The Young Turks - So Long, Farewell

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Netanyahu delays ceasefire vote. NeoCon DEFIES Trump, Calls For MORE WAR In Middle East. Biden Gets TORCHED For ‘Sad’ Farewell Speech. 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Live from the Polymarket Studio in L.A. It's the Young Turks. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have a fantastic show ahead for you today. Later on in the program, we'll talk a little bit about the likelihood of TikTok officially being banned here in the United States. It appears that the Democrats carry out things that they don't actually mean.

And I think the TikTok story is a perfect example of that. And so we'll talk about that and more coming up. But in the first hour, big update on the ceasefire deal that I think reporters were too premature in treating as if it was a done deal. So we'll give you the latest updates on that. We'll also talk about some tension among the neocons versus. is the MAGA crowd in the Republican Party. Looks like Donald Trump is getting some backlash from a Republican senator in regard to the ceasefire deal. We'll also talk a little bit about the pharmaceutical industry and a new report by the Federal Trade Commission

that has revealed that three pharmacy benefit managers have screwed over American patients just to pad their own pockets. It's an incredible report, can't wait to get to that. So as always, just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream if you're watching us and want to support us. And you can also become a member by going to t-y-t.com slash join. And in the second hour, Wazni Lombre will be joining us to do the second hour and the bonus episode for our members. So if you're not a member, definitely check that out by going to t-y-t.com slash join. All right. Without further ado, unfortunately, I have some bad news to share in regard to this ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

people were killed, including dozens of women and children in Israeli strikes after the deal was brokered last night. This will be tough. This morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of trying to change the terms. Hamas responded accusing Netanyahu of looking for excuses not to implement the ceasefire. While everyone in the media and our political leaders were celebrating yesterday, thinking that there was a done deal in regard to a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. It appears that Israel, as I suspected, has already delayed the vote to ratify the ceasefire deal with Hamas and also, of course, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu using similar excuses to the excuses that he used back when other ceasefire deals fell apart.

Now, it's not surprising that Israel has so far reneged on the ceasefire deal even after the president of the United States held a press conference celebrating the ceasefire. Now, the cabinet in Israel is planning to meet on Friday in order to further debate and discuss the ceasefire deal. But at this point, things are incredibly wobbly. Now, let's get to some details, including what Netanyahu is claiming here. He claims that no, no, no, no, it's Hamas. It's not our fault for reneging on the ceasefire deal. It looks like Hamas is trying to backtrack, but that's not the case. Hamas said that it was committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators

just yesterday. Then Netanyahu decided to change the story, change the cover story, if you will, and he argued that there were issues with the release of Palestinian prisoners. So let me just remind you all that since the beginning of this war, there have been literally thousands of Palestinian civilians, including women, children, civilian men, elderly people who have been placed on what's referred to as administrative detention. And administrative detention means that these individuals haven't been charged with anything. They're not being tried for anything. They're just, imagine being detained by authorities without any charges. That's what we're

talking about here. And so there's been all of a sudden, all of this, you know, all these protests in regard to what Hamas would get in exchange for agreeing to the ceasefire deal. And part of the agreement would require Israel to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. Now, the argument here from the Israelis is that possibly some of the prisoners that Hamas would want Israel to release are prisoners who have carried out terror attacks against Israelis. But again, I just want to reiterate something that I've said recently, and that's the fact that this really has nothing to do with the terms of the deal. This has everything to do with the threats that are being made by the far right members of the Israeli cabinet, who were threatening to essentially cause political harm to Benjamin Netanyahu, which is his number one concern, his own political career and staying in power. So let's get to some of the details on that.

The Financial Times had an excellent report on this. And Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a statement saying that Israel will not set a date for a cabinet and government meeting to approve the deal until the mediators announced that Hamas has approved all the details of the agreement. But they did approve all the details of the agreement. It is Israel that is now deciding to renege on the terms of this agreement. Israel said earlier on Thursday that Hamas was seeking to dictate which Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for Israeli hostages. Netanyahu's statement came as finance minister, Basilel Smotrich's far-right religious Zionist party said on Thursday morning that it would leave the government if the deal led to a permanent end of the war. Then the party said later on Thursday that it was a condition for the party to remain in government and the coalition that Israel should resume fighting immediately upon the conclusion of the first

phase of the deal. Now in the first phase of the deal, it would last about six weeks. Fighting would stop for those six weeks and 33 hostages would be released by Hamas. Now after those six weeks, negotiations would take place in regard to a permanent ceasefire. And so the argument by the far right members of the Israeli cabinet is that no, no, no, after the first phase, we just want to go back to war. We just want to keep fighting. We want to continue with the aerial bombardments. And I'm really not surprised by any of this. In fact, I cautioned everybody just yesterday when the celebratory nature of, you know, of the press and our political leaders was very much apparent. And so I just want to remind you of what I was

warning about while covering the story yesterday. Take a look. A lot needs to happen before this is finalized, but President Joe Biden, who really wants the ceasefire to be part of his legacy, has already done a press conference making it appear as though this is set in stone. And I think that's a big mistake. I am hoping, hoping that I'm proven wrong. But the idea that the Israeli government is going to sign on to the withdrawal, the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. And the idea that Palestinians will be able to return to all parts of the Gaza Strip, including the North, just seems inconceivable to me. From what I've seen, all of the obstacles in place that could potentially dismantle this ceasefire deal

are on the Israeli side. Okay, so before anyone gets too excited, you should know that these obstacles exist and they could play a role in basically ending the possibility of this particular ceasefire deal. The deal needs to be ratified by the Israeli cabinet. And as the New York Times reported, some hardline members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have voiced opposition to the deal. This has happened before. In fact, every time we think there's going to be a ceasefire deal accepted by the Israelis, they tend to renege. And it's because there are some extremists within the Israeli government, within the Israeli cabinet, who refuse to accept any ceasefire deal, and they brag about serving as obstacles to an end to this war.

And that's exactly what happened here. So once it became apparent that Netanyahu is pretty much on board for the ceasefire, you start hearing the protests from the Ben Gavirs, Itamar Ben-Govir, the Basel Smotritch's, you know, the far-right members. of the Israeli cabinet, and they're threatening Netanyahu. And Netanyahu doesn't want to lose power. So as the Financial Times writes, while the ceasefire deal has enough support for ratification without this lunatic far right signing on to it, the fact of the matter is that if these far right members of the government essentially pull out of the government, thus doing away

with the majority coalition Netanyahu would need to remain in power, well, then obviously Netanyahu's power would be under threat. And that's his number one concern. This is the problem with what's currently going on with these ceasefire negotiations. What we tend to forget about is that Benjamin Netanyahu has his own incentives, his own agenda, and his own agenda, his own incentives revolve around him remaining in power. The far right members of the Israeli cabinet know that, and they have used that as leverage in order to torpedo any ceasefire deal. And that's exactly what's happening right now.

All of these arguments about like, oh, no, Hamas hasn't agreed to the deal. Oh, actually, they have agreed to the deal. So what now? Oh, no. It's about the Philadelphia corridor and who's going to control it. Oh, no, it's really about the Palestinian prisoners and which ones we release. aren't you supposed to have already negotiated all of this? Why are you now randomly changing the terms?

Could it be because you're looking for any excuse to not go through with the ceasefire in order to appease the far right members of the government? I believe that's what's really happening here. Now, as this whole game plays out, let's keep it real. The absolute carnage in the Gaza Strip continues. So after we heard the reports that there had been an agreement to a ceasefire, in those 24 hours since, 72 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of IDF airstrikes. Okay, so if you think anything has slowed down in regard to the carnage in Gaza, you would be mistaken.

And I want to talk just briefly about the celebrations that came from both political parties yesterday because while President Joe Biden wanted the ceasefire deal to be part of his legacy, and while he wanted to celebrate that in the form of a press conference yesterday, that absolutely was far too premature, if you ask me. There was no reason to believe that Israel wasn't going to renege like they typically do, and that's exactly what seems to have happened here. And then you also had Donald Trump coming out of the gate, giving himself credit for succeeding in getting Israel and Hamas to accept a ceasefire.

deal. Now, let's say that the ceasefire deal, I do think Trump would certainly deserve some credit because he and his envoy to the Middle East were involved in this. And so Trump has repeatedly warned that there will be all held to pay if the hostages are not released by January 20th. The ceasefire is supposed to come into effect. And the first hostages released on Sunday, now we don't know if that's going to happen. When Trump came out and gave himself credit, the Biden administration wasn't really feeling it. But to their credit, they did give him some, they did

give him a little bit of a hat tip here. So the Biden administration wasn't happy with Trump taking full credit. But Biden administration officials, while crediting Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Whitkoff's contribution during the last phase of the negotiations as crucial to their success, have been careful to say that he was not directly participated in the negotiations. And also a diplomat who was briefed on the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, credited progress in the talks, in part to the influence of Trump saying that it was the first time there has been real pressure on the Israeli side to accept a deal. There may have been pressure for Israel to accept the deal, but as we now see, they're doing the exact same thing that they

have been doing with Biden in power, which is, you know, kind of tentatively agree to a ceasefire deal, lead everyone on. And then in the last minute, boom, pull the rug out from beneath people and say that, you know, no, no, it turns out there are all sorts of issues and we're going to blame Hamas for this. So that diplomat, by the way, further said that the talks between Israel and Hamas were deadlocked for months and that the contours of the deal, as we learned about them yesterday, made clear that Israel had made some concessions. But again, they've now reversed. And now it appears that this whole ceasefire deal remains in the balance. We don't know if it's actually going to be something Israel ultimately agrees to.

Now, the Biden administration has handled this war poorly, to say the least, terribly. And there have been protests at pretty much every press conference. Biden administration officials have engaged in. Certainly Anthony Blinken has been protested multiple times in recent weeks. And so I want to talk a little bit about what happened today when Anthony Blinken decided, you know what, maybe today's a good day to do my farewell speech and give the Biden administration a huge pat on the back for how well they've handled the job. And so let's take a look at the protests that broke out during Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's press conference this morning. I carry with me.

Millerson, he doesn't know about the cannibal director. Again, I'm happy to address questions in just a few more minutes. I look forward to answering questions a few more minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Let me answer some questions. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Answer a damn question. I look forward to answering questions in two minutes. You know about Israel's nuclear weapons. Everybody from the ICJ.

I was sitting here quietly and now I'm being manhandled by two or three people. So the two people who protested Anthony Blinken during his presser today were Max Blumenthal with the gray zone, but also the individual that you heard in the background in that clip. That was an independent journalist by the name of Sam Hussini. And he was, in fact, escorted out by authorities. So was Max Blumenthal. And Ryan Grimm managed to capture some footage of Hussini getting taken out of the room pretty aggressively by multiple people. Now, he was the one, by the way, that you can hear calling out Lincoln and saying that he belongs in the Hague. So with that in mind, this is what the scene look like, you know, off camera.

This is the video that was captured by Ryan Grimm. Take a look. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Answer a damn question. Do you know about the handfuls directed, you know, about Israel's nuclear weapons? Everybody from the ICJ, I'm sitting here quietly, and now I'm being manhandled by two or three people.

You're in pontificate about free press. about a free press. You are hurting me. You are hurting me. And look, I'm sure there will be some people who will say, well, interrupting Blinken's speech was unacceptable. But think about the evasive nature of the Biden administration when it comes to answering questions from journalists on this very matter.

And think about the hypocrisy of the Biden administration. When it comes to pretty much everything, but as you can hear, Sam Husini is specifically calling out the Biden administration for the lack of value toward the free press, especially when it comes to valuing the free press when they want to ask questions about this very real issue and war, the carnage that American taxpayers are forced to fund. The American government continues to aid in a bet. The cover that the Biden administration has provided. for the far right government of Israel as they continue to slaughter tens of thousands of innocent civilians who are trapped in a tiny territory of land called the Gaza Strip. The fact that Israel inched us closer and closer to a potential hot war with Iran, luckily that has not happened. But they invaded and went to war in Lebanon. I mean, the situation is already out of control, but it could have been much worse. And honestly, things have felt increasingly.

incredibly out of control with the leadership of the Biden administration. I mean, for the most part, it feels as though Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State is the one making the policy decisions as it pertains to this war. And it's gone on for 15 months. You look at the high death toll among civilians, and it's absolutely utterly unacceptable. And what you hear from the State Department, what you hear from Anthony Blinken, time and time again, after Israel has reneged on the ceasefire agreements, is that it's Hamas. his fault. In other words, he has only regurgitated what Israel says. And it's infuriating. It's

absolutely infuriating. You know, one can hold two ideas at the same time. That what Hamas did on October 7th in targeting and slaughtering innocent civilians was grotesque. It was wrong. And there should have been consequences for that. But the response from the Israelis obviously went way too far, and it was more than just retaliation. It was more than just going after Hamas. Clearly, this had more to do with retaliating against the Palestinian people and honestly carrying out some of the genocidal statements that we heard from far right members of the Israeli government early on in this war. They just flat out said what they plan to do, and then they proceeded to carry it out, whereas the Biden administration pretended

like that wasn't happening. And so I think the journalists are sick of that. And so I'm proud of Sam Husaini for speaking out. The way he was dragged out of that room was disgusting. And it gives you a sense of how, honestly, the Biden administration is full of crap when they talk about the freedom of speech, the freedom of press, the freedom of journalists, especially when they're asking legitimate questions that the administration has failed to answer.

And if Biden is very concerned about what his legacy is, he should know that his legacy will not be about securing a ceasefire deal between the Israelis and Hamas. His legacy will be about aiding and abetting the slaughter that the Israeli government, along with the Israeli defense forces, have carried out in the Gaza Strip, period point blank. He might want it to be something different. But if he wanted it to be something different, he should have considered maybe using military weaponry as leverage. Instead, Biden gave the Israelis everything they wanted whenever they wanted it, regardless of how many war crimes, the IDF committed, regardless of how much Benjamin Netanyahu humiliated Biden on the international stage. It just is what it is. And so either you want to be a leader or you want to get dog walked by a foreign leader. And in the case of Joe Biden, he got dog walked endlessly. He made his bed. It's time to lay in it. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show. I just want to read a few super chats before we move on to the next story. Make it make sense, says Anna, you and Jank are the best. I know there are stories.

everywhere. Have you been following the FDA? They just banned red dye number three. And oh, shocker, water is now on the healthy list along with eggs. So what changed RFK? You know, it's interesting. I see a lot of action happening in the waning days of the Biden administration. And so I just think that there was a little bit of procrastination. And now that the Democrats are the outgoing administration. I think they're trying to get as much done as humanly possible. But, you know, I do think that in some areas, RFK does make some good points, certainly when it comes to food regulations, the FDA being corrupted by the food and agriculture industry. And I want to give him the benefit of the doubt on those issues. And I really hope that he does pursue making our food

supply and our water supply cleaner. We'll see what happens. But to be fair, I haven't been following the red dye story too closely. I don't know too many details, so I'm not going to comment on something I don't know too much about yet. Rage Rock for now says, where the heck could Hamas be hiding 33 hostages? I believe they have, there's an estimated 60 something hostages who are still alive. I don't know where they're hiding them, especially considering the fact that the entirety of the Gaza Strip has been bombed to smithereens. Obviously, they're probably underground in tunnels. We'll see. Now, Cali Millie No or Moe says, going to be shocking if it's revealed that Hamas, along with hostages, we're holding out in tunnels under

Israel the whole time, cementing Israel as a homicidal pariah state with ambitions of genocide. I don't know where they're hiding the hostages, and I'm not going to speculate on it, but we'll eventually find out. Paul of Scotland says, far right of the Third Reich won. They trained well, the Zionist extremists, and stinky stocking full of lies says, they better not ban TikTok. What am I going to mindlessly scroll through if they do. Well, we're going to get to the TikTok conversation a little later in the show, so stick around for that. For now, though, some interesting tension in the Republican world that I think is worth getting into. So let's talk about it. Well, while President-elect Donald Trump has been taking credit for a potential ceasefire deal

between Israel and Hamas. And I say potential because it appears that Israel has already reneged on said deal. There is one Republican that has slammed the ceasefire deal and the terms within it, calling it an utter failure. So this is drama because again, Donald Trump's been celebrating the deal. He's been taking credit for pressuring Israel to accept the deal. But it appears there are some Republicans who aren't really buying it. So let's get into the details of who this is what he's saying. Now look, it's Senator Tom Cotton. He's a well-known neocon, and he wants Israel to get all the cookies, nothing for the Palestinians. And so, of course, he's going to regurgitate with the far right members of the Israeli government want and simply say that this deal is terrible.

But before we get to his statement, I think it's worth reading what Donald Trump had to say about the ceasefire deal and how he took credit for it. He says this epic ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our historic victory in November, as it's signed to the entire world that my administration would seek peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans and our allies. I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones. Further, Trump wrote, and this is all on truth social, we have achieved so much without even being in the White House. Just Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House,

and my administration is fully confirmed so they can secure more victories for the United States. So Donald Trump obviously was in a very celebratory mood yesterday as he was commenting about the ceasefire deal, which yesterday appeared was going to go through. But the Prime Minister of Israel at the time even gave him credit for it. Let's take a look at what he posted on social media. So, of course, this is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He spoke, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this evening with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and thanked him for his assistance in advancing the release of the hostages and for helping Israel bring an end to the suffering of dozens of hostages and their families.

Now, again, that was posted on January 15th. Today is January 16th. And today, word got out that Israel has not agreed to the ceasefire deal. So again, that update is incredibly important. But putting that aside for now, let's just get to what Senator Tom Cotton had to say about the ceasefire deal. Apparently, he doesn't want an end to this war. He wrote, why is lame duck Joe Biden trying to cram down a bad deal on Israel on his way out the door? The only deal should be unconditional surrender by Hamas, which is already nearly destroyed and

return of all hostages. Instead, we hear reports that Biden is demanding that Israel withdraw from key terrain in Gaza, release dozens of hardened terrorists for everyone hostage, and get back only some hostages? Here's the deal to offer Hamas and its patron Iran. You have five days to release all the hostages or we unleash hell. Okay, tough guy. So clearly, Senator Cotton didn't get the memo from the incoming administration because again, they were the ones celebrating it. And look, to Trump's credit, he doesn't want to deal with this war when he comes in. He has other things he wants to focus on and he wants the war to come to an end, which is why he's been pushing for a ceasefire deal even before he even enters office. And look,

if you're unfamiliar with Tom Cotton, he is a rabid neocon. He is a symbol of the old guard within the Republican Party. He's really no different from Liz Cheney. And I think it's important for people to realize that certainly the MAGA base that doesn't really agree with the neoconservatism of the Republican Party in years past, they should know that Tom Cotton is no different. Maybe Tom Cotton isn't willing to do what Liz Cheney did in speaking out against Donald Trump.

But when it comes to the foreign policies that a portion of the MAGA base absolutely, despises, well, Senator Tom Cotton is very much in favor of those policies. And if you don't believe me, we have a nice little video compilation to help you see what I'm talking about. First of all, food and water cut off a humanitarian crisis and destruction there. Shannon, as far as I'm concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza. Why does Israel have a responsibility provide aid to Gaza? Israel was the victim of an unprovoked vicious attack on October 7th. Why should they provided aid to the aggressor nation, or aggressor, Gaza's not a nation, to the aggressors on October 7th. We didn't provide aid to Germany and Japan during World War II.

If they glued their hands to a car or the pavement, well, probably pretty painful to have their skin ripped off. But I think that's the way we'd handle in Arkansas. And I've encouraged most people anywhere that get stuck behind criminals like this who are trying to block traffic to take matters in their own hands. There's only usually a few of them. And there's a lot of people being inconvenience. It's time to put an end to this nonsense. Oh, that's interesting. So, you know, Cotton asked an interesting question in that compilation video we just showed you, including why is it, why is it Israel's obligation or responsibility to provide funding or relief to the Palestinian people in Gaza? Okay, well, why is it the responsibility of American citizens

to bankroll the slaughter that the Israeli defense forces are currently carrying out in the Gaza Strip, because we are the ones funding it. Okay, while our own country falls apart, while our own people are suffering within the borders of our own country, our government has been shelling out our resources to a foreign country that had an economic surplus in 2021. When was the last time we had an economic surplus? us. Oh, that's right. That was in 2001. Our country falls apart and people like Senator Tom Cotton collect our money and ship it over to a foreign country that's literally using it to

carry out war crimes as we speak. That's who Tom Cotton is. Tom Cotton is neoconservatism personified. That's who he is. And I'm curious, now that, you know, it's the words out there, The Donald Trump is the one who was pushing for the ceasefire deal, who was applying pressure to both Hamas and the Israelis to accept the deal. Does Tom Cotton still disagree with the ceasefire? And if he does, he should voice that specifically to Donald Trump publicly so we can be amused by it. Now, if you're wondering, what's motivating Tom Cotton? Does he have some weird devotion to a foreign country when he should be more concerned about his own country and the people within it?

Not really, but money talks, or as my dad would say, the cash is talking. So take a look at this. Of the non-dark money that's been contributed to him, The Israel Lobby has contributed $237,739 to Senator Cotton's campaign coffers. Money talks. But again, I'm sure that's not all the money he's received from the Israel lobby because dark money donations still serve as a massive corrupting virus in our political system. So I'm sure he's collected more money than that.

And so he will go out there, embarrass himself, and say disgusting things about how innocent people deserve to have their tiny strip of land blown up to smithereens. Okay. Now, according to Open Secrets, Cotton has taken that money. But let's also talk a little more about one of the claims in Tom Cotton's post because he stated that Hamas is nearly destroyed. And guess what? That is untrue. That is very untrue. I know it sounds super counterintuitive, but by carrying out a brutal slaughtering campaign like the one the Israeli government and the IDF forces have, what ends up happening is it drums up more support for Hamas. And that appears to be the case here. I mean, look, here at TYT, we've got no love for Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. He's one of my least favorite figures within the Biden administration. But even he admitted. something really important recently, and you should listen to it. We've long made the point to the Israeli government that Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone, that without a clear alternative, a post-conflict plan, and a credible political horizon for the Palestinians, Hamas, or something just as important and dangerous, will grow back. That's exactly what's happened in northern Gaza since October 7th. Each time Israel completes its

military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and reemerge, because there's nothing else to fill the void. Indeed, we assess that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it is lost. You want to know why that happens? When a government, when a military slaughters all of your family members, when they bomb your home, when they give you nothing to live for, you want revenge. And you join Hamas in seeking revenge. What Israel has done has served as a major recruiting tool for Hamas. I think that's been abundantly clear. I mean, so much so that Anthony Blinken, of all people, is admitting it. And the United States has completely failed to stop Israel from creating even more instability and extremism in the region.

So let's dive into a piece by Professor of Political Science, Robert A. Pape. He wrote an incredible piece in foreign affairs. I highly recommend you guys read all of it. We'll talk a little bit about the highlights. But it's titled Hamas is winning why Israel's failing strategy makes its enemy stronger. And so here are the relevant excerpts that I think you should know about. For a terrorist or insurgent group, the key source of power is not the size of its current generation of fighters, but its potential to gain supporters from the local community in the future. Following the U.S. occupation of Iraq in 2003, the number of fighters in the Sunni insurgency grew from 5,000 in the spring of 2004 to 20,000 by the fall.

all of that same year to 30,000 in February of 2007, according to U.S. estimates, the more people the United States killed, the faster the insurgency grew. So I think that that parallel, that example that Pape provided is an important one to talk about, to focus on, because it shows you just how counterproductive it is to carry out a brutal war that shows absolutely no concern for civilian lives. If you're brutalizing civilians, if you're slaughtering civilians, if you're wiping out every family member or most family members, people who remain are going to become radicalized against the government and against the military that carried out these attacks. I mean, think about it. Again, when you give

people nothing to live for, well, you've created a situation in which they are the perfect targets for recruitment for extremist groups. And so Pape notes that support for Hamas has only grown due to the way that Israel has prosecuted this war. And he is correct about that. Political support for Hamas has grown, especially compared with its competitors. For instance, although Hamas and its main rival, Thata, enjoyed roughly equivalent levels of support in June 23, by June of 2024, twice as many Palestinian supported Hamas, 40% compared with 20% for Fata. And that might seem, again, contradictory.

It might seem like, well, why would anyone want to join, you know, this group that carried out a brutal assault, brutal murders of innocent civilians on the Israeli side on October 7th, which then sparked the brutality and the carnage that's been carried out by the Israeli defense. forces in Gaza. Well, again, it's because they want to fight back. They want to retaliate after they've lost everything, their homes, their family members. All right, you guys get the picture. And Pape goes on to explain how Hamas distributes a massive amount of propaganda in order to gain support and recruit more fighters. And in a way, Israel has really helped them with this recruiting effort. The material centers on three themes. The Palestinian people

have no choice but to fight because Israel is bent on committing unspeakable atrocities against all Palestinians, even if they are not involved in military operations. By the way, that's just demonstrably true based on what we've witnessed over the last 15 months. Under Hamas's leadership, Palestinians can defeat Israel on the battlefield. That's a dubious claim. And those fighters who die in the battlefield will be accorded honor and glory. And all of this is to say that wanton slaughter will not eliminate Hamas. Every expert, including military experts, have made that clear. But Israel moves forward anyway, with the help, with the Biden administration, aiding and abetting that effort. And in fact, Cotton's statement was so extreme, going back to Senator Tom Cotton

and how he did not agree with the ceasefire deal, his statement was so extreme that some of the usual Israel cheerleaders like John Fetterman, Elise Daphonic, Brian Mast, or Richie Torres have not backed him on it. Okay, so instead, they have either celebrated the hostage deal or they've said nothing at all. And that's pretty incredible, especially when you're talking about Brian Mast, that's the guy who showed up to the halls of Congress wearing an IDF uniform, which I personally find disgusting. Okay. you're on U.S. soil, you're supposed to represent the American people and the American government. But okay, but that guy, Brian Mast, didn't even say anything negative about the ceasefire deal.

Sadly, it seems like Cotton will get his way after all, especially since Israel seems to, for the most part at the moment, reneged on this ceasefire deal as they have previously. But we will obviously follow the story closely and give you updates as they develop. For now, we got to take a break when we come back. We've got more news for you, including Joe Biden's fascinating farewell speech where he apparently didn't realize some of the things that he himself did during his own administration. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone? We've got one more segment before Wazni Lombray joins us for the second hour and the bonus episode for our members. So why don't we spend this time to discuss Biden's, in my opinion, mostly boring and then infuriating farewell address.

We need to get dark money. That's that hidden funding behind too many campaigns contributions. We need to get it out of our politics. We need to enact an 18 year time limit, term limit, time and term for the strongest ethnic reform and the strongest ethnic reforms for a Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from trading stock while they're in the Congress. Do we? Do we, Joe Biden, who's been in charge as president of the United States for the last four years. I don't remember him ever mentioning how we need to do something about dark money during his four years. As president, I don't recall him having any issues with members

of Congress trading individual stocks. But during his farewell address, all of a sudden he has this come to Jesus moment and realizes that corruption within our government is a problem. Now look, Biden has never been a great public speaker. I'm going to put that aside for now. Yes, there were lots of fumbles, there was a lot of stuttering. I'm not even going to go after him on that. I'm going to focus on the message that he's trying to put out there. Because I think the substance of his speech, while, you know, is true, the things he says are things I agree with. The fact of the matter is, these are things that he didn't fight for.

These are things that he himself is guilty of. This is something that affects the Democratic Party just as much as the Republican Party. And I can't stand the fact that he used his farewell address to signal to the world that he's some sort of warrior against money and politics and the corruption that has essentially upended our democracy ever since the Supreme Court loosened regulations pertaining to campaign finance. Now, the outgoing president decided to call out money in politics. He even went after the military industrial complex, which is hilarious, given... how much he supported the military industrial complex during his time in office. So look, in the clip that you just watched, he specifically talked about dark money. And I want to focus on dark money for a minute, because dark money is a problem. Dark money is when politicians are funded to the tune of millions of dollars in some cases.

And we don't know who the donors are. They don't have to disclose the donors when it comes to regulations essentially concealing. these dark money donors. And interestingly enough, sludge, fantastic publication that specifically focuses on corruption in politics, looked into dark money donors for the Kamala Harris campaign versus Donald Trump's campaign. Now look, I want to be clear, I'm not mentioning this as a way of providing cover for Trump because Trump took dark money as well. I've said on the show a million times that Donald Trump is a very transactional individual, and so you give him money, you do favors, he'll give you cookies. That's who Trump is. I'm not providing cover for him.

However, Sledge did a comparative analysis based on FEC filings to see, all right, well, which of the two candidates is raising the most when it comes to dark money? Take a look at this. The piece is titled Harris backed by 8.4 times more dark money than Trump. This was published by Donald Shaw, again, over at Sludge, if you want to check out this piece. But in it, he writes that Super PAC supporting Harris have raised at least $195.8 million from dark money groups this election cycle, while those backing Trump have raised at least $23.2 million, according to a sludge analysis of federal election commission data. Now, this was a report from last October. after the election, I remember sludge looking at the newest FEC filings, and Trump managed to close

that gap between him and Kamala Harris a little bit when it comes to dark money. But even in the end, Harris far outraged Trump, not only when it comes to dark money, but when it comes to campaign contributions in general. So in regard to money in politics overall, not just dark money, Democrats massively outraised Republicans. The Democrats, their Allied super PACs and other groups, raised about $2.9 billion with a B dollars versus about $1.8 billion for the Republicans. And so I just, now you're going to talk about the problem

with dark money Biden on your way out. You don't have a problem with it as the election cycle was underway, as Democrats, including the Democratic nominee, were collecting that dark money cash, you're just going to do a virtue signal that you don't even really believe yourself on your way out to try to clean up and launder your reputation.

It's just ridiculous to me. Now, look, Biden did a few good things during his term. He wasn't all bad. So I don't want to be completely unfair. His pick of Lena Khan as the chair of the FTC was something that I very much loved. and wish was still going to be the case under the Trump administration. But no, he's replacing her. The other thing that he did was he did beef up the National Labor Relations Board. So it was actually,

you know, friendly to labor and actually fought on behalf of workers who were trying to organize their workplace, fought on behalf of workers who are victimized by their employer engaging in wage theft. These are the good things that Biden did. But these good things were, really overshadowed by how he handled the war that Israel is prosecuting against Palestinians in Gaza. It was overshadowed by the fact that he didn't actually fight for many of the policies that he campaigned on, including reversing the corporate tax cuts that Donald Trump had implemented during his first term. And so I'm sorry, you want all of the glory, you want all of the credit without doing the work. And I get that some people expect me to come on

the show daily and provide cover for Democrats, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to tell the truth. So with that in mind, you know, let's get to the next clip where he talks about, and fear mongers about America becoming an oligarchy. An oligarchy. I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. This is a dangerous concert, and that's the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people. The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence. That literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.

People should be able to make as much as they can, but pay, play by the same rules, pay their fair share of taxes. So much is at stake. Now in this case, in regard to the oligarchy, the only thing that the Biden administration can point to is Lena Kahn and the fact that she fought to enforce antitrust regulations and prevent monopolies from forming. In that case, I do think that Biden has a leg to stand on. But let's talk about the issue of paying your fair share. Because the fact of the matter is, while Biden absolutely ran a campaign on reversing the corporate tax cuts that Donald Trump implemented during his first term, Biden didn't actually do that. And when he made his first offer, his first proposal to reverse the corporate tax cuts, he didn't start from a place of strength. And I think that was very much on purpose. So if you guys can recall, Trump cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Now, Obviously, keep in mind the effective tax rate when you consider deductions and corporate tax loopholes is far, far, far lower, which is why you have very successful companies like Amazon paying literally nothing in federal taxes some years. Okay, and that was, of course, after Trump's corporate tax cuts. Now, when Biden was running, he said he's going to reverse it. Once he gets elected, he's like, I propose that we don't raise the corporate tax rate back to 35%. I propose that we raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. And then he went and hit in a corner somewhere, never to be seen again, okay, and didn't actually fight to raise

the corporate tax rate to 28%. So which one is it, Biden? Are you worried about an oligarchy in America? Are you worried about too much corporate power? Are you worried about people not paying their fair share? Because if that was really something he was worried about, he would have actually fought to fix these issues during his time in office. But he didn't do that, did he? And he conveniently pointed to, you know, Joe Manchin or Kirsten Cinema as the bad cops. You know, Biden's the good cop. He's not going to fight for a damn thing. And when he gets backlash, he'll just point to the corporate Democrats who are ready and willing to raise their hands and say, no, no, we love corporate America. We love empowering the corporation.

the corporate greed. And we like moving closer and closer to an oligarchy. And so luckily, those two are no longer in the Senate. But that's actually what happened during Biden's term. And he can't launder his reputation when it comes to the lack of fight that we saw from Biden on these issues. All right. Now, finally, Biden wanted to also talk a little bit about the military industrial complex and also what he's referring to as the tech industrial complex. We see the same dangers of a concentration of technology, power, and wealth. You know, as farewell addressed, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military industrial complex. He warned us then about, and I quote, the potential for the disastrous

rise of misplaced power, end of quote. Six decades later, I'm weakly concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. I think the biggest issue I have with the tone of Biden's speech is he engaged in quite a bit of fearmongering that I don't appreciate.

So the Biden administration, the Democrats certainly had a lot more sway over social media and how censorious they were when they were ascendant, when they're leading. leading to the 2020 presidential election. And I disagree with the notion that these social media platforms have given up on fact-checking. That's not true. So look, I have all sorts of issues with Elon Musk. I have not been shy about that. And I actually think he is a massive hypocrite when it comes to the issue of free speech, especially after he banned people, suspended people who disagreed with him on H-1B visas on X.

So that's a good example of him being a hypocrite when it comes to free speech. However, I'm also going to give him credit where credit is due. And in this case, it has to do with community notes. Community notes has been pretty fantastic. And Facebook has decided to implement the same community notes type policy. And I was skeptical of community notes. I didn't think it was going to work out. I thought it was actually going to further misinformation, but that has not happened.

And so I like the idea of crowdsourcing these fact-checking mechanisms, and I do think that the best way to fight back against misinformation and disinformation is through more conversation. Because look, I used to be a little more in favor of censoring misinformation that could be harmful, especially during the time of COVID. But that actually did not help. Okay, we tried that out. It didn't help. And I do think community notes has been a better method in kind of cutting through the crap and figuring out what's going on. But overall, I mean, you want to talk about the military industrial complex? Biden, how much money have you collected from private military contractors?

How much of a role did they play in encouraging the Biden administration to continue aiding and abetting the slaughter that we're seeing in the Gaza Strip? How much have they persuaded the Biden administration to continue dragging out the war in Ukraine rather than pushing for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine? I mean, I think these are legitimate questions. And when you look at Biden's political record, I mean, put his presidency aside, Biden has signed on to all the wars. He was very much in favor of invading Iraq. And he's going to act as if he's any different from all the other politicians on both

sides of the political aisle who benefited and took money from the military industrial complex. Come on. I want to end with just an interesting Gallup survey. They surveyed Americans to see how they feel about the Biden administration now that it's coming to an end. And they found that the majority of Americans think the U.S. has lost ground in six areas over the past four years, including the federal debt at 67%, immigration at 64%. The gap between the wealthy and less well off at 60%. Okay, 60% of Americans believe the Biden administration has made no progress when it comes to wealth inequality, because guess what?

They're right, he didn't. And let me just read the rest of it when it comes to the economy, 59% say no progress during the Biden administration. And also the United States' position in the world, 58% believe that Biden made no progress on that, and also 51% feel that he made no progress on crime. By the way, during the same farewell address, Biden gave himself credit for lowering the crime rate. I'm just going to leave that there. Biden's net progress lags his three immediate predecessors significantly on national defense and the military immigration and taxes,

and is also worse than Obama's and Trump's on the federal debt, the gap between the wealthy and less well-off and trade relations with other countries. The only area in which Americans feel that Biden has actually made some progress or some progress was made during the Biden administration is the issue of gay, lesbian, and transgender rights. So 39% of respondents feel that there was progress made during the Biden administration. about 31% say, nah, we've remained stagnant on that issue, and only 23% say that the country lost ground during the Biden administration on these issues. And finally, about 4 and 10 Americans, 39% approve of the job Biden is doing as president, similar to the 37% he received in November

and his 41% rating in late October. So Biden can do with that information what he will. it seems like he lacks quite a bit of self-awareness, especially since even in this late date, he feels that he could have beaten Donald Trump in the general election. If that helps him sleep a night, great. Go ahead and believe that. But the American people think differently.

We got to take a break. Waz will join us when we come back. Don't miss it.