The Young Turks - Space Laser Focused

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

Mike Johnson bucks fellow Republicans, advances military aid bills. MTG adds a bizarre space laser amendment to military aid bills. Israel reportedly didn’t think a strike on Syria would escalate war. Blinken fails to act on reports of Israeli human rights abuses. Biden's administration undermines Palestine's effort to obtain U.N. member status." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA 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. All right, one of the young Turks, JQ Granite is paired with you guys. So amazing show ahead, lots of twists and turns as usual. Towards the end of the show, I don't want to say it, I don't want to say it. I'm going to agree a little bit with Matt Walsh. What?

Oh, outch, outch. Okay, and then we're going to pick signs between Ben Shapiro and Andrew Tate. It's not that hard this time around, in my opinion, but we'll see. Okay, so lots of crazy stuff going on today, including tons of, I mean, look, I hate to break it to you guys, but it turns out people in government sometimes don't tell the truth. A lot of people, I just came back from Washington, and there, they are shocked and chagrin by that fact, and don't quite believe it. But anyway, we have a lot of that, including unfortunately on President Biden today.

Anna. Well, I wanted to begin with the ongoing internal war with the House Republicans. And the supplemental funding bills for foreign wars keeps coming up over and over again. And Mike Johnson is a defiant individual because he's willing to go against, how dare you? How dare you? All right, let's just go to the video. I came in at the last second. Sorry. If I operated out of fear over a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job. I can make a selfish decision and do something that's different, but I'm doing here what I believe to be the right thing. I think providing lethal aid to Ukraine right now is critically important.

There you have it. House Speaker Mike Johnson makes it abundantly clear that he believes the right thing is to send lethal aid to Ukraine. And in the eyes of the House Speaker, he's also willing to defy members of his own party in order to secure tens of billions of dollars in American taxpayer money for wars abroad. So this isn't just about Ukraine, although Ukraine tends to be the main sticking point between Republicans in the House. Now here's what Mike Johnson plans to do in order to get war funding and military aid to Israel, to Ukraine, and also provide some funding for other foreign, you know, I guess agenda items that the Congress has in mind.

He plans to do this through four separate business. bills, one each for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, along with one containing many Republican priorities, including a ban or forced sale of TikTok in the United States. Now the bills taken together, according to CNN, also add up to about $95 billion in aid, the same amount the Senate bill included with an adjustment that 10 billion in Ukraine economic assistance is in the form of a payable loan. And if you're wondering how that came to be, Donald Trump actually had a lot to do with it. Now, the loan structure around aid resulted from Mike Johnson meeting with Donald Trump

back in February. And Trump made it clear to him, he feels that some of this age should be in the form of a loan. Clearly, Mike Johnson obliged. And as a result of that, Trump promised to defend him and root for him, should other Republicans in the House try to oust him from from the speakership role. Now those loans are through approximately 7.9 billion in economic assistance to Ukraine, and another 1.6 billion in assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia, requiring the president

to strike an agreement with Kiv to repay the funding. The administration could cancel the debt though, if they choose to, according to a source familiar. So there is a loophole as it pertains to that loan. If the White House decides, ah, just forgive it. they have that option to do so. Now, some Republican lawmakers are absolutely furious about this. And it again, mostly has to do with the fact that there's a Ukraine funding involved in this effort. For instance, the bill would send $61 billion to Ukraine and regional partners,

$23 billion of which will go to replenishing U.S. stockpiles. It will also include $26 billion to Israel. I'm going to pause to really emphasize that. Remember, the Biden administration, had asked for $14 billion. This bill asks for $26 billion to Israel and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific, according to a release from the House Appropriations Committee. Some Republican lawmakers understandably furious about this considering the fact that they don't want to send more U.S. taxpayer money to efforts abroad. Let's watch. It's disappointing. I won't support it. It's disappointing. It's completely detached from what base wants, what our voters want.

Well, go ahead, move it. I mean, I'm a voting no. I've only no. I've never voted to give any money to Ukraine, and I'm not going to do it today. I'm absolutely disappointed. I don't know how long people are going to tolerate this, because he's doing nothing but serving the Democrats. So you have Republican congressmen and Congress members, including Thomas Massey, and as you just heard, Marjorie Taylor Green, who are considering ousting Mike Johnson from his speakership role as a result of, you know, being willing to propose legislation that the

House can vote on. But if that happens, there is some possibility that Democrats could save Mike Johnson. We'll get to that in just a moment. But one other note I wanted to make, apparently things got real heated on the House floor today with this conflict involving the two factions of the Republican Party. So NBC reporter Julie Circon wrote on X that a group of hardliners were trying to pressure Johnson to only put Israel aid on the floor and hold Ukraine aid until the Senate passes the border bill, HR2, the hardliner border bill. Johnson said he couldn't do it. And Van Orden, a Republican congressman, called him tubby and vowed to bring on the MTV. Okay, all right, buddy. I have no idea what any of that means. But okay, all right,

Guys, this is such a telling story about American politics, let alone what's happening with these aid packages. So we've told you about a billion times that there's really only one party. And so yeah, there's the hard right, which is now gone rogue, and yeah, there's progressives and they pipe up from time to time, but the donors control everything. And so I was just in Washington, they find that idea absolutely scandalous, scandalous, right? Now, you want to know, say, well, but we told you guys, this $14 billion was always going to get through. There's no question about it.

There's 0% chance that it wouldn't go through because both the Republicans and the Democrats are completely bought. So now, though, I have to confess, I am a little surprised that it went from 14 to 26. Okay. Now, why are these crooks? I mean, politicians doing this. You want to know who Mike Johnson's top donor is? APEC. Do you want to know who Joe Biden's top donor is?

APEC. Do you want to know who Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, who's now backing this play, who his top donor is? APEC. I haven't seen that mentioned in a single article about this bill. Are you kidding me? You don't think that they care about their top donor? You don't think that Akeem Jeffries gives about $330,000 that he's gotten from APEC. Joe Biden doesn't care about $11.2 million that he's gotten from APEC.

No, APEC ordered them to pass this bill and add $12 billion to it, so they're going to do it. So all of a sudden, now look, I know I break your heart all the time if you're a Democrat and you thought these guys were angels, right? But you tell me, all of a sudden, the entire Democratic Party rallies to Mike Johnson's defense, I was led to believe by the Democrats that he was a radical evangelical Christian nut job, Trump supporter election. deny he was just in Marlago the other day and everybody's saying oh what a terrible guy no way we're gonna help this guy and all of a sudden the magic word Israelist uttered and they said oh Mike please please we'll help you it every way so now basically every Democrat not no they's almost every Democrat some progressors will probably vote against it but almost every Democrat

pledges fealty to Mike Johnson on this vote and they say it doesn't matter if he doesn't get Republicans because the Democrats are going to back him and at this point there's a bigger a rebellion in the Republican Party on Israel than there is in the Democratic Party. That's true. And Joe Biden, who remember all the finger wagging, all the finger wagging, oh, we were supposed to give him credit because oh my God, he's really concerned about Palestinian rights. So in the middle of this slaughter, he's demanding that Israel get $26 million. So useless. I just want to be very clear, there are, there is maybe one Republican who doesn't want to send any money to Israel. I think the sticking point actually isn't Israel at all for the Republican Party.

It's Ukraine. They don't want to send money to Ukraine. No, no, I, Anna, I get it. And that is a really important point. And so you're right that Republicans are like almost as big as sellouts as the Democrats are. But what they're, but honestly, guys, hey, let's say we give Thomas Massey and maybe a couple other Republicans credit for voting no. And we can debate where the progressives are going to vote no more and should get more credit. And I'd love it.

Yes, great. Give progressives more credit, right? But either way, guys, you see 90% of Washington, all they're talking about caring about Palestinians, it's not just a joke. It's a lie. And that's what really hurts people's feelings. But it's a lie. They're in the middle of the slaughter. They're in the middle of starvation. And they haven't listened to a word we've said. Every time Biden says, please do this, Nanyahu slaps him across the face. And now his reward is going to be $26 billion. So that's who these politicians are. They serve the donors 100% and you guys, 0%. That's the reality of politics. Now, Jake Tapper asked Mike Johnson, whether he's expecting or relying on Democrats in Congress to swoop right in and save him in his speakership role, should a Republican call for a vote of no confidence? Let's see how that conversation went down. Are you going to have to rely on Democrats to pass the rule in order to bring these bills to the floor and also the legislation itself? Well, I hope not. I hope that our Republican colleagues will stand together, stick together on this.

Look, everybody can grumble about details of the legislation, what are mine, my friends, and everybody you just showed are all good friends. Listen, we're not going to get 100% of what we want right now because we have the smallest majority in history, and we only have the majority in one chamber. The Republicans run the House. We have the small majority in the House. The Democrats are in charge of the Senate and the White House. So by definition, we won't get everything we want, but we got a great product here at the end, much better. than the alternative that came in the Senate supplemental. And now everybody gets to vote their conscience, up or down. So that was actually a pretty masterful way of not answering the question.

He didn't answer the question, he didn't want to admit that he would need to rely on Democrats to save him in his speakership role. However, there is division among Democrats in regard to whether or not it would make sense to help Mike Johnson. Now you have the so-called institutionalists, as CNN likes to labor. people then who say that voting against a motion to vacate could actually prevent the House from devolving into chaos months before a presidential election, I just, hold on, hold on for a second. If the Republican conflict within the House of Representatives devolves into

chaos, who would pay the price for that, number one? And then why are Democrats in the House concerned about chaos? Are they worried that they wouldn't be able to pass legislation? Like, what do they have on their agenda? What are you guys trying to get done in the House of Representatives right now? Seriously, though. Like literally nothing, literally nothing. We've seen a lot of hearings. We've seen a lot of non-binding resolutions being voted on. We've seen all sorts of stuff like that. But have we seen actual legislation that your constituents have been asking for? But let me let me be clear. So are they trying to pass anything that was in their Democratic agenda that they stated. That's zero, nothing. They're not even trying, okay?

So in the Senate, Bernie proposes some things, God bless. Today, the House Progressive Caucus proposed some things. Great, we'll get to. But are the, is the Democratic Party in the House proposing any bills and trying to pass them? The answer is absolutely not. The only bills that they are supporting are defense contractor bills. And in specific, Israel must get the money. There is no ends up or butts. So if it means that we're, we're not, we're We give a giant gift to the Republicans and help them maintain order for no reason at all. And once they, by the way, have maintained that order and Speaker Johnson has then cemented, they can then pass other bills that are Republican bills.

And in fact, they say they're going to, they're going to pass a draconian border bill once they're united under Mike Johnson. And Hakeem Jeffries and Joe Biden goes, bravo, bravo, get united Republicans as long as Israel gets the money. Keep it real, guys. What do you want me to do? lie to you? Look, I've just been in endless debates about Israel. And no one, no one could ever answer the question of, do you really believe that APAC spending $100 million in this next election cycle as they have promised is not affecting these politicians? You would have to be, like no one, even the dentist praeters, no one can say with a straight face, no, I don't think

that affects the politicians. So that's what's happening here. You're getting sold out. They're going to take money out of your pocket. They're going to take your taxpayer money. And they're going to give it to a very rich country that has universal health care, paid family leave, all the things we don't have. And with a specific purpose of killing more Palestinians. So the Democrats like Joe Biden are giant liars. And go ahead. Go help Mike Johnson. Go help the Republicans.

Because that's what Joe Biden does every single time. I've covered him now my entire life. And every time the Republicans need him, Joe Biden writes to the rescue. Yeah, Joe Biden is backing Mike Johnson 100%. And then the progressives in the House disagree with the more corporate wing of the Democratic Party, the so-called institutionalists who are worried about things devolving into chaos. The progressives say, no, helping Mike Johnson could ultimately undermine the Republican Party with its base, which already may be less than enthusiastic about showing up at the polls in November.

So, I mean, I don't think they're not enthusiastic about showing up to the polls in November, but I do agree that it, look, if we're just purely talking about Democrat versus Republican politics, the idea that it would be good for Democrats to help the Republicans look good by preventing them from devolving into chaos is insane to me. That doesn't make much sense. But that's what's going on currently. They haven't voted on the separate bills yet. So we'll see how that all plays out. But there is a civil war brewing within the Republican Party in the House of Representatives, and it is really fascinating to see it. Yeah, I'm gonna say one last thing here, because I personally take a lot of grief from people in Washington.

They say, well, if you're not kissing the ass of the Democratic leadership, then you're trying to help Republicans, you're trying to help Trump. So everyone in Washington, what happened now? I don't want to help the Republicans. I think they should devolve into chaos so they can't pass any of these harmful bills. And I actually believe in the Democratic agenda. And who's selling out the Democratic agenda? Oh, right, the Democratic leaders.

Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden are all uniting to help Mike Johnson, a radical right winger, and the entire Republican Party in the House, cement their power so they could pass bills for Ukraine and Israel and whatever other Republicans bill they'd like. So who's helping Republicans now? Now, definitively, as always, Joe Biden and the establishment Democrats. because I can't, I can't believe she did, she did it, she did it. It's real, it's not fake, I swear, so Marjorie Taylor Green has proposed an amendment to the foreign military aid funding bills and, well, she's calling for space lasers.

Oh, come on after all this. But I'm not kidding, I know, it sounds like a joke, right? It sounds like, oh, look at these lefties, they're just dunking on a Republican. There's no way she would. No, she did it. We've got the receipt. So let's take a look at a screenshot of the bill or the amendment to the bill itself. Offered by Mrs. Green of Georgia, by the funds made available by this act, such sums as necessary shall be used for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border.

Do Jews have to run it or is it optional? No, I guess she's jealous of the alleged Jewish space lasers that she had warned about years ago. and she wants America to have its own space lasers. Yeah, this feels like a crocodile Dundee moment. It's so crazy. You want to see a space laser. This is a space laser. Okay, so anyways, look, I'm in unfamiliar rounds here

because I agree with Marjorie Taylor Green's motion to vacate for Mike Johnson. Oh, I hope she succeeds. I hope that the Republicans have another vote that they can't get out of. I hope there is no speaker on the Republican side. I hope they don't pass a single bill going forward. including massive defense contractor bills and Israel genocide bills, et cetera. So go Marjorie Taylor Green on that.

And on the space lasers, yeah, you're not so. I don't know what it means to build space lasers for the border. There were no, remember the original thing she got in trouble for was Jewish space lasers burning down forests on purpose. Okay, so I don't know if we're burning down the border or if these space lasers do something else. Why would Jewish people want to, all right, I'm not, I'm asking questions in regard to statements that don't make any sense, so I'm just not going to ask questions.

There are other amendments as well. So there's an amendment to the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act in which Marjorie Taylor Green offered the amendment that states any member of Congress who votes in favor of this act shall be required to conscript in the Ukrainian army or military. Okay, well, that's a fun idea. I actually think that is kind of interesting. So now it's not going to go anywhere. Let me be clear about it. And it really, it's, the problem is But it doesn't quite make sense because if we're sending American troops, then I would agree with the bill and say, yeah, you first, right? Because I hear a lot of Yahoo's online who are like, when I say, hey, I don't want to go

to war with Iran and America, shouldn't send any troops or money, et cetera. But we go, we should definitely go to war with Iran. It's gonna be easy. We're gonna be greater as liberators, okay? All right, great, my answer to them is you first. You go first and then we'll follow right. And it's the same thing I say to guys who try to convince you to do suicide bombings. You first.

You put on the suicide belt and then maybe I'll follow afterwards. Good luck to your brother, okay? So I'm not getting involved in that. But Ukraine's fighting against Russia, us getting conscripted just for sending money. I'm not sure that that makes sense. But also notice, there was no similar language for Israel. So on Ukraine, oh no way, we don't want to give that money. Defense contracts, blah blah blah, blah, deep state.

Israel, oh yeah, right away, right away. What happened tough guy, Marjorie Taylor Green? To be fair, I mean, she has spoken out against sending money to either war effort, right? So you decide how you feel about that. But just to give you a little more context and information about the amendments that she proposed, according to Mediaite, this was just the latest in a long string of amendments Green has filed for the Ukraine bill that have an extremely dubious chance of passage. They're not going to pass, including placing conditions like requiring Ukraine to provide assistance

to build a wall on the United States southern border, demanding President Vlodomir Zalern. Lensky resign, paying for any funding from the salaries of any member of Congress who voted for the bill, demanding Joe Biden withdraw the U.S. from NATO, and demanding Ukraine ban abortion. What in the world? You want to keep giving her credit? No, okay. But look, guys, if, you know, her pointing out some of these things at the top there in terms of, like, build a wall in a help build a wall in the United States. I understand the political play there, so she's saying to her base, hey, if we're helping

them with all this money, why don't they come down and help us build our border wall so we can have defense. I get it. Again, note, not the same for Israel. Israel is a lot to have all the money. I mean, I, okay, maybe she's spoken out sometimes, but here she is. She keeps saying Ukraine, Ukraine, but never Israel. Okay, but when you get to, the Ukrainians should ban abortion? Okay, again, by the way, I'll also ask, should Israel ban abortion? What are we doing here? So, okay, bottom line is she's a goofball. She's playing up to her base, some portions which they'll like. And I think for even for her base at some point, somebody's going to go, what are we doing? You really want to spend money building space lasers? What are

space lasers? And what are we doing about abortion in Ukraine? What are you talking about? A lot of this stuff is of course total utter nonsense. So, but that's where we are where the establishment is on the side of let's screw over the American taxpayers, take all your money and send it to foreign countries, never do anything for you, not give you any of the things that those countries have, okay, but just take your money to help them. And the only people who are fighting back are like good progressives, wonderful and a couple of lunatics on the right.

It's strange bedfellows in strange, strange times. When we come back from the break, we'll give you some updates about the ongoing war in Gaza and also potential escalation with Iran. I can't wait to get to that story. So don't miss that. We've got that and more coming up. And we'll see you in a bit. Hi, my name is Aubrianna Snow. I'm a writer, researcher, and the host of Under the Mat, a Darker. History Podcast. Each episode dives into stories shaped by violence, power, and survival, not just the ones that made it into your high school textbook. I make this show because the past is still with us and how we tell it shapes what comes next. Exploring history in a good way helps us imagine a better future and honors those impacted by injustice. Listen now at under the matpod.com or wherever you get your

podcasts. All right, back on TYT, Jankan, Anna, with you guys. Also, Danil Aramev, Parasso and WMT, they just joined by hit the join button. We appreciate you guys and Chris Birch gifted five Youngtericks memberships. We do need it, we need to get to 100,000 members by the end of the year. We appreciate you guys, Anna. Let's get to some updates following the escalation with Iran. On an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building belonging to Iran's embassy in Damascus, according to Iranian state media.

Iran's revolutionary guard said one of their senior commanders was among the dead. Israel's military didn't comment, but it's thought to regularly strike Iran-linked targets. And believe it or not, Israel was under the impression that conducting air strikes on, on an Iranian embassy in a foreign country, Syria, in a sovereign country, Syria was not a provocation or an escalation of war. So they were shocked that Iran wanted to retaliate. And that's not based on my interpretation.

It's based on reporting from the New York Times. Let's take a look at their headline, which was, honestly, it takes a lot to shock me these days, but look at the subheadline. Israeli officials say they didn't see a strike on a high level Iranian target in Syria as a provocation, and did not give Washington a heads up about it until right before it happened. Yeah, Anna, I think that there's a potential second explanation here,

that this leak is total BS and that Israel knew that it was gonna be a major provocation, wanted it to be a major provocation, but pretended to the United States, oh golly gee, hitting Iran on basically Iranian soil because it's a consulate. I didn't know that was gonna be a big deal. And by the way, they note that they gave the Americans a heads up, but only minutes before the strike. And they said at that point, oh, we didn't know it was going to be a big deal. Well, why did you tell America? They flipped out.

America said, don't basically don't do it. They did it anyway. So I'm not sure that I believe that they're, it might be true. What Anna is, what New York Times is reporting, which is that they think they're so above the law that they get to hit foreign governments, anywhere they want, bomb, any country they want. That sounds plausible. I do think that. I actually have that interpretation of this. Yeah.

But remember that the second interpretation is enormously possible too. That there's a lot of BS to pretend to go, oops, did we start a World War III? Well, it doesn't matter. It was all an honest mistake. So America go fight it for us. I mean, Israel's been assassinating physicists in Iran. Yeah. Okay.

On their soil. But they don't admit it. That's the difference. Oh, okay. Oh, I wonder who it could be. I know, I know. Okay, but diplomatically, those things matter. I am bringing that up because Israel has been able to act with impunity.

So why wouldn't they think, yeah, yeah, we're gonna do a strike on an embassy in Syria, the Iranian embassy in Syria. That's not a provocation because they're used to acting with impunity. Let's keep it real. So, look, you're right. Both possibilities are possible, okay? But my interpretation was a little different. Let me give you more details about it.

So Israel also, again, did not let the United States know about the strike until moments before it was carried out. The U.S. was caught off guard. According to the Times, AIDS quickly alerted Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security advisor. John Feiner, the deputy national security advisor, Brett McGurk, Biden's Middle East coordinator, and others who saw the strike, saw that the strike could have serious consequences. A U.S. official said publicly, U.S. officials voiced support for Israel, but privately, they expressed anger that it would take such aggressive action against Iran without consulting Washington, particularly because of the fact that we have American troops in that area,

in the region, and they're concerned that when Iran retaliates, they might target members of our military. So they were concerned about that and it didn't give them enough time to prepare in order to protect our troops in the region and to ensure that defenses are bolstered for a potential backlash from Iran. Now, while the United States was informed about it at the very last moment, Israel had apparently been planning this attack for two months. A week before the attack on Iran's embassy, the Israeli War Cabinet approved the operation. Israel miscalculated and thought that Iran would not retaliate, and obviously they did. So Israeli defense records outlined the range of responses from Iran that the Israeli government expected, among them small-scale

attacks by proxies and a small-scale attack from Iran. None of the assessments predicted the ferocity of the Iranian response that actually occurred. And the ferocity was that no one was hurt, no buildings were damaged, and multiple countries got together to provide defense of Israel, you know, shooting down missiles, things like that. And by the way, as we had reported earlier this week, Iran made it clear that they were doing it to save face with the people in Iran, with their constituents with the people there. But at the same time, they didn't want to escalate this to a war, to a full-blown war. From the day of the strike, Iran vowed retaliation, publicly and through diplomatic channels, but it also sent messages privately that it did not

want outright war with Israel, and even less so with the United States, and it waited 12 days to attack. Yeah, I just wanted to say that's a second kind of right flag here. First of all, America doing the usual leak where they're like, you know, publicly, we're backing Israel 100%, and we're going to send them $26 billion to start this war. But I got news for you. Behind the scenes, we were levitt. Oof, the things that count are not the money, are not all of our public support, not the vetoes at the UN, not all the ways that we assist them.

But man, we wore out our finger wagging at them. And the second, third reason I'm skeptical about the leak is that they're like, well, I mean, Israel hit them and I guess that's not good. But look at the ferocity of Iran's attack. This was unexpected. I guess we're going to have to do something here because what a ferocious. just attack Iran did, which is totally out of line. Again, I might be over extrapolating here, guys,

but I'm giving you both sides. Either way, what difference does it make? Because America, you finger wagg all you like behind the scenes. You're going to help them attack Iran, and you know it. And you're going to drag us. Look, I gave Biden credit for saying I don't want to participate in offensive actions against Iran. So great, if he sticks with that, wonderful, okay? Facts matter, right?

but I'm not interested in their finger wagging behind the scenes. Okay, so I don't think the United States wants to assist Israel in doing more strikes against Iran or attacking Iran. And the reason why I say that is because it appears that the Biden administration has made a deal with the devil. And while Biden originally said that he was 100% against Israel doing a ground invasion into Rafa, were all, like at this point, over a million displaced Palestinians are in this tiny, tiny piece of land at the southern border with Egypt, this little area called Rafa, right? And so Israel conducting a ground operation there, attacking Rafa would obviously lead to many civilian casualties. And so Biden was totally against that until this Israel situation,

I'm sorry, the Iran escalation came up and it seems as though Biden is willing to allow Israel to do the ground invasion into Rafa as long as they don't do another strike in Israel, in Iran. And by the way, there is no guarantee that Netanyahu and that unhinged Israeli government wouldn't also continue doing strikes against Iran. So I think both things are going to happen. Yeah, so again, they're slightly different interpretation. But I understand exactly what Anna is saying.

And that, but look, first of all, even before I get to the other interpretation, look at what we're doing. The United States, which is now trying to rush $26 billion to Israel, is negotiating with Israel. How much are you going to disagree with us and defy us? Can you please just do one thing we asked for, not bomb Iran? Then of course, of course, sir, yes, Netanyahu, sir, of course you can invade Rafa and kill as many Palestinians as you like and do all the damage that I pretend to be against. because I, oh, hey, Michigan, I really care about Palestinian lives. Wink, Joe Biden, okay? Look, guys, you couldn't disagree with my style, and you can say you're mad at me,

but the proof's on the pudding. So now they're going to go obliterate Rafa, and Biden's given a green light to it. And after we send the $26 billion, do you think Netanyahu's going to be like, oh, to be fair, I made a promise to Biden. No, he's going to go out publicly. He's going to say, yeah, goddamn right, I did Raffa. God damn right, I bombed Iran. America, go, I order you. And what is, look, guys, be honest, has Biden ever, ever defied Netanyahu? No, I'm not interested in words. I'm not

interested in what he said in a phone call or any sternly written letters. Has he taken one dollar away from Israel? Has he done one thing that Israel disagrees with? No. So who's the boss here? Who's the boss? Obviously Netanyahu's the boss. So all this is just, They're going to do whatever they want. And by the way, look, even the Times is reporting that Israel seems pretty hell-bent on conducting retaliatory strikes against Iran after Iran did retaliatory strikes against Israel. And so Dana Stroll, who is a former top Middle East policy official at the Pentagon, says that the question now is how does Israel respond in a way to prevent Iran from rewriting the rules of the game

without provoking a new cycle of state-on-state violence. What do you mean rewriting the rules? Okay, let me just finish presenting this. So Israel is also likely, and this is according to Times reporting, apparently they've agreed, there's some sort of verbal agreement, I'm unsure, but Netanyahu has talked to Biden and has apparently agreed to avoid doing a strike until after Passover. Wow, what a big agreement.

So this giant agreement is, yes, you can devastate Rafa, kill as many Palestinians as you like. I'll send you $26 billion gift to do that. And then don't bomb Iran until your holiday is passed so that you guys can have fun in your holiday. Yep. And then you could bomb them and drag us into World War III. Passover ends on April 30th. Okay, so great. A giant war in the Middle East starts on in May.

And then what I'll hear from Democrats from here to the election is, no, jank, you have to pretend that Joe Biden cares about Palestinians because Trump is bad. Trump is bad, I know Trump is bad, I know Trump is bad. But don't tell me that you're gonna send him $26 billion for a further genocide and a giant war with almost no checks in it, and then tell me that I have to tell everyone, I have to lie to our audience and tell him, Joe Biden's a good guy who cares about Palestinians. He couldn't give a rat's ass about Palestinians. Hey, did the check clear, Joe?

I know you got 11.2 million so far from APEC. Are you getting more? Are you offended by that? I'm offended a lot more by a million starving Palestinians. Come on, man. I'm offended a lot more by 25,000 dead women and children. A stadium full of women and children already dead, killed by the IDF, with our money, with our money. And Joe Biden says, not enough.

I'll give you $26 million. Normally we give them $4 billion a year. Now we're going to give them 26 billion? You know what that is? That is a giant, that is the largest green light in history. Please, please keep going in exactly the direction that you're going. You don't give somebody $26 billion and then think that, oh, this is not a green light. It's definitely a green light for the giant war in the Middle East and for genocide of the Palestinians.

That's who Joe Biden is. Well, we've got some incredible reporting from both the Intercept and also ProPublica in regard to certain things that our federal government has just ignored, brushed aside in regard to Israel's conduct on Gaza. So we've got that and more coming up. Don't miss it. submit an expense report. You will. Customs saddles and dog training services are not within policy. What are you talking about? SAP Concur uses advanced AI to audit and automatically detect out of policy expenses. It's the breakthrough I needed to focus more on our future. These are my future expenses? Yes, and self-defense classes are out of policy. All need self-defense classes?

You will. For what? It's a big dog. SAP Concur helps your business move forward faster. Learn more at concur.com. All right back on CYT, Chancon, Anna, with you guys. Gabby Mathis and Jay Baumdragon, both gifted five Young Turks memberships. We appreciate you guys, Anna. Well, let's talk a little bit about what the Biden White House is totally aware of, but has decided to do nothing about it. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has chosen to ignore a special State Department

panel that has recommended disqualifying multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving American aid due to their human rights abuses. Now you would think that this has to do with the ongoing war on Gaza, but it actually does not. So let me give you the details based on the reporting from ProPublica. They write that the incidents under review mostly took place in the West Bank and occurred before Hamas' attacks on October 7th. So with that in mind, let's talk a little bit about what the incidents are and what this

State Department panel is. Remember, this is a State Department panel that has made this recommendation to the Secretary of State who has basically ignored it. So the incidents include reports of extrajudicial killings by the Israeli border. border police, an incident in which a battalion gagged, handcuffed, and left an elderly Palestinian-American man for dead, and an allegation that interrogators tortured and raped a teenager who had been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. So I looked into that last case a little more, because I wanted to learn more details.

And apparently, forum officials, like the State Department forum that investigated these cases actually got a tip from a Palestinian child welfare nonprofit. Then they decided to look into it to see if there was any merit behind the claims, any reality behind the claims that were being made. And they actually found some credible evidence that the teen had in fact been forced to confess to throwing Molotov cocktails in stones. And then as a result of that, the teenager was subjected to, and this is verbatim what the report said, subjected to both physical and sexual torture, including rape by an object. So the recommendations came from this special committee, the special forum that exists

within the state department, and it's known as the Israel-Lahey vetting forum. Now, the panel is made up of Middle East and Human Rights experts. It's named after the former Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont. He was the chief author of this legislation back in 1997 that requires the United States to cut off assistance to any foreign military that are credibly accused of flagrant human rights violations. And this has actually been used to deny military aid to other countries, including Mexico for instance.

And so recommendations for action against Israeli units were sent to Blinken, the Secretary of state in December, according to one person familiar with the memo, they've been sitting in his briefcase since then, another official said. Multiple state department officials, according to ProPublica, who have worked on Israeli relations said that Blinkin's inaction has undermined Biden's public criticism, sending a message to the Israelis that the administration was not willing to take serious steps. And you know, I want to pause for a second and there's this, I I would refer to it as a conspiracy theory, but now I'm starting to think maybe it's not. Usually the right wing spouts some stuff about how Biden's not really in charge.

That there are others in charge and Biden's just kind of like this dopey guy that's going along with things. And I'm wondering, you know, there is a disconnect between Joe Biden's statements in regard to Israel's conduct. And then you see what our state department decides to do. And I'm really wondering, is Biden in charge when it comes to making decisions in regard to Israel? Or is it Anthony Blinken? Well, okay, so that's a little bit complicated because the right wing, of course, as always takes things too far. And they're like, no, it's not Obama. It's actually, I'm sorry, it's not Biden. It's actually Obama. Or so I think some people even say Michelle Obama. And it's because she's a man. And she's like, guys, what are you doing? There's a very simple, I think there's a very simple answer, which is. And then they get into a whole deep state stuff. No, look, guys.

Every president has this giant infrastructure around them. And that infrastructure is basically the United States government and all of its accumulated policies and expertise and staff, et cetera. So when Trump comes in, yes, they do disagree with a lot of the things that Trump disagrees with that infrastructure in a lot of ways. That doesn't mean it's a deep state and that they're out to get them, et cetera. But they do have some U.S. policy that's already established. And it's kind of an engine that keeps going.

And the president comes in tweaks here, tweaks there. So is Biden in charge of all of those policies? Does he know all the policies? Not just in regards to Israel, but all the foreign countries, domestic policy, et cetera. No, what's amazing to me is how little the president's work. So you go back to even like historical stuff of like Richard Nixon is sitting there drinking all day long.

Like it's unbelievable how much he drank and how little work he did in relationship. to how much he was drinking, let alone Lyndon Johnson's drinking, let alone JFK being on yachts with women, et cetera. Then you get into modern times. And Obama played so much golf, it was stunning. And then Trump came in and played four times as much golf. He spent almost an entire year out of the four years playing golf. So the reason I tell you that, guys, is because the presidents are not, are only kind of in charge. They get to make the big decisions. They get to say, hey, go in this direction or that direction. But once the apparatus goes in a certain way, it wants to keep going in that way. So then the president has to fight them pretty hard to get that apparatus to turn

around, okay? Now he can if he wants to. But Trump, a lot of times they would get past them because he'd say something stupid. Like let's do have 10 times as many nukes, which would bankrupt the country. So the apparatus would just ignore him. And Trump would forget he said that. Right? In Biden's case, he's old. So he's like he loves Israel. I mean, not only just because of the money he's taken from them, but he genuinely like his whole 30, 40 straight years of saying how much he loves Israel, right? So even so he just screws up a little bit and goes, oh, the Palestinians, you know, it would be nice if they had to say, I don't remember what his slip ups are, right? But something that's nice about Palestinians because he's being asked

about it and he wants to seem nice, right? And then they have to reverse him and go, remember, we hate the Palestinians, we're going to greenline everything that Israel does. Okay, let me give a specific example, right? So while talking to his donors, Biden referred to Israel's conduct as indiscriminate bombing in Gaza. He says that, and then, you know, his State Department comes out and they walk it back, walk it back, walk it back, please, please, walk it back, walk it. So look, in the middle of your explanation, I realize, no, no, wait, hold on, there's the $11 million from APEC in this election cycle that Biden has taken. No, over the course of his career.

Oh, okay, but still, $11 million is no joke. And he's the number one recipient of APAC money in the United States Senate history. Okay, so he's just trying to placate Democratic voters who are furious with the U.S. supporting everything that Israel does. Of course. So that's what it really is. Okay, so I'm going back to my previous interpretation of this whole situation. Yeah, and I do want to comment on the 15-year-old boy being abused and all the special rules we have for Israel. So before we do, I wanted to give you a statement from Josh Paul.

If you're unfamiliar with him or if you forgot who he was, he was the State Department veteran who actually stepped down from his position over weapons transfers to Israel. And he makes a really good point here. He says, quote, if we had been applying Leahy effectively in Israel like we do in other countries, maybe you wouldn't have the IDF filming TikToks of their war crimes now because we have contributed to a culture of impunity. That's such a good point because that is an important. issue. I mean, IDF soldiers keep posting their war crimes on social media. And the reason

why they feel comfortable doing it is because they feel they can do so with impunity. Now, even if Anthony Blinken acted on the recommendations made by this panel, well, Israel does get additional special treatment. It's actually baked into the system, right? So yes, Blinken is totally ignoring these recommendations. But even if he took them into account, took them seriously, This is how the process would work specifically for Israel. So the forum is required to notify the government of Israel about the accusations they're making against them. Then if the forum agrees that there is credible evidence of a human rights violation, the issue goes to more senior officials, including some of the department's top diplomats who oversee the Middle East and arms transfers to the Middle East.

Then the recommendation can be sent to Blinken for final approval. So let's say in a perfect world where Blinken actually takes war crimes or human rights abuses that are done by Israel seriously, even if Blinken were to approve the sanctions, officials said, Israel could blunt their impact. One approach would be for the country to buy American arms with its own funds and give them to the units that had been sanctioned. Official said the symbolism of calling out Israeli units for misconduct would nonetheless be potent, marking a sign of disapproval of the civilian toll the war is taking. But even knowing this, Blinken is totally unwilling to act, totally unwilling to hold Israel accountable for the war crimes that are being committed. Not only in this war, right,

But the human rights abuses that the panel had found Israel to be guilty of in the West Bank. So Jake, this is a good time to weigh in on the 14 year old. Yeah. So every time I debate anyone on Israel, they'll say, yes, but how about Hamas atrocities, what they did to the elderly and the rape, etc. And I say, yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, I give them that voice because they make it sound like Hamas is so much worse than Israel. But wait, now Israel's killed 30 times of civilians. They have a worst civilian to combatant kill ratio. And it turns out there's rape of young Palestinian boys and terrible abuse of the elderly until they die.

Hmm. But Israel's angels, right? That's why they need special rules. So one of the special rules is we have to check with Israel before we sanction them. Guys, how is this not a joke? And by the way, how does this help? Look, maybe it's helping Israel in their far right wing government, but it is not helping Jewish people across the world.

Because when you constantly say, no, Israel is the only country that has special rules, what is that going to do? That's going to create tons of conspiracy theories. Oh yeah, here we go again, the one set of people who get special privileges, special rules. And then by the way, even then the state department goes, no, they're definitely guilty. And the Secretary of State goes, I don't care, I'm not going to do anything about it. And you think you're helping, again, Jewish Americans, Jews across the world, or even Israel. No, you just keep giving them the green light to do their worst excesses, the Israeli government, right?

And when you do that, it smears all Jews across the world. And it just, it's an albatross around Israel's neck, in my opinion, Jews across the world. And all we're doing is aiding and abetting the right-wing government of Israel as they drive everyone off a cliff. Both Israel, the Palestinians, and America. So Anthony Blinken, his job is to go, no, no, no, special rules for Israel. And then once we even get past those, double extra special rules. They will never be condemned. Sunen Yahoo kill anyone you like, genocide, anyone you like.

And by the way, as a thank you president, we're going to send you $26 billion. dollars. So of course you have a lawless anarch, like, guys, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. And right now the right wing government of Israel is corrupt up to its necks and has done all sorts of atrocities. And us aiding and abetting those atrocities doesn't help us or Israel. But nobody can see straight because Apex got that sweet, juicy money flowing to all of our corrupt crook politicians. They brag about how they're going to spend. $100 million in this election cycle. What do you think it's going to go for, the general welfare?

No, it's going to go to bribe people like Anthony Blinken, systematically and systemically. And Blinken is going to go, yes, sir, rape all the boys you like, sir. Yes, sir, yes. Killed the elderly, sir, yes, sir. Prove me wrong, Anthony Blinkin. What are you sitting on the report for? Go ahead.

What are you sitting on the report for? Your own State Department already said they're guilty. Yeah, that's what I thought. You're not going to release it because you're, you guys all work for APEC. Keep it real. All right. One other thing I wanted to get to before we go to break is some incredible reporting over at the Intercept.

Ken Clippenstein and gentleman with the last name Bogus Law, which I think is one of the best last names ever, wrote the piece. So let's get to the details on that. New reporting from the Intercept indicates that the Biden White House is quietly calling on UN Security Council nations to reject the Palestinian authorities application to become a full member of the international body. Now, doing so would mean that the UN would recognize Palestine as a state, something that Biden claims he's in favor of, but apparently not really. So according to the intercept, the United States is lobbying nations to reject

such membership, hoping to avoid an overt veto by Washington. The lobbying effort revealed in copies of unclassified state department cables obtained by the intercept is at odds with the Biden administration's pledge to fully support a two-state solution. So in 2012, the UN General Assembly did in fact pass a resolution granting Palestine the status of a non-member observer state. But let's keep it real. That's kind of like non-binding because it's the general UN. When in reality, the sausage gets made, the real decisions get made with the UN Security Council. Now, while clarifying that President Joe Biden has worked vigorously to support Palestinian aspirations for statehood within the context of a comprehensive peace that would resolve the

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a diplomatic cable dated April 12th, details US talking points against a UN vote for Palestinian statehood. The cable says that the Security Council members must be persuaded, must be persuaded to reject any proposal for Palestinian statehood, which would amount to its recognition as a sovereign nation. And we can't have that, we can't have that. Before the council's open debate on the Middle East, which is scheduled for today, April 18th. So it remains the US view that the most expeditious path toward a potential horizon for

the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors, the cable reads, we believe this approach can tangibly advance Palestinian goals in a meaningful and enduring way. We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of Palestine as a UN member state, should such a resolution, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks. Yep. So I'm going to tell you how Ecuador comes into play here in a second, because that part of the story is amazing and interesting. But first, to be fair, there's a couple of different

ways to get to a two-state solution. And so Biden could be in favor of doing it through negotiations, but not necessarily in favor of doing it through the United Nations. Right. And there's a third way, which actually is what Biden is pushing. And that is actually the most disingenuous. way. What they're pushing for is packs between Israel and other Arab nations not involving the Palestinians. And they say that that's going to get to peace. That's actually the exact opposite. What Israel did in the peace deal with Egypt is they got Egypt the biggest military in the region off the board and not helping the Palestinians. And so this same thing with the Abraham Accords. The idea was get UAE and some couple of other countries off the board so they're no long

attached to, hey, we're going to have bilateral relations if you get rid of the occupation. That is all the Arab countries one by one selling out the Palestinians and saying, don't worry about it. Let's just make money and who cares about the Palestinians. So when Biden says that that's the path to get them a state, that's just not true at all. It's the exact opposite path. So now, should the United States be in favor of giving the Palestinians a state through the United Nations? Of course. That's exactly how Israel did it. And remember at the time, Jewish folks in that area were about a third of the population and they got 55% of the land. And the UN just declared it. And America said, yes, wonderful, awesome. Of course, a third of the population should get more than half the land. And that's it. The Palestinians have no voice. They should shut up. And then the Nakbah happened where they drove thousands of Palestinian villages off of the land that used to be theirs.

So that is how Israel was formed. This would be way, way better. It wouldn't have the knock by, et cetera, it would just say Palestine is a state like any other state. They don't get to drive the Jews out of their villages, et cetera, as the happen in the creation of Israel. They don't get to do anything wrong or illegal. We're just, we're doing the same thing we did for Israel, but actually way more fair.

And this is the most important part, guys. So you could tell who's generally worried about terrorism and who's genuinely, and by the way, And by the way, I say that, but I say that towards the leaders, in terms of actual human beings, there are a lot of people who are actually worried about terrorism, 100%. And most Israelis actually think, oh, I'm worried about terrorism, I'm worried about my safety, et cetera. But for the leaders, they say they're worried about terrorism. Then they turn around and go, no, I don't want them to do it through diplomacy either. Okay, so you won't let them do it through peaceful actions.

You won't let them do it through diplomacy. You won't let them do it in the same exact way you did it. And then you, and you won't, and when they do violence, you go, dirty terrorists, we have to kill 33,000 of them. Wait, they're not the terrorists. They're this children and the moms and stuff. Who cares, kill them all because they're no good terrorists. They won't do anything peaceful.

But they're doing something peaceful right now. They're applying through the UN just like you guys did. Shut them up, America. And that's exactly what America is doing. This is the secret cable. That's now I get to Ecuador. So America then goes and writes to Ecuador and says, and says, remember that problem you had with Mexico and the embassy?

Well, I would hate for that to be a continuing problem for you if you don't help us convince Japan, Korea, and Malta in the Security Council to vote against the Palestinians. So those are the kind of dirty tricks our government is doing to help Israel behind the scenes by threatening other foreign governments. Now, why are they bothering to make all this secret? Isn't it super obvious that America is going to cheat on behalf of Israel every single time? No, Joe Biden has a problem in Michigan, and he's losing Arab and Muslim voters in America.

So all this is a secret because they want to be able to say, and the cable explains, we don't want to have to have America veto this, because that would embarrass Joe Biden, because he said he was for two states, and they would be the ones preventing two states. So Ecuador, pretend you're against it, so we don't have to use our veto. Right. Man, it's so shady. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we will discuss how Ilhan Omar's daughter got suspended from her university. It's a, it's a dozy of a story. Don't miss it. We've got that and more coming up.