what he had to say about the divide within the Democratic Party between the establishment Democrats. And I guess what, for lack of a better description, has been referred to as the DSA faction of the Democratic Party. Now, as we know, there are some DSA Democratic Stollary. Socialists of America aligned candidates who have been beating incumbent Democrats in some congressional

races. Most of it happens in deep blue districts in deep blue states like New York. This is not a phenomenon that we're seeing in the middle of the country. We're seeing it in, you know, democratic strongholds where corporate Democrats, establishment Democrats have really failed their voters and they're furious for a number of different reasons. Now, to be fair to Adam Smith, I actually think that he touched on something that I do agree with, not entirely. So I want to play that moment of the debate for you. And then I'll explain. Take a look. The most important issue that is driving the anti-establishment feelings in the primaries is two things. Number one, the belief that we have not effectively fought Trump. Okay. When you look at what really

drives these people, yes, Israel's part of it, but it's also going after you were part of the establishment, how come you didn't beat Trump? Now I have a complaint here, and that is that a lot of the policies of the DSA and the left, open borders, defund the police, the idea that you can't possibly spend enough government money, identity politics. A lot of those things are what gave Trump his power. And part of the reason those of us in the establishment struggled to beat Donald Trump is we were having to defend policies like open borders. Okay, and Trump walked right into that, all right? So the notion that there is just the establishment that led to Trump losing, I think, is a misplaced fact.

I don't think it's any surprise that I have, you know, recalibrated some of my views on some of those social issues that were listed there, including the notion of abolishing police, which I've never been in favor of, but was under the impression that we were supposed to, reform and that didn't happen. And in fact, as much as the left flank of the Democratic Party wants to allege that they never called for the abolishing of police, that was definitely something that was being discussed. Whether it was even a possibility of carrying out, that's an entirely different story. But when you brand yourself as the group that wants to do away with police entirely at a time when there was a crime spike, this is in 2021, yeah, it's going to hurt you politically. He's not wrong about that.

He's not wrong about that. But let's take a little trip back to 2024, shall we? Because, well, I do think that those issues, which honestly are carried out locally, these are not federal policies with the exception of open borders or, you know, Biden's handling of immigration, which I agree was disastrous. Sorry, it just was. And that led to a lot of backlash toward the Democratic Party, not just from conservatives, but also longtime Democratic voters,

which is why if you looked at the election results and you compared them in blue cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, you compare the percentage of the vote that was liberal to conservative. In 2020, a higher percentage of, you know, a higher percentage of people in these cities voted for the Democratic candidate. Fast forward to 2024, that percentage dipped significantly. Now, of course, Democrats still enjoyed the majority support in these blue cities, but you could

see how these local policies on policing, crime, things like that, had an impact on how voters perceived the Democratic Party. And I do think that that bled into federal elections. Okay, but let's put that aside, because I do have a big problem with, what Adam Smith is saying here because it appears that he's putting a lot of the onus, a lot of the blame on, you know, the left flank of the Democratic Party. But let's talk about the failures of the establishment Democrats, including the fact that Biden, who promised not to run for a second term, did in fact run for a second term and was not qualified to do so because of

his mental condition, his obvious cognitive difficulties due to his age. And then, the Democratic Party with three months out decides to anoint Kamala Harris, who paraded around in her campaign with the likes of neo-con Republican Liz Cheney. I ain't voting for that. There's nothing that would get me to vote for any Democrat, any candidate who uplifts Liz Cheney. I don't care that Liz Cheney did the right thing

when it came to January 6th. That was one good thing that she did, allegedly, okay? But I'm sorry, Liz Cheney's entire political career was a disaster of epic proportions for this country. She was one of the architects for the Iraq war and has always cheer-led devastating wars that have hurt our country. That's what Kamala Harris did. So I need the establishment Democrats to take a lot more responsibility for their own behavior. And yeah, they've done a terrible job fighting Trump. When we talk about fighting Trump, we mean prevent some of these policies from even passing.

We're not talking about doing your little show hearings. We don't care about your tweets. Do something effective. And they've failed time and time again. I mean, there was a literal conversation about like, just don't respond to anything Trump is doing in his second term, Democrats. Just let him hang himself and then and then we'll be good for the midterms. Which is true, that is a strategy, but voters are sick of it and they see it for what it is. By the way, while he's pretending like, oh, these culture war issues really hurt us, get a load of how much of a hypocrite he is.

Take a look at this. Most of your argument against the DSA thus far, I think you could characterize as an electability argument. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's bad policy. Okay, so let's- I don't think having unlimited immigration is sustainable. I don't think getting rid of the criminal justice system is a smart way to govern. It's not just electability.

So here's a question I have for you. So back in 2018, you worked together with Primala Giappal on a bill to abolish ICE, which is a key demand. Yeah, I worked with her on a, here's what the bill did, okay? It's a slogan. We have an article here from the Seattle Times, your local paper. US reps Primalogel and Adam Smith aim to abolish ICE restructure immigration enforcement. Exactly. You were one of the Democrats actually who was in office when you voted for DHS and creation

advice. So we can have an intelligent conversation. Sure, of course. Yeah, well, like, number one, do you still support this? Let me tell you what it does. Okay, but you still support it. That doesn't help anything because what is this? Can I, can I?

Yeah, of course, but first do you still support and you can explain more in detail what it is? Let me tell you what it is. Okay. Okay. Yes. When we created the Department of Homeland Security, we took immigration enforcement away from the Justice Department and we put it into DHS and created ice. Correct. What this does is it puts immigration enforcement back at the Justice

Department and gets rid of ice. Right. Well it gets right. Yeah, no, but it doesn't That's my position too. But here we're on the same page here. Why would you have abolish ice in the title of your legislation, which makes it seem like you're doing away with ice and any immigration of enforcement that comes along with it. He knows that. He played into the very politics that he's now bitching about and claiming lost elections for Democrats, which by the way, I think is true. But you're part of the problem, Madam Smith. Corporate Democrats, establishment Democrats are happy to dive into culture war issues to avoid having to discuss or debate questions of war and peace,

or economic policies. That's what mainstream Democrats do. And he just got caught. I love it when someone who is participating in a debate, as Crystal Ball did here, is actually prepared and knows the politician's record. Don't complain about the very behavior you yourself engaged in and be clear about what your policy is actually trying to accomplish.

So if you have a problem with abolishing police, abolishing ICE, I, or the policies and how they're going to hurt the Democratic Party, then don't play into them. But he did play into them because at that time, he thought these are the kinds of culture-related issues that'll bode well for us so we can avoid talking about other things. That's the reality in the situation. We got to take a break. Mertaza Hussein is our interviewee for the bonus episode.

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