The Young Turks - Tit-For-Tat - June 29, 2026

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

The U.S. and Iran restart and end fighting again over the weekend. Meanwhile Israel continues to break the ceasefire by launching additional strikes in Lebanon. If that wasn't enough, Israel is starting to egg Turkey on by weaponizing the Armenian Genocide. "Thanks to today's sponsors: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/tyt Get 40% OFF the Ground News Vantage Plan when you sign up at ground.news/tyt Stay informed without the media spin at ground.news/tyt Visit www.sleep.me/tyt to get up to $255 off your Chilipad 2.0 with code TYT Use less data, get paid by switching to Noble Mobile: https://go.tyt.com/getnoble " Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. I am one of Motenui on July 10th. Maui, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Tafiti. And here we go. The journey begins. See her light of the night.

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It's the same combo you love, just with more ways to enjoy it. So, whether you're snacking, sharing, or just treating yourself. Nothing else is Reese's. There are some problems here. Sorry, big time. I'm so upset. Oh my God. The Young Church, Janky, Granik is sparing with you guys. So lots of mixed news today. I'm still excited from last week where the revolution began in this country.

Those New York collections were monumentally important. We'll keep talking about them as the days and years go on here. And we have plenty of good news back. bad news and mixed news in today's rundown. We have great news from the Supreme Court. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the show, and that's really important for our elections. We have terrible news out of Lebanon, and that's the story that's got me most incensed. Israel's planning to, apparently, their lunatic fascist terrorist minds are planning to attack

Turkey, and that bothers me less than what they're doing in Lebanon. So- Well, Turkey, well, you think Iran is difficult. to defeat. Iran and Turkey? I mean, what are we doing? What are we doing? Yeah, we're listening to a bunch of lunatics because they've bribed all of our politicians and all of our media. But we're onto them. And that's why I'm excited about what happened last week, because for the first time they began to realize we've got them surrounded, okay? So we got to keep voting, keep voting all the bums out. Almost all the incumbent incumbents are monsters. They have experience and bribery, they have experience in betraying you, not just for Israel, but for every donor.

They betray you at every level. And the dirty, disgusting people that call themselves journalists in this country, their job is to hide that fact from you. But good news, we're about to expose it. Anna, let's get started. Oh, sorry, I'll get started. Let's watch this. Late Saturday, the US launched 10 new strikes on Iranian military targets in or near the

Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command said the strikes hit Iran's military infrastructure, air defense sites, and drone storage facilities. Iran retaliated by launching missiles and drones against U.S. facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. Bahrain's government shared these images of a residential building, it says, was damaged in that Iranian strike. So for a hot minute there over the weekend, it looked like the war had fully reengaged, bombing back and forth. Now there's talk of, oh, don't worry, we have yet another peace agreement. Do we? Anna tells us. No, we don't.

And I want to be clear with the audience so you guys understand what's going on. What the Trump administration is engaging in, and honestly, it befuddles me why Iran plays along with it, is market manipulation. So the kinetic warfare gets triggered over the weekend, okay, tit for tat bombings take place. And then as Monday approaches, both parties agree to halt fire, cease fire, right? And so it doesn't surprise me at all that, again, as we approached Monday morning when markets open, Trump agrees we're going to stop striking each other. Okay, but let's go over what happened over the weekend. Yeah, I just want to double down on what Anna said.

If it had nothing to do with the markets, the bombings wouldn't magically start during the weekend and end right as Monday comes long. Exactly. That's a stone cold fact. Now there could be other factors, but that's a massive factor, obviously. So obviously the United States has an interest in continuing the war. Iran should know that by now. So the question is, does Iran just allow the United States to do to Iran what the United States did to Gaza or aided and abetted Israel in doing to Gaza? Because what we're seeing here is a pattern very similar to the on again, off again, ceasefire nonsense as it pertain to Gaza. But with that in mind, let's get into these tip for tat strikes that took place over the weekend.

So it started with Tehran basically deciding to attack several vessels that were violating rules in the Strait of Hormuz. Now as we know, the MOU allows for the transit or passage of vessels through the strait for 60 days without a toll, but make no mistake about it, Iran has control of the Strait of Hormuz and rules that vessels have to abide by in order to safely pass through the strait. Now in this case, apparently there was the ever lovely vessel which Iran struck because it wasn't going through the approved path for transit through the strait. And so to make a point about the fact that Iran still has control of the Strait of Hormuz,

they decided to carry out some strikes against it. Now, during negotiations in Switzerland last week, the US delegation agreed with Iran to establish a so-called hotline between the US military and the IRGC in order to coordinate traffic in the strait. And wow, isn't this a surprise as of Saturday, actually as of today, that so-called hotline still hasn't been operational. And so does the MOU even mean anything? And honestly, at this point, I think it means nothing. The Trump administration isn't abiding by what they themselves have agreed upon in that agreement. And as of Saturday, and in response to Iran striking the

ever lovely vessel, Washington decided to do a retaliatory strike in the southern coast on June of Iran on June 27th. Later in the statement, U.S. Central Command announced that they had carried out additional strikes against Iran on Saturday. They say that after yesterday's U.S. strikes in response to the Iranian attack on the ever-lovely, Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement, but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack drone that hit Kaikku Kiku this morning at 4.30 a.m. Eastern time, the Panama-flagged tanker was transiting near the Strait of Hormuz with more than 2 million barrels of crude oil. I just want to pause for a second and acknowledge the fact that it is hilarious that

U.S. Central Command is accusing Iran of violating the ceasefire agreement. That is hilarious because the U.S. and Israel consistently violate the ceasefire agreement. Further, U.S. Central Command said that U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and mine layer capabilities. And even though Israel has violated this ceasefire by continuing its bombing and occupation of Lebanon, which let me just remind everybody, ending the war and ending Israel's occupation in Lebanon was part of the MOU. But none of that has ended. You have, you know, Trump accusing Iran of violating the ceasefire saying that the United States aircraft or United

States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, basically repeating what U.S. Central Command had said. Iran did confirm that a communications tower was hit, and Tehran retaliated early on Sunday morning, hitting U.S. bases in Bahrain and in Kuwait. The IRGC said that it targeted eight U.S. military installations at Ali al-Shallem airbase in Kuwait and the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain, destroying them and delivering a decisive response to the recent acts of U.S. aggression, they write. Now, another thing to keep in mind, Jank, is that it is very likely that following the destruction of U.S. military bases in these Gulf countries, the U.S. will probably end its presence

in these Gulf countries, and now there are talks about the U.S. building military bases in Israel instead. Now, later in a joint press conference, just one more point, with his Iraqi counterpart, Fáud Hussein, who's Iran's foreign minister, I'm sorry, with Fáud Hussein, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Arakshi said the following, the Strait of Hormuz will return to its pre-war operating conditions within 30 days under a management framework implemented by Iran. Any attempt to establish alternative arrangements or interfere would only complicate the situation and delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. So just to give you a sense of whether or not transit has gone back to pre-war levels, it has it, not even close. I believe

In the last 24 hours, about 44 vessels were able to transit safely through the straight. Chank back to you. So basically two reasons here that Anna stated. One is that there were tried to go through a non-approved route in the Strait of Hormuz. I want you to think about something important there. Like we have memorandum of understanding. There's absolutely no reason to go outside of it, especially for something as irrelevant, is going on a non-approved route.

Exactly. The approved routes are open. Why wouldn't you just use the approved route? So I don't know who made that decision if we had a fair and honest government, which we most certainly don't. Or journalists to look into it. They would investigate who made that decision because whoever that person is wanted to provoke hostilities.

So that's the only reason you'd go on a non-pre-approved route, right? And so there's only one country that constantly wants war and tries to provoke war, that's Israel. So very likely some Israeli assets said, hey, why don't we send a ship through an unconstitutional? approved route, daring Iran to either be cowards and do nothing, and that way you could violate the agreement all day long, or they bomb us, and great, then that drives America back into war, and mission accomplished, here we are. And then now the second part was, Iran keeps saying, and we keep ignoring because we're controlled and occupied by Israel, listen, part of the MOU,

the very first thing we mentioned is Lebanon. Israel has to not only stop attacking in Lebanon, which they absolutely refuse to do, but they have to withdraw from Lebanon. And Israel keeps attacking Lebanon and not withdrawing at all. So Iran's like, how many times do we have to tell you it's part of their agreement? And America goes, yeah, I know, but we're controlled by Israel so we can't do anything. Now, of course we can do something. We can cut their money. We can say, hey, we're going to take our military out.

But we won't. Why won't we? Because we're controlled and occupied by Israel. That's an obvious, obvious fact, unless you're a journalist in America. And you're like, what are facts? So yeah, I agree. Hey, if you're a so-called journalist and you're lying, you're actually a marketing executive for Israel, I have easy questions for you.

Is Israel in southern Lebanon? Is it part of the MOU that they need to withdraw from southern Lebanon? Has Israel now unequivocally stated over and over, including their prime minister, that they are not going to leave southern Lebanon? All those things are empirically true, okay? And so that is what is blocking the peace deal. But all of our so called reporters in this country act like, I don't think they were all Israeli assets, but they act like Israeli assets.

They sure do. They lie to you 24-7. I mean, when I started reading the NBC news story about this, I did a longer video over the weekend on it that you could check out on our YouTube channel. I read you parts of the NBC news story. They didn't get to the fact that Iran said that part of the reason that they bombed was because Israel wouldn't leave Lebanon. They didn't get to that until the 16th paragraph in the story.

Almost like they're trying to withhold that information or knowing that most people don't read the entirety of the article are unlikely to get to that information. 100%. So it gives the impression that Iran is the aggressor and just decided to carry out strikes for no reason at all. It doesn't give that impression. It literally stated that. So the headline, the framing, and all the beginning of the articles, Iran strikes

against America. Well, look at Iran being terrible and disgusted. Right? That's the whole beginning of the article. Once you read like a couple of pages in, you're like, oh, because the whole time I'm reading for it, yeah, did they do this randomly? Because if they just want to restart the war, they could just restart it. They don't need an excuse, right? So like why did they do the bombing? They won't explain it. They won't explain it. And finally, as we're on to like the literally, like I said, the 16th paragraph, they're like, oh, by the way, it's because of Israel. Okay, anyway, back to Iran's fault, Iran's fault.

Come on, come on. So now moving our bases to Israel, upside downside. So I get it, you know, all the people that house our bases, you know, Qatar, Bahrain. They'd be crazy to host our bases. They're like, wait, wait, wait. It's a liability for that. Yeah, they said, we thought we were gonna be safer if we had American bases. That's hilarious.

Now what you guys start a war, we get attacked, that makes us unsaid. But not that just that, you didn't even protect your own bases. They assumed we would protect our own bases. But no, we didn't. All we did was protect Israel. That's right. Because we're owned and occupied and governed and controlled by Israel. And if you don't like that, you don't like facts.

So that is why we didn't even protect our own soldiers. We were so obsessed with protecting Israel. So now the UAE and all the others go, well, okay, this is just an invitation for our countries to get bombed. So we don't want your stupid bases. So there goes all of our other allies. And Israel is thrilled. Of course they are. They're like, a wonderful.

Now you have no other allies. I want you to cut all your ties with Europe. You better get rid of your NATO alliance. By the way, the greatest military alliance in the history of the world. You gotta break that up because we're gonna attack Turkey in there in NATO. You're gonna get out of there. And now you have no allies left in the Middle East, okay? So now you bring your bases to me.

Now that's the second advantage for Israel. That's it, American bases are inside Israel. You owe us protection from here to eternity. You owe hundreds of billions of dollars more. You owe us more wars, et cetera. By the way, when our bases were in the Muslim countries, we didn't owe them squat. But I guarantee you all of American media will turn around on a dime and go, well, there's a military base in Israel.

You owe, you owe, you all bow your head to Israel. By the way, we're objective, are you? So right now, I would like the American people to be fully informed about what we are paying for in the Middle East. We are paying for everything that Israel is carrying out. That includes bombings and occupation in southern Lebanon, okay? And when I say occupation, I mean occupation. They're not planning on leaving it in fact, Marco Rubio, in a story that we'll cover later

on the show, brokered a deal between the Lebanese government and Israel that formalizes their permanent occupation of southern Lebanon. We'll get to that later. Just today, Basel Smutrich of Israel announced that he will be flooding. the West Bank with one million Israeli settlers. Okay, so their absolute brutalization of Palestinians and the West Bank continues with our weapons and our money. They're getting ready for war against not just Turkey, but also Egypt.

They are carrying out unspeakable atrocities still in the Gaza Strip. Okay, they're literally bombing tense with displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu continues to talk about how he intends to take over the whole of the Gaza Strip and make it part of Israel's territory. No more two state solution, that's done. There's no way it's ever gonna happen. In fact, he says, there is no room for two states between the river and the sea. In other words, he's saying Israel from the river to the sea.

Something that, by the way, when you had pro-Palestinian protesters chanting on college campuses, they were made out to be Nazis. They were, they were demonized by our media, by our politicians, by the very schools they paid exorbitant tuition fees to. We are, we are aiding and abetting a modern day Nazi regime. And I'm not saying that lightly, I don't go around calling people Nazis because I disagree with them politically. What else can you compare this to? The atrocities, the genocide, the mass slaughter campaigns, the land grabs, the land theft, the efforts to. the efforts to basically squash any inkling that there might be lasting peace.

That's what Israel is, guys. That's what Israel is. And by the way, so what's next? Trump announced and J.D. Vans confirmed that the U.S. will engage in talks with Iran tomorrow. That's Tuesday. They were originally supposed to take place in Switzerland. Now it appears that these so-called negotiations are going to take place in Doha, Qatar, of course. And so, Jane, I just, I don't know what Iran is doing.

I think they should have learned their lesson by now. If Israel wants a war, give them a war. Give them the war they want. Israel specifically. Stop attacking the Gulf countries, attack Israel. They want it. So give it to them. Give it to them now.

Otherwise, we're wasting our time. Right now, Israel and the US, they're like low on interceptors. You have them cornered and they're playing you. Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? I want this to end, and there are only two ways that it could end, Jank. Either the U.S. does the right thing. Let's all stop for laughter.

That's not going to happen. Okay, we're not going to end this. We're not going to stop supplying Israel with the weaponry they need to carry out their loathsome atrocities. Or Iran gives Israel a reason to stop. Yeah. Okay, so to Anna's point about from the river to the sea, this is how you could tell all of our reporters in this country aren't actually

reporters, they're paid to do Hussborough for a foreign country. Now that sounds like super harsh, right? And so a lot of people that are still are in the establishment or believe the lies of the establishment go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't say that. Okay, but wait a minute, when peace protesters said from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free, it's just a call for freedom, right? They said genocide of monsters, all of them did. Everyone in media did, it was wall-to-wall coverage, you all saw it with your own eyes, so you know I'm not making it up, right?

Now, when the prime minister of Israel, a person infinitely more powerful than a random peace protester, says from the river to the sea, and Israel's already voted to never allow Palestine, and they're flooding a million people into the West Bank, and they've bragged it, but yes, last week about taking 70% of Gaza and marching towards 100%. There is absolutely no question that the true genocidal monster is not just that in Yahoo, but the government of Israel that is actually doing from the river to the sea. And you will see now with your own eyes that that will not be reported in mainstream media at all. It's on video.

It's not in dispute, you could look it up. But it will never be talked about on cable news. Instead cable news will tell you that Israel is the victims. Victims, victims, victims. Yeah, they're always the victims. They're lying to you on purpose. They're bombing Syria too, by the way, I forgot that. Yeah.

And when the, so if any reporter pretended to be outraged by someone chanting from the river to the sea, but doesn't mention Nan Yao is saying from the river to the sea and clearly, in fact, obliterating the Palestinians, ethnically cleansing them, well then they're obvious propagandists for Israel. They're not in the news business. Their job isn't to deliver the news to you. Their job is to lie to you. So please, you've got to unplug from the Matrix and you've got to convince your parents and

your grandparents. Pull a plug from the TV set. Why would you voluntarily agree to poison your mind with propaganda for an evil fascist government or any government that is, and I wouldn't want them to do propaganda for the American government? But they're doing obvious, brazen, over the top propaganda for another government. government, come on, this is so obvious. Now the million people they're gonna flood into the West Bank.

Are supporters of Israel still pretending this is self-defense? Of course they are. I mean, no, come on, that's humiliating. You look so stupid and you look like an obvious liar if you're pretending this is self-defense. West Bank didn't attack you, and you've already destroyed the West Bank through your partitions and your land grabs, and now you're gonna put in all those people. Are you still pretending taking land in southern Lebanon and self-defense and saying you're never going to withdraw? You're never going to withdraw means you're taking land.

You are a fascist empire taking land everywhere you go. So I get it if you're a monstrous liar, otherwise known as a reporter in America, you love Israel. You love deceiving Americans into supporting Israel and getting robbed by Israel. But what, and the American government officials, what a bunch of disgusting, corrupt criminals that have betrayed this country to help and to steal money from us so they could genocide Christians and Muslims in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Bethlehem, in Nazareth. Everywhere. Everywhere.

And yet all those liars lie to you on purpose and go, no, no. Take your money, give me your money, give me your soldiers. Israel needs more genocide and more war. We're so sick of it. Okay, so I know a Jewish ally this morning for peace and he's a wonderful guy. That's why I never take it out on Jewish people. That's crazy talk. But on the other hand, if you're a Zionist, you're like, oh, yes, I love Israel's war crimes.

Well, then you're a piece of crap. I mean, Laura Lover over the weekend said that she absolutely loves what happened in Gaza. Of course, she's a monster. She's a Nazi. It's so obvious. She's like Dr. Mangala's experiment gone right. Okay, that's what Mangala wanted to create and he did. And there's actually some like, all right, anyway, I think, all right, I'll leave that part of it alone. Okay, guys, and what this person said was that they were so shaken by realizing the drones in Gaza were assassinating kits, head shots, chest shots,

killing kids over and over again on purpose. Yep. You know who murders kids? Nazis? Nazis do, fascists do, okay? And so I said, why do you think they're murdering the kids? That is such a level of evil that is so gratuitous. They say why, they say why.

And he said, because they're trying to end the next generation of Palestinians. They say it out loud, guys. They say it out loud. And we're forced to give our hard-earned money to these murderers. They say it out loud. These terrorists? Yeah. Okay, everything you ever heard about Muslim terrorists is actually projection.

It is. It's the Israeli terrorists that have been brutalizing the region, starting every war, taking land and our disgusting genocide enabler media, cheer led it all the way. Oh yeah, yeah, you should hate Muslims. I'm so worried about bigotry, but only against beloved Israel supporters. Everyone else go stupid Muslim, stupid terrorists. They're savages, they said, no, Israel is the savages, the terrorists and the fascists. So we're all gonna sit here and we're all gonna get our pocket picked.

And Marco Rubio and Trump and Biden and all those people are gonna come in and steal your money. They're gonna literally steal your money and they're gonna say, oh, I don't see Israel's genocides. Take Lebanon, take the West Bank, take Gaza Strip. Murder them, murder them with American people's money. It's a moral state on our country that I cannot bear. I cannot bear it. 100%. And so there are no bounds left anymore.

So, and all these ahoes who are like, why do you always talk about Israel? I don't know, because Israel just said today that they're gonna flood the West Bank with a million religious lunatics who are going to murder the Palestinians. Today in the news, Israel has conquered southern Lebanon and is never going to give it back. The reason we talk about it every day is because Israel does another monstrous war crime every single day and demands that we pay for it. And every day there's smug entitled assets on television and in Congress. Yes, there's Israeli assets literally working for Israel.

They all come in and a giant number of them, half of Washington is that. And they all come in and they go, you owe Israel. And if you don't give it to Israel, we're gonna destroy your life. by calling you an anti-Semite and ruining your career. You owe Israel. Well eventually. Every son of a bitch on TV. Yeah, eventually, believe me, we will give it to Israel.

Once the boomers are gone, and they know it. We gotta take a break, we'll be right back. Notes here, let's go to members. Pseudo Dragon says, tomorrow is my 40th, can I get a birthday? Shout out to help me mourn the passing of any pretense of youth. Well, it's a funny way of putting it, but happy birthday. We appreciate you, would love that you're a member, and we hope you have a member. We hope you have a great day.

Jack C.380 says, hello, TYT friends. Is everybody enjoying their climate change held? Yeah. Theater goddess says, ooh, that is a very nice color on Anna. Thank you. Suntin, Sottin says, love you, TYT and happy, happy Monday. Thrilled with all the DSA wins last week and more to come in Colorado. Would love for you all to have the winners on for an interview.

Team Joy, boy, go get them, TYT. Yes, we're looking to have some of those folks on. Yes, it's super important. I'm not in DSA and I still love the victories. Anyone defeating the status quo is a friend of mine. Weiss says, greetings TYAT fam, Yauza, let's go. And I agree with a ton of their policies, not all but a ton. Matrix Elmo on Twitch says, is Iran making money off the market?

I don't know, but I know Trump is. And probably every Israeli leader is probably going along with that manipulation because the robbery never ends. Xerox 6085 says, did Elizabeth actually make Pete Heggseth cry? I don't know about that. Matrix Elmo says, hi all TYT fam. It's so hot in Texas. Yeah, a lot of us are going through that. Love 18, what girl says, why can't we end the war with a fight to the death between the president and the Anatolia?

Well, the Ayatollah, second one's also injured. But Israel and Iran could have all the wars they like. That's a deal. No math dragon says pump and dump. All right, back on TYT, Jane Canada with you guys. These wonderful people sign up through tyt.com slash join. Absolute and Michelle 44. And guys, when you sign up through t.

t.com slash join, we read your comments sometimes in the middle of the stories, but certainly also during the ad breaks. If you're on the member stream through tyt.com slash join, you get our interactions instead of that. Okay, but let me tell you about something that if you're running your own business or your own shop,

you got to go to Shopify. So we tried a lot of others. Shopify is the best. That's what we use on shopTYT, and they've been fantastic for us. They handle all. All of the legwork that is so difficult to do on your own. So international shipping and a million other things.

And they got that purple shop pay button that makes checkout so much easier. That way you don't need your wallet with you. It's already got your information. So makes up now get a load of this. It's just $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash t. That's Shopify.com slash tyt. So if you're gonna open up a shop online, you've got to to do it through that. All right, now let's go to the next story. All right, what you're looking

out there is Israel bombing Lebanon after yet another ceasefire agreement, because Israel never, ever listens to a ceasefire. They bomb and kill people every single day because they're fascists who are looking to take the entire Middle East. They rob us of American money to do this kind of damage to other countries while pretending to fight terrorists. They are the terrorists. And you're seeing it with your own eyes. Now, the prime minister of Lebanon has betrayed his own country and made a disgustingly corrupt deal with the Israelis. And Anna's here to tell you about it. Well, we shouldn't be surprised by the Lebanese prime minister's acts considering the fact that he's a puppet of the United States and Israel. In fact, he has received counterterrorism training

here in the United States. And that tells you everything you need to know about where his loyalties lie. But nonetheless, this deal between Lebanon and Israel was brokered by Secretary of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and completely contradicts the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, which calls for the end of Israel's bombing campaign and occupation of southern Lebanon. That was signed by Trump. So why is Trump having his Secretary of State brokering a deal between the Lebanese government and Israel, which essentially contradicts the MOU? I don't know. Now, Israel is not part of the memorandum. of understanding, Israel wants the war against Iran to continue.

I think Iran should give Israel the war that they so desperately want, especially as they've opened up new theaters of war across the Middle East, including in Syria now, and would like to start a war with Turkey and Egypt as well. Now something tells me that this contradiction of the MOU was carried out on purpose. Now Daniel Levy, who is a former Israeli negotiator, did a really good job explaining the contradictions, but more importantly, explaining what this deal the Lebanese government signed really means for Lebanon. Take a look. What you now have is two agreements which Israel can play off against each other.

So you've got the MOU signed between the US and Iran, which Israel was not pleased with at all, as you well know. And then you had a different deal yesterday, the so-called trilateral agreement between the government of Lebanon, the government of Israel, hosted backed, overseen by the US. So the US is a party to both agreements. Israel is only a party to one. The government Lebanon is only a party to one. Iran's a party to the other one, to the MOU. And in the agreement signed by the government of Lebanon, Israel is allowed. Israel is endorsed in maintaining a security zone inside Lebanon. Israel can now say that according to the agreement signed with the government of Lebanon,

we can maintain our presence until certain conditions are met. And this is what they will argue. And this is just the reality of life. If you have an occupying army in another state, it can't remain static and unoperational. So it is going to carry out operations, and it is going to guarantee that there will be counter operations and resistance. That is an former Israeli negotiator. Did you catch that very last part? Because this is Israel's MO, not just in Lebanon, but across this region of the world.

They create terrorism and then justify their aggression against their own neighbors by saying, we're fighting the terrorists. And that is what they're going to be doing in southern Lebanon. The deal formalizes Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon. That's what this is, guys. That's what this is. This is not a peace deal. And immediately after it was signed, guess what Israel did? Continued bombing Lebanon.

Yep. So this is the biggest betrayal of a nation that I have seen in my lifetime. Yeah, definitely. Look, I'll tell you, I'm ethnically Turkish. I grew up there till I was eight years old, so obviously a family and friends in Turkey. And I know Turkish culture. If a leader of the Turks gave away an inch of Turkey, he wouldn't last a day, okay? There's no way, imagine a leader of Turkey says, oh, we'll give away southern Turkey.

They don't make it out the hour, man. They get dragged out of the palace within the hour, okay? And we're going to give away southern Turkey to Israel. Okay, now flip it to America. I know it's harder to imagine when it's not the Middle East. Imagine the president of the United States say, I gave away Texas and Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Florida to Israel, or to China or to Russia, to an enemy that invaded. Do they make it past the hour?

And if you resisted, by the way, I don't know. Honestly, America, I love this country. I love the American people, obviously. I'm shocked at how muted we are when it comes to violations of our own rights and our own civil liberties. But just consider this happening in our own context where Texas. is given away to a foreign country. If there was a resistance that consisted of Americans who are like, no, we do not accept

that deal, you know what you'd be called terrorists, just like Hezbollah. Absolutely. Just like Hezbollah, you'd be called terrorists. You know how you're proud of your Second Amendment rights? That would be, every one of you would be labeled a terrorist. If someone has occupied us like Israel has, and they decide to take our land, our disgusting politicians would probably hand it over happily to them. Totally.

And then if you fought back for your own home, for your own home, they'd call you a terrorist. That's what Israel does in the Middle East 24-7. Now let me do a quick summary of this deal to give you a sense of why I'm so enraged. So number one, Israel gets to keep southern Lebanon. Number two, they get to go anywhere inside Lebanon if they feel threatened by Hezbollah. And they feel threatened by everything. Everything, constantly, constantly, right? So that is carte blanche for Israel to bomb and attack and invade any part of Lebanon.

So what does Lebanon get out of this? Literally nothing, nothing. They get to continue bombing, which you just saw with your own eyes. So literally Lebanon got zero out of this deal. What way we're not done? At the end, they also agreed that Lebanon could not pursue any legal or diplomatic path to get their sovereignty back. No, this is, I've never seen a betrayal this thorough.

Now what are Israel's parameters? Because did Lebanon get anything back to restrain them? Their parameters are, Israel gets to decide unilaterally if Hezbollah appears to be a threat to them, including a threat to them occupying southern Lebanon. They're saying we get to keep southern Lebanon and Hezbollah is fighting back for their literally for their own homes. If Armenians are fighting for their own homes, they're terrorists. And that gives us right to bomb more Armenians, more Christians, more Muslims inside other

parts of Lebanon, and then take that and call everyone terrorists, okay? So unilaterally, Lebanon has no say in it. I've never seen a worse deal in my life, wait, it gets worse. Another condition is, Hezbollah must disarm completely, otherwise Israel, again, is allowed to do anything they want or murder anyone they like inside Lebanon. And Israel knows that's not gonna happen. And Israel knows that both the Lebanese military, along with the IDF, do not have the capability, the capacity, the ability to disarm Hezbollah. So this guarantees Israel's occupation of Lebanon permanently.

Okay, it gets worse. First, on the disarming, even if Hezbollah complied 100% in some magical world where they're like, oh, you know what? Like this bitch who's pretending to be our prime minister will surrender to the Israelis and let them steal everything we own and murder our. families. Let's say Hezbollah decided to do that. And they turned over 12,000 weapons. You know what Israel would say? It wasn't all of them. That's it. And so there's no way to prove that they don't, that Israel is right or wrong about how many weapons Hezbollah has. That's right. So it is by definition purposely impossible. And I would say moron, but he's obvious, nobody's this stupid. The obviously corrupt prime minister of Lebanon who's clearly

working for Israel, has betrayed his country so thoroughly he has put in impossible standards for the Lebanese to meet. Yes. But Anna, there's one other part. So Israel said in the deal, you must disarm Hezbollah for us. And if you don't do that again, we get to bomb, kill anyone we like in Lebanon. So what they're saying is not only are we gonna keep southern Lebanon, not only can we attack everywhere in Lebanon, but you must commit to a civil war where you do our dirty work for us.

Yes, you're right, and guess what? You want to know a Nenya who was saying publicly, openly, and also in English over the weekend? You would think, like, the argument you'll hear, the official narrative coming out of Israel and some in the United States is, well, you know, the Hezbollah is acting independent of the Lebanese government and military. The poor Lebanese government and military, right? Well, not only has Israel ensured that Lebanon's military is useless, powerless, unable to defend its own country. Over the weekend, Netanyahu started fearmongering about Lebanon's official army, military, and said, you know, there are terrorist cells within Lebanon's military. Oh, there you go. They're all terrorists. Now he's going to murder you next.

Now that your bitch prime minister sold you out, he signed a deal where Netanyahu gets to murder. anyone they like in Lebanon. That's, look, so look guys, there are things that are empirical. You see me getting upset, any decent moral person would be upset at what's happening in Lebanon, more slaughter by the fascist Israelis as they, guys, you know they blew up entire villages. Yeah, dozens of them, dozens of them, dozens of villages, yeah. Christian villages, Muslim villages. Doesn't matter, they don't care.

Slaughter them, they don't care. They were murdered over 4,000 people inside Lebanon. Yeah, they're terrorists, that's why. That's what terrorists do. So, but then you say, okay, but you say, okay, but you're, you say, Cenk, you know, I hear on TV that every Muslim and every Christian is a terrorist and Israel is the victims and self-defense. So how do I know if you're right or they're right?

Okay, good news, all you need is your eyes and ears, okay? So is southern Lebanon part of Israel? No, no one thinks it's part of Israel. Is Israel in southern Lebanon? Yes. Did they just sign an agreement saying we can keep it forever based on our own discretion? And whenever we feel safe enough to give it back to you, which is never, you all know That you know that, right? Has Israel ever said, yeah, we feel safe enough?

Literally never. Since 1948, never once have they said, we feel safe enough. I know. No, they say no, murder more, murder more, take more land, because I don't feel safe. I mean, I murdered your family, I murdered 23,000 kids in Gaza, but I don't feel safe. Honestly, I don't give a damn if you feel safe. You're the murderers and terrorists. So like, am I supposed to give it damn? But, oh, did the guys who did 9-11, do they feel safe?

No, they killed 3,000 people, I don't care if they feel safe. I also don't care if the Israeli terrorists feel safe. They're the ones terrorizing everyone else. But now about Hezbole or the Lebanese prime minister, who has Lebanon's best interest in mind? Another one you could tell with your eyes and ears. Hezbo is fighting like hell to protect Lebanese homes, property, and land. The Lebanese Prime Minister is giving away Lebanese land and getting absolutely nothing in return.

So this is not a hard question. Israel didn't even promise to stop attacking. In fact, not only did they attack right afterwards, the agreement allows them to attack permanently with no restrictions. So who's defending Lebanon and who's the sellout? There is no question. There are different factions within Lebanon,

and they don't all agree, we understand that. And a lot of them don't like Hezbollah. We understand that. But who's defending Lebanon? Hezbollah is, and not the Lebanese Prime Minister, who's busy getting on his knees to Benjamin Net, Yahoo and give him away his entire country. So I just want to end on a report from Courtney Bonneau, who continues to put her life in jeopardy

to give us the facts on the ground. And, you know, we started this segment by showing you the video of the latest explosions and bombings carried out by the IDF. And she's here to talk about the aftermath. Take a look. Hi, I'm reporting to you from the entrance of the town of Majdel-Zun, which was last night hit by a massive Israeli airstrike. Israeli forces are actually still occupying the town, and we had to get permission from the mechanism committee to come up to this point. I'd like to give you a rundown of yesterday's Israeli ceasefire violations, multiple air strikes targeting residential buildings in Nabatia and Mifduan,

a drone strike in Fruin, illegal home demolitions in Tibet and Hadassah, non-grenades dropped by Israeli drones, injured citizens in Birch-Kalaway and Barashites. The latest Lebanese Ministry of Health Figures state stand at 4,246 civilians killed and more than 12,000 injured in Israeli attacks since March 2nd. Hundreds of those killed were children. Keep in mind that while politicians are flying around the world, attending summits, signing deals, nothing has changed. And as a reporter on the ground for the last two years, I can confirm to you that no piece of paper that has been signed has altered the reality on the grounds. Israel is still committing acts of genocide here in Lebanon, in Lebanon and a full scale genocide in Gaza. They are doing it freely and they are doing it with the financial support of the

United States government. That is your tax money. We are spreading terror and destruction and inconceivable suffering across the globe by aiding and abetting Israel and it's unending bloodlust. And that's what you see here. Yeah. And you know, I'm so proud of America for fighting the Nazis and liberating Jews, Poles, Roma, LGBTQ folks. I mean, we did amazing. And we also helped the Serbs, I'm sorry, helped Kosovo and Bosnia escape from the genocide

of the Serbs and Serbunitsa. And those are things you should be immensely proud of it as an American. But now we're financing and Nazi march through the Middle East by Israel. We're helping the Nazis murder all these people in Lebanon and Gaza and the West Bank and Iran. That is deeply, deeply disturbing. And I don't care how much the Israeli supporters cry. Oh, no, you can't say mean things.

When we're Nazis, we're not, we're allowed to be Nazis, but you're not allowed to say. it because we control and occupy you. Well, your occupation is fraying around the edges, because now we're saying it, you've been trying to eliminate us the entire time, but thanks to our members, you haven't been able to do it, okay? So we still have a little bit of freedom in America, and I want to use all of that freedom to fight against the genocide and the Nazi occupation of this country. I hope I was clear enough, and I hope if you're an Israeli supporter, that you cry all night about it. Don't worry. Oh, boo-hoo! I would just in the middle of murdering all my neighbors when someone said something mean about me.

Oh, I shot their kids in Gaza in the head and I murdered 23,000 children and babies. Boohoo! Somebody said something mean about me. I don't give a damn. And if you think this is, that hurts your feelings, we're gonna destroy your feelings soon because I can't stand supporting Nazis. I can't stand it for one more day. I agree. And I enjoy their tears. Anyway, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about Israel's phony recognition of the Armenian genocide. All right, let's go to our members again. Boomer Dragon Cat says, can we at least clarify them as dumb boomers or bad boomers just

to differentiate? Yeah, I hear you. You know what, I'm gonna, in a collective road in TYT's very own Boomer Dragon Cat is a daily reminder that all boomers are not bad. That's so obvious guys, please, please. We're talking about generalities based on demographics on K-O-LGAT. news, okay? But look, I'm gonna try to switch to zombies, okay? Because anyone's still watching TV as a zombie, okay? Oh yeah, Israel is the victim. I mean, Jesus Christ, who's stupid

enough and brainwashed enough to still believe that? Israel's the victims? I mean, you would have to be the blindest person on planet Earth in the history of planet Earth to think that Israel's the victims doing self-defense, okay? So anyways, Madam Rochelle says, when I mentioned that Iran was not controlling the war that Israel does, my own stepdad called me anti-Semitic. I guarantee you he watches television, and his brain has been thoroughly watched by the Israeli assets all over cable news. So that's why your dad is turning against you. By the way, the Israeli plans are, plan A is always install puppets, kind of where we are now. Plan B is if the puppets break down, now they're losing elections, create civil war.

In Libya, in Lebanon, in Iraq. And so soon, they're going to get your dad to turn on you. And he already did. He's already calling you an anti-Semite. And already within families, there's great division and anger. And Israel's going, yes, yes. If you haven't seen Netanyahu brags about taking down Rome and says, Rome is America. All right, back on TYT, Jank Anna and Francis Stardust.

Thank you for joining through the join button below on YouTube. We appreciate you. Now let's go to the next story. So as Israel denies this genocide in Gaza, as it says it's going to keep southern Lebanon, as it's attacked Iran, as it's saying it's going to flood West Bank with a million new illegal settlers, they've decided in the middle of their disgusting series of genocides that as a joke and as a way to create more hostility against Turkey, they're going to recognize the Armenian genocide.

Now we're going to explain the hypocrisy of this and how they're trying to ironically use it to create more war and more genocide? Yep. For that, I hand it off to hand. Now, the reality of the Armenian genocide has never been officially recognized by Israel's Knesset, by Israel as a country. So I want to be clear, what just happened in Israel is Netanyahu's cabinet members decided to vote on recognizing the genocide, not the Knesset.

And they've moved forward with this, specifically to increased hostilities with Turkey. Now Turkey still refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide. They've reacted to this. We'll get to that in just a moment. But again, this is all about building enmity with or against Turkey. So it started with Gideon Tsar, who is Israel's foreign minister. And so he announced this last week.

And then the cabinet members vote on it, and they unanimously approve it. Now, allegedly, this is going to head to the Kness it and they're gonna vote on it to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide. But after the cabinet voted on it, here's what he said. It's never too late to do the right thing. I thank the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for his support and the government ministers for their unanimous approval of the resolution I initiated for Israel's recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Thus, Israel joins 32 countries that have fulfilled a moral duty by recognizing the historical truth and rejecting attempts to deny it. Well, I mean, if Gideon Saar is genuine in accepting the Armenian genocide, he should study it because what the Turks did to the Armenians is very similar to what the Israelis are doing to Palestinians right now as we speak, starve them to death, displace them, force them to go through a death march through the Syrian desert. I mean, the atrocities are very similar, but Israel denies that they're carrying out genocide in Gaza.

Now, Armenia's prime minister has weighed in on this, and I'm proud of the way he waited on on it. Here's what he said. We believe that not entering into the issue of the weaponization of the Armenian genocide is in the interest of the Republic of Armenia. And he is right about that. Because what Israel is doing is weaponizing the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians for their own little war purposes, their own little war aims.

They are trying to build up toward a war against Turkey, and that is what this is about. So they're disgusting, they just are, okay? The Israeli government is absolutely disgusting. And I'm glad to see other fellow Americans weigh in on this similarly. Here is Serge Tankian, he is the lead singer of System of a Down, and he is a vocal critic of those who deny the Armenian genocide. But in this case, he's a vocal critic of Israel and what they're trying to do here. Let's take a look.

For many years, Israel's government used APEC to lobby the US Congress. to not recognize the Armenian genocide, to prevent Congress from recognizing the Armenian genocide, due to their relationship with Turkey, their intelligence sharing with Turkey, etc. Today, the Netanyahu cabinet decided to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1950, a genocide that led to Hitler thinking that he could do what he could do to the Jews in the 1930s and 40s. The fact that this government is already committing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon decided to recognize the genocide of my grandparents is a worse thing that they could have done to Armenians by using our history, our genocide, our pain to their political advantage. That's right, F you know, I wouldn't, I mean, would anyone be surprised by Israel doing this by weaponizing the pain and suffering of others for their, own, you know, war aims. And if you don't know what I'm talking about here, we have been covering

all the various statements made by all these various Israeli politicians and public figures. They're itching to go to war with or against Turkey and Egypt, by the way. And here's what I'm talking about. Let's take a quick look at this compilation. I'll bring you in, Jank. A new Turkish threat is emerging. I want to be very clear. Turkey and Qatar have gained influence in Syria are seeking influence elsewhere and everywhere throughout the region. And from here, I warn, Turkey is the new Iran. Fifteen years from now, Israel will have a war with Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood will eventually take over Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is a Sunni jihad, now after we weaken the Shia jihad, will be a threat to the world. Turkey is now

taking over. I'm not so sure that we will have as easy. time with the Turks as we've had with the Iranians. I've been following Turkish military doctrine and the storm is coming. We have to be prepared for the next war, which will be probably against Turkey and Egypt. Turkey channels first money to what Israel perceives, what Israel sees as nothing short of terror cells in the West Bank. Turkey is hosting all these people. allowing them to act freely, send money to the West Bank, create a terrorist cells in the West Bank.

It is clearly a worrying issue. And Turkey has been able to encircle Israel with its proxies in the West Bank, in Gaza, in Egypt. We need to ensure that Arduran doesn't create a new alliance of radical Islam Sunni version, meaning an access between himself, Julani, Qatar, and Hamas. So this is all about evoking Turkish officials. And I want to be clear about one other thing. Israel provided the arms, the weapons, to ethnically cleanse Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians call Arzach.

That's what they did. And they have the effing audacity to pretend like this. They're the good guys and they're looking out for the Armenians. Israel accounted for 69% of Azerbaijan's arms, imports between 2016 and 2020, and their Israeli drones, Laura missiles, cluster munitions. They were all used in 2023 to ethnically cleanse Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh, 120,000 of them. Jank, back to you.

So now the disgusting liars called reporters in this country will say, what, what? recognize a genocide. Isn't that a great thing? Okay, so then let's break that down. Well, if that's so obvious and good, which it is, no question, right? It's a good thing to recognize Armenian genocide. Then why didn't they do it earlier? I mean, remember, they suffer the Holocaust, so you would think that they would have incredible sympathy for anyone else that suffered a genocide. They're not capable of that. But for this entire time from 1948 to today, they didn't have any sympathy for the Armenians. By the way, why? Yes, that Armenian expert is correct. It's because a lot of people don't

I don't know this, Israel and Turkey had an enormous alliance, okay? And they did a lot of trade back and forth, and the alliance was so strong that APEC helped defeat the recognition of the Armenian genocide by the Americans. Yep. Okay, so Israel was actively arguing against recognizing the Armenian genocide this whole time. Is it because they thought it didn't really happen? No, they just didn't care about the Armenians.

They wanted to use them for their own political purposes. They care about the Armenians, Jank. I mean, when it comes to the Armenians in the Armenian quarter in Jerusalem, ask, ask those Armenians how the Israelis treat them. They care about them in the wrong way, right? Brutalizing them, standing by and doing absolutely nothing as Israeli settlers terrorize them. That's how Armenians are treated in Israel, okay? So they do care about Armenians, just not in the way that we would hope for.

And again, they were against recognizing Armenian genocide up until just now, okay? And there's no excuse for that, especially if you're Israel, but they did that because everything is about Israel and they don't care about any other human being on planet Earth. So, and if you're in favor of recognizing genocide because you're such a moral country, then why don't you recognize your own genocide? Or maybe you could actually stop the active genocides you're doing right now in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and everywhere you're attacking. No, no, no.

So obviously this isn't about their moral. and punctures to recognize a genocide. And you saw from the video clip, there is no question that they're using it as a propaganda tool to start more wars, right? So now I will tell you this, they say the, you know, the storm is coming and we're gonna attack after we're done with Iran, okay. Good luck with that. Yeah, we're gonna attack Turkey in Egypt.

Why? Because they're fascists. So, but our, now I'm waiting for the US media. The US media hasn't really weighed in on this yet. So we can all see it together. Turkey is the second largest army in NATO, our top alliance, okay? They're a bulwark against Russia and by the way, Iran as well. And they've been an incredibly important strategic ally, as opposed to Israel that has done

nothing but harm to America. Turkey has protected America over and over again, including in the Cuba missile crisis. Turkey ended it by withdrawing missiles from Turkey, and that's how we got the deal. So we didn't go to nuclear war. But once Israel orders that Turks be called terrorists, and you just saw them say they're terrorists, terrorists, proxies, all the same thing that they use against Arabs and now Persians, now they're gonna say about Turks, my guess is the US media, since they work for Israel, will now all start calling Turks terrorists, even though they're our top ally in NATO.

Does Israel not understand, or the Israeli people, do they not understand that all these actions that their government is engaging in has so far made them less safe. Well, that's so obvious. Less safe. But you see, they're so blind, Anna, because they're in a cult, they're in like one of the most thorough, you know, deeply held cult I have ever seen. So if you tell an Israeli, hey, attacking literally every single neighbor of yours, and by the way, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt all have 80 to 90 million people in them.

It's significant militaries. Yes. And Turkey's in NATO, attacking them is not going to make you more safe. No, it's not. Not a lot of people have won wars against Turks or Persians, right? And but you're a country of nine million people. No, if you look at the public opinion polls in Israel, attack, attack, attack all the Turks and the Persians and their Arabs, and take all their land.

Hey, that's the polling, look at the polling. They're saying that the Israeli government has not been barbaric enough. And that's why Nufthali Bennett now currently leading against them. Netanyahu says I'll be even more of a monster and more of a terrorist and more of a fascist than Netanyahu. Now I've asked a couple of Turks I know that live here, et cetera, and what do you guys think? Because now they're like starting to threaten Turkey. Every single one of them says the same thing.

Come get some, okay? So- Do you guys now see how Israel is the obstacle to peace in that region of the world? Do you guys see it? While they wail about how, oh, Iran is an obstacle to peace, Hamas is an obstacle to peace, Hezbo is an obstacle to peace, everyone's an obstacle to peace except Israel in their eyes. They are the obstacle to peace. It's so obvious. They're already planning new wars.

I mean, how much more evidence do you need? I just showed you a lengthy compilation of Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu's own political opponent, Naftali Bennett, saying we're getting ready for war against Turkey. Yeah. There's no bounds to their greed. So okay, so look, Israel says they like war. Historically, the Turks have liked war. So I don't want it, I'm for peace.

And I'm an American, I don't want any piece of any of this, okay? So to me, what are we doing in the middle of this? Let's get the hell out of the Middle East, okay? Now, Turkey's different because they're a NATO ally, right? I was gonna say we're gonna let Israel attack France next. And the obvious answer is yes. Yes, we would let them attack anybody. Of course, anyone.

If they called the French terrorists and said we need to occupy them, and then their French resistance rose up, we would call the French resistance terrorists. We would. Not us, not us literally, but our country. Our government. Our disgusting pigs that are pretending to be our representatives in the government who all serve Israel like dogs and servants. They would say, of course, the French. You're terrorists.

The Germans, I mean, the Israelis need to occupy them. They're literally saying that about a NATO ally, Turkey, right? So okay, look, if Iran and Israel want to have a war, if Israel wants to attack Iran, Egypt, and Turkey at the same time, it's got nothing to do with America. Why would we get into a war with our own ally? No, see you, wouldn't want to be you, okay? And then don't come crying to us if you start losing that war, because you know they will. They'll come back here and everyone on television, but you know, but you'll come back here and

Everyone on television, but, ah, ah, ah, Israelis are being killed just because we try to murder all of our neighbors and now we have lost precious Israeli lives. Well, what about all the slaughtering you've done of the Arabs, the Persians, and the Turks? Oh yeah, those are not humans, who cares? That's cable news. That's mainstream media in America. I accuse them.

They're the biggest bigots and racist I have ever seen in my life. That's why their viewership is falling off. these platforms are dying. So congratulations. We gotta take a break. When we come back, we're gonna switch gears. There's a lot of other news going on in our country that we're gonna weigh in on. So stick around. We've got some SCOTUS rulings coming up. If you're Christian, in fact, I will fight for you to have your religious liberty and practice your Christianity. I believe in that. I don't believe in Christianity, which means that you do not get to dictate the way I live my life based on your religion. I don't care what the Bible says.

You have every right in the world. All those women who identify with your religion have every right in the world to not get an abortion, to not take birth control. But they do not have the right to dictate my life. And what I decide to do with my body, I don't care about your goddamn religion. I'm so tired of having non-stop conversations about what the Bible says. You live your life in the way that you interpret the Bible. Again, I don't care, but you don't get to take the Bible and tell me, well the Bible says this,

this, in this chapter, in this verse, I don't care. I don't care. I don't believe in it. And I have the right, based on our Constitution, to not believe in it. A Muslim has been left unscathed. Ain't a whole lot left? I don't know why they need any more law. Let us get Leah. The United States provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel. Netanyahu indiscriminate bombardment have killed more than 50,000 civilians, 6,000. 60% of whom are women, children, paramedics, and journalists, all of this is against basic human decency. You don't starve children with absolutely no humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. It is a war crime.

It is illegal for the United States government to provide Israel with more offensive weapons. We will not forgive us. We've been on our phones too much. I feel like we just need to touch grass or something. I told you. I mean, you know what? Let's actually do it. Let's touch the grass.

Andrew Yang? It's not racist, right? It's him. Yes, it is I. Andrew Yang out here giving money away, as usual. Wait, but literally? Do you use a phone? Noble Mobile will cut your wireless bill in half every month,

and you get paid even more if you log off, look up and touch grass. Oh, I actually have some. grass if you... I don't think that's the kind of grass. Not that kind of grass, unfortunately. Whoa. Wait, what the... Whoa. I guess that kind of grass works, too.

All grass works. All grass and we get cash? Did you see that? Babe. Make it rain, go, make it rain, make it rain, make it. That didn't rain so good. But now it's raining good. Corruption, injustice, the system is rigged against you. Every day, we're blasted by a flurry of terrible news from every angle,

which can make it challenging to stay pop. positive and know how to fight back. The damage report is your solution. I'm John Adirola, and my daily morning show cuts through the noise and exposes the real damage being done to our country, the world, and how we can fight back against it. Corporate greed crushing workers, we'll name names. Politicians selling you out for their corporate overlords, we've got the receipts. Climate disaster, economic collapse, the rise of fascism, no spin, no establishment talking points, just the truth that you need to survive and resist. But it's not all doom and gloom. We'd you join the Dragon Squad, our community of positive-minded activists who turn the day's news into

positive action. With new episodes every weekday, listen to the damage report to get honest news, unflinching commentary, and daring coverage you won't find anywhere else. Listen to the damage report on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, because understanding the damage is the first step to fixing it. You're messing with my Zen thing, man. All right, back on TYT, Jankana, with you guys. We're going to try to lighten it up a little bit, so let's watch this. Well, no, if you could clear up the stuff your Axis saying about you with the NDA, that you pressure her to sign an NDA for wrongful termination.

Is that true? What's she saying about you? Who are you with? What's lost to Joe? So let me ask you, I heard that you like gay porn. Is that true? Damn, Tom Massey strikes back against the Fox News reporter. Guys, this story's fun.

I want you to watch the whole video to see how he turned the tables. But there's also something very important about this story, which is there is a giant contention of the right wing that now despises Fox News. So we'll talk more about that in a second too. Anna, tell us. I welcome it, I love it. And I think it's because they've seen how unfair Fox News is, even toward Republican politicians who are willing to call out the undue influence of the Israel lobby

on our politicians and our political system. And certainly, Congressman Thomas Massey has been a target of the Israel lobby. In fact, he unfortunately lost his reelection in Kentucky as a result of, you know, A-PAC pumping in a ton of money, tens of millions of dollars in an effort to defeat him, they succeeded. And one of the ways that they defeated him was by essentially floating these unfounded allegations against Massey a week before the election took place. And what you're hearing from the Fox News reporter, Nicholas Bellassie is his name, is basically the regurgitation of these unfounded, unproven claims against Massey. And so Massey decided, you know what, why don't I do to him what he's doing to me? Let me turn the tables and basically

accuse him of something unfounded. But his reaction, Belassi's reaction, was curious. So we'll get to that in just a second, but again, he was asking Massey about these unfounded claims that were alleged by an ex-girlfriend named Cynthia West. These were comments that were made or allegations that were made a week before the primary race. Now she claimed that Massey offered her $5,000 to drop a wrongful termination suit against Representative Sparts who she had worked for and that Massey was bragging about an relationship he had with Congresswoman Lauren Bobert after his wife had passed away, which again, unfounded, there's no evidence of this. And even if that were true, that's not

illegal. But anyway, so let's get to Belassi's exchange with Massey from Belassi's point of view. Let's take a look. Well, if you could clear up the stuff your ex is saying about you with the NDA, that you pressure her to sign an NDA for wrong for termination. Is that true? What she's saying about you? Who are you with? What's Fox Digital?

It's all false. And what she said about you and Bovert having an intimate relationship? It's all false. Why do you think she's out there saying it? Was it because of the primary, ahead of the primary? What do you think is motivating it? When did you all become a tabloid? Seriously, dude.

Well, no. I would give you a chance to respond because you've never been able to tell your side of the story. That's all. But anything you could say. So let me ask you, I heard that you like gay porn. Now Fox News decided to post a video of this exchange on X and they did get an interesting community note. I want to read that community note to you. It says the NDA non-disclosure agreement was included in a $60,000 settlement offer from the office

of congressional workplace rights for West's complaint against Representative Sparts, separate from a $5,000, from the $5,000 that she alleged that Massey had offered her. That was an allegation. There's no evidence that Massey ever did that. Now with that in mind, Massey did flip the script on Belassie, and I just love this moment, because he's doing to Belassie what Belassie is doing to him. Take a look. So let me ask you, I heard that you like gay porn. Is that true?

Congressman, I'm not, I just want to give your chance. You're gonna get into it. Are you a real news organization or not? No, come back, man. All you gotta say is you don't like it. That you haven't been to those websites. Of course I don't like it. Really? But thank you.

That's not what I heard. Thank you for your time. Yeah, that looks like that. Just giving you a chance to respond. So you're with Fox? Thank you. Is that a real news organization? Yeah.

Is this what you do for a living man? Or I'd like to be correct. It's Congressman, we're good. So we looked into this because I didn't want to be wrong. Like if he was caught up in some sort of gay porn scandal and I was unaware of it, like I wanted to make sure that, oh, okay, Massey is citing something real. No, he's not. What he's basically doing is playing the same game that the Fox News reporter is playing, right?

throw a camera in someone's face, repeat false allegations, and make it seem as though those allegations are real. But honestly, the way Belassi responded to it, by the way, I'm not into gay porn, but like, there's nothing wrong with it if that's what you're into. It's just that it seems like he doesn't want people to know if he is into it. I don't know. That was a weird reaction. That was a weird reaction. So first off, I love what Massey did. That was smart, yeah. So some British Israeli puppet media guy was interviewing me after the band. And he asking me questions about like, since you are an anti-Semite, right?

Like I'm like, wait, we're starting this. So I just flipped it back on him and I explained why he was actually being anti-Semitic. And I kept asking him, why are you an anti-Semite? Just like he was asking me. Actually, except I had all the evidence, right? And he got all flustered because they think, well, I could do a hatchet job on you. Right. But you're not allowed to do it on me.

Another interviewer was trying something similar in the UK. And I asked them when they stopped beating their husband. And they're like, what do you mean? Oh, oh, I thought we were just asking you unfair questions, okay? So you want to ask me about something that's totally made up on behalf of Israel. I'll ask you something and then see, get your reaction. And I think Massey accidentally stumbled upon something. potentially real because that was the most panic reaction I've ever seen.

It was, he even said at one point, I don't want to get into that. Yeah. What? Wait, why is that a conversation? So like guys, here's the thing, right? Obviously we're on the left, this is not, or I am certainly, and I, like, gay porn, who cares? I don't care if you're any gay porn, that's the, hashtag freedom, brother, okay? So if someone asks me, are you into gay porn, I'd be like, no, not particularly.

Why? What do you wouldn't do? And I'd ask them, right? So but I wouldn't be like, I don't want to talk about that. No, no, no, no, I hate it, I hate it. And then run away, like, so weird reaction. So weird reaction. Look, to be fair to Blassie, no one could have expected that, right?

To predict that Massey would turn the tables with like a claim so crazy or whatever. But I don't know, again, the way he reacted was insane. was insane. So, Balasi did write about it on truth social after the fact saying that he cry. A little bit. He says, Congressman Massey made up that question on the fly. It's based on nothing and it's pretty sick. That was the first thing on his mind. I was asking him about allegations about him made by an ex. But made by Israel. I mean, yeah, to destroy Massey's chances of winning re-election. And congratulations, mission accomplished. But giving him a chance to respond, I deny the allegations he made up about.

about me. And then Fox News, of course, posted about it online saying Massey lashes out when pressed on ex-girlfriends allegation. By the way, like Israel got what it wants. The Israel lobby in America got what it wants. Like, how about you guys find a new story to focus on, right? Okay, if there is a sex scandal, guys, it's not every time, but 80 to 90 percent of the time, it is because that person has pissed off someone powerful, okay? True. So there are plenty of real sex scandals in politics. Swalwell seems to be one, certainly, right?

And there are others that we could point to, right? But nine out of ten times, it's not just Israel. Eliot Spitzer was the sheriff of Wall Street and was actually regulating Wall Street for the first time in my lifetime. And giant finance guys bragged on tape, we're going to destroy him. And by the way, they also bragged about how they were gonna use complicit American media to destroy an opponent of Wall Street. Not an opponent of Wall Street that is doing the right things, but the robbers, the thieves

on Wall Street, right? And they said, oh yeah, we had a detective follow him until we found something, and then we used it against them, right? Client number nine is a movie, a documentary about it, you can see on Netflix. So that model is what they use anytime somebody pisses off the powerful. Now one of the giant lobbies in this country is APEC and the Israeli lobby overall, and they do it every single time. They just did it to Graham Platiner.

They had a New York Times media reporter call every single girlfriend Graham Platner's ever had in his life. Why? Because they have to dig something up for Israel, because Platner is against Israel, and it's driving them crazy that he might make it into the Senate. And he's not careful like Bernie Sanders, who's been a good guy and generally in the right direction, but it's kind of a careful guy. Graham Platner is gonna go in and go, no, why should we get money to Israel?

I don't want to, right? So they're trying to destroy him in every way. And what did they get? They got nothing except a Republican operative who said, oh yeah, these are charges I've never said before, but I'm magically saying them now, they're totally uncorroborated, and by the way, I helped Susan Collins confirm Kavanaugh, okay? So now the New York Times knows that's a deeply biased person, that's the only person they got, even though they talk to every single reporter.

They don't care. But they don't care, why? Because once you do the first smear, every report since then does two things. One is, it's deep sexual allegations against Graham Platner. Nobody ever says those allegations were disproven, and they were by a GOP operative, and everyone else said no, right? It's that every headline smears Platner on purpose on behalf of Israel. But there's a second part.

Now they're asking Ro Khanna and every other Democrat that's a decent person, you're backing grand platinum and all these sexual allegations. Are you in favor of the sexual abuse that grand platinum? That didn't even get proven. It was a lie, right? And so, but that's how they smear the living crap out of anyone who dares defy the powerful, in this case, A-Pact. So now Massey, they're not done with him.

So they defeated him in the elections. There was 30 million spent against them, okay? They smeared the hell out of him with these steps. But since he's still running his mouth, they're like, oh, let's keep going. Let's make up. What can we make up? It doesn't matter, because the media's on our side. We'll get a dog from Fox News who watches gay porn to attack him in the streets.

Allegedly. Allegedly. And then afterwards, okay, we'll have all of the rest of the media say sexual allegations against Tom Massey. And one of the reasons they do this, this is important guys. Generally speaking, people like corruption, sometimes people get pissed about it, sometimes they don't. But sexual allegations captures everyone's interest. Everyone loves a salacious scandal. Yeah. So they, and it doesn't have to be true.

It just has to be salacious. And there's a second reason why. because female voters in particular are very turned off by these type of allegations, understandably so, right? So I'm asking all of you out there, including the female voters, please stop believing these nonsense, obvious smears against any politician who would dare to represent you either on the right like Massey or on the left like Platner. they're trying to manipulate your emotions to get you to attack and defeat the people who are trying to help you.

Yep. You think that the other disgustingly corrupt politicians that are all backing Israel and Wall Street and the oil companies and all those guys, you think they don't have any sexual problems? They're littered with actual sexual assaults, et cetera, and almost never investigated. Does everybody calling Chuck Schumer's ex-girlfriends? No, because he's reliably in the back pocket of Israel. Are they trying to find out about Lindsey Graham's personal life? Because every person I speak to in D.C. says he has to be carried out of gay bars every night, okay, drunk out of his mind. Not necessarily every night.

Now, I don't know that those are true, and I'm not trying to do the same thing they're doing. But what I'm pointing out to you is they could at least disprove them, but not a single, reporter looks into Lindsey Graham's personal life because Lindsay Graham helps the powerful. That's true. That's a really great point, James. Defense contractors love him because he's always in favor of war. Israel loves him because he's in favor of all of their wars, right? And he is deeply corrupt. So New York Times and all the rest of the media go, no way, we will not investigate Lindsay Graham ever, right? Oh, there's a new guy against Israel. Destroy him, right? And right, left doesn't matter. You think they're liberal media?

No, there Israeli media. All right, we gotta take a break. When we come back, we'll get into some of the latest Supreme Court rulings, which surprisingly go against Trump's desires. And he is not happy about it. We've got that more coming up, don't miss it. All right, let's go to super chat. Michael Cotevelli says, Annette, is it Wynette? I guess why not?

Whynet news is reporting Israel go to war with Iran tomorrow. Katz warns in operation blue and white, okay? Thank you for sharing that, Michael. Just for on behalf of America, let's get the hell out of there, man. If Israel and Iran want to go to war forever, that's their issue, man. And, you know, and the constant asking for sympathy, I'm so. No, no, no, no. I do not comply.

I mean, you guys are occupying southern Lebanon and you want me to cry over dead IDF soldiers? No, sorry, no sympathy. Oh, we were coming to murder your family. Zero percent. I can't believe you defended your own home. You're forced to surrender to me and have me kill your family and call you a terrorist. And I demand sympathy from you. Yeah, you don't want to die, then get out of Lebanon.

Yeah, anyway, Michael, thank you for the information. We'll look more into that. You're awesome. James Kelly says, what I don't get is how they would keep the land after they get it. 10 million people is not a lot of people. I honestly don't get their end game. But brother, what was Hitler's end game? Why did he go into Soviet Union when he couldn't take care of Britain?

It was madness to go into the Soviet Union, I mean, the Russia at the time, and Soviet Union at the time. But in the middle of winter, because fascists are insane, they lose their minds and their fervor for more land and conquest, et cetera. They're not rational actors. That's why they do these crazy things. Kynch, and Anna with you guys. Let's go to the next story. Just a part of what she said, I take your point. Do you still feel, though, if Democrats went back to the House that Hakeem Jeffries is the white one, right person to lead?

You know, I've engaged in in many conversations with Leader Jeffries. And for me, one, and we have a broad caucus, right? For me, I have made very clear that one of my priorities in determining and in a leader determination is security. public housing financing for New York City. And leader Jeffries has made his prioritization for the residents of public housing very clear. And for that reason, I will be supporting Hakeem Jeffries for leader. Okay, I love this clip because we're gonna show you how politics actually works. We're gonna show you what she really meant and what the deal actually is, because that's not why she's doing what she's doing at all.

She's not only supporting Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker if they get the house back, but she's not she also didn't endorse any of the Democrats running against incumbents in New York, even though they were progressive. We'll explain why she didn't do that as well. And finally, I want you to be aware that Kamla Harris is apparently such a good ally of AOC, that she's gifted her her word salads. And it's a very mighty Christian of, as they used to say in the old days of Kamla Harris, and apparently AOC eats them at every time she's on camera.

Oh, a word salad, great. Well, I mean, when you're being dishonest, it's kind of hard to say things confidently and forcefully, which is why the world, in my opinion, that's why we saw the word salad in that clip. But nonetheless, let me give you the details because AOC has drawn quite a bit of backlash from members of her own base, people who have supported her throughout her political career. Now her comments come on the heels of a decisive progressive victory in New York. This happened last week, of course, I covered it in depth. And this is when the incumbent Democrats were facing some real primary challengers to their left.

Claire Valdez, Daria, Lisa, Avila Chevalier, and also Brad Lander. All three of them won. All three of them are to the left of the incumbents that they beat. Now successfully, they primaried long-term incumbents and Democratic establishment favorites. And all of these aforementioned candidates boasted strong endorsements from both the Democratic Socialists of America and Mayor Zoran Mamdani. However, in the case of Chevalier and Valdez, there was an endorsement missing from AOC.

She chose against endorsing them. And city and state New York reports that Mamdani is backing DSA's state legislative candidates running for open seats and congressional candidates, whom it would be political difficult for AOC to endorse, that's what they're claiming, while AOC is backing DSA's challengers to assembly incumbents whom Mamdani isn't willing to endorse. Now, assembly members in New York, those are local races, local to New York, right? And so AOC apparently didn't want to ruffle any feathers as it pertains to federal elections. And it's probably because she doesn't want to upset her democratic colleagues, her establishment colleagues.

Valdez specifically primaried Anthony Rhinoz, who is or was running to fill the seat of retiring representative, Nydia Velazquez, who endorsed Rhinoso. AOC may be reluctant to cross Velazquez, who has acted as a political mentor to her or to back a primary challenge against a fellow member of New York's Democratic congressional delegation, but Mom Doni has no such qualms, city and state New York reported. Now AOC, I don't know, if she's still considered a firebrand, I don't know, she certainly came into Congress as a firebrand, but you know, she has found herself consistently at odds with the very faction of the Democratic base that's supposed to be a leader of, right?

So the more progressive, more left wing contingent within the Democratic Party. So suspicions of her kind of abandoning that faction started when she decided to vote in favor of providing military aid to Israel in the form of Iron Dome capabilities, right? So her argument is, well, it's defensive weapons, it's not offensive weapons. Many, many do not want to provide any weapons to Israel, including defensive capabilities. I'm in that camp because I feel that Israel is able to carry out atrocities with impunity, knowing that they have this Iron Dome system, they can attack their neighbors, they can bomb, they can do genocide, and they have the Iron Dome to protect them, which we pay for. And so understandably, progressive voters are

against providing even defensive military aid to Israel. And as AOC is floated as a potential front runner in the 28 presidential race, her perceived caution on the topic of Israel could hurt her among Democratic voters overall, certainly considering where Democratic voters are on the issue of Israel. So as the nation points out, Palestine is the defining issue of our time, particularly within the Democratic Party. It is the principal dividing line between Democratic primary candidates in this year's midterms, and there is no reason to expect its importance to wane in 2028. And I pretty much agree with that assessment, especially when you look at the polling. So let's take a look at this Gallup poll.

You're looking at a chart showing you the results of the Gallup poll. And it shows that 65% of registered Democratic voters say they actually sympathize more with Palestinians as opposed to Israelis or Israel. And as evidenced by the races that we just spoke about in New York last week, Daryalisa Chevalier ousted Adriano Espelat, who was a five-term represent. who has consistently taken large sums of money from APEC, the Israel lobby, and travel to Israel with Hakeem Jeffries and Rishi Torres. Hakeem Jeffries, or more importantly, providing a full-throated endorsement of Hakeem

Jeffries as the next speaker of the House is a little bit of a problem considering his role in aiding and abetting Israel's crimes against humanity. And he has taken a lot of money from the Israel lobby, which is why it's not surprising that took this trip to Israel with Richie Torres? Yeah, so look, Hakeem Jeffries is a giant sellout, and I don't think anyone should back him, but almost all the Democrats in Congress do. So that one I'm less bothered by than her non endorsements. I'm gonna come back to the non endorsements in a second, but I do want to explain the trick

here. So she says, well, I made a deal with Hakeem Jeffries about housing in New York, and so that's why I chose not to endorse those candidates. Okay, wait, let's break that down. So why was Hakeem Jeffries against affordable housing and you had to make a deal with him to get him to be in favor of affordable housing? I wouldn't be surprised. So can we flesh that out a little bit?

It'd be nice, yeah. Can we get a reporter asked why was Hakeem Jeffries opposed to affordable housing in New York? No guys, it has nothing to do with that. I mean, Kim Jeffries of course would be opposed to that because he's opposed to anything that would help the average voter because he's obsessed with his donors. He's got $5.5 million from APAC and the last. Israeli lobby, he serves as guys loyally. But overall, no, these politicians get together, I know this, I know what happens behind

the scenes, and they go, oh, AOC says to Akeem, I need an excuse. I'm not saying that I know that that happened, I'm saying in general, this is how it works, okay? Says I need an excuse because I'm gonna betray my own side, right? So what can we come up with? Oh, we'll say we did it because of housing in New York, because what are the people in New York most upset about housing prices, right? Yep.

So we'll pretend to help them. By the way, what does Hakeem have to do with that? And it has it passed? No, nothing's passed, has he tried? Nothing's happened yet. There was an affordable, there was a housing bill that did pass Congress that Trump is refusing to sign because he's like, I'm not going to sign this until you pass the Save America Act.

But I just want to be clear, it's Shao Shao. Like, it's supposed to increase the inventory of housing in America. I don't think it goes nearly far enough. It's better than nothing. No, no, but I don't want you to get misled by that because that's bipartisan. That's bipartisan. Everybody's in favor of that. You don't need any votes on that.

Even the Republicans are in favor of that. They passed it already. So it's like saying, well, Hakeem Jeffrey's voted with the Republicans on this tiny little housing bill. So that's why I had to betray the progressives in New York. That doesn't make any sense at all. It's not even trying to make sense. Okay, so now again, if you, Hakeem has done something that he wasn't going to do, but

has now opened up amazing opportunities for housing in New York, I'd love to see it. I'd love to see it. That doesn't exist. Okay, so all right, so why does she actually not endorse them? Because of two reasons. Number one, she's become convinced that the establishment is her actual friends and her actual colleagues and who she actually serves. So that's why she's so afraid to go against anything the establishment wants, because

Because she knows this part is true, she knows that if she doesn't obey, they will get the New York Times and CNN to rip her apart. And right now the New York Times and CNN and MSNBC love AOC. Yeah. They're getting, and here, this will be a form of a compliment, they're getting Obama vibes from her, right? But it's also, in my opinion, not a compliment, why? Because they're getting, New York Times and mainstream media is getting the sense, oh, she doesn't

mean it at all. She'll do exactly as she's ordered. But she has the appearance and the brand of being a progressive, et cetera. She's not a populist in any way, shape, or form, but a progressive, right? So that way, great, change on the outside, continuity on the inside. So she wanted to prove to her establishment colleagues that she could be relied on. That's why she betrayed those people and didn't vote for them, didn't endorse them. But there's a second reason why.

She cares so much about her win record. What is the amount of endorsements, the percentage that she won of the endorsements? Who cares? No one, I don't even know what her win record is, who cares? No, no, political cares. Axios cares. Who cares about political? Okay, she needs to understand, there is a division in this country right now.

And the division is between the elite, which includes legacy media, and, and the division. And the very politician she's trying to ingratiate herself with, and the rest of the American people. Okay, ordinary Americans aren't real. They're not worried about what Politico is publishing about AOC's win record. That's insane. Anna, so again, this is where I have experienced on the ground in D.C. All the Democrats are obsessed with their win record on endorsements. Yeah, that's what, that's insane.

That's why their own base hates them. Yeah. Look, here, I'll give you an example of how to, in my opinion, how to do it right. So when we started just Democrats back in 2017, people told us, oh, hey, why are you endorsing all these people? I don't think they're likely to win like that stupid bartender in Queens. She has no, she's running as Joe Crowley, the number four guy, and he's gonna be the next Speaker of the House.

You're gonna ruin your percentage. I was like, what percentage we just started? And I don't give a damn. So we endorse 78 candidates. Nice. Okay, only four of them won. So our percentage record was terrible. Oh no, you guys have such a terrible win record.

Oh no. Okay. All the American people are thinking about it. Yeah, and who were the four? AOC, Ilhan Omar, Iyana Presley, and Rashida Tili. So now look, they didn't stay on the right track, especially AOC, but so that's a different issue. But did we get some of the most spectacular wins in American political history? Yes, we did.

And how did we get there by not giving a damn about our wins? about our win loss record, okay? So when you tell me, oh, I have to keep my win loss percentage pristine, I go, well, then you're an egomaniac. Okay, so two more things that are super important and relevant to this, because I need you to know the full details so you don't mistakenly go in the wrong direction, okay? Shortcott Chucker Party was my co-founder and just Democrats and did way more than I did, infinitely more important to that organization.

And in the middle, he called me and said, I'm gonna transfer to being campaign manager of AOC, I'm gonna put all of our chips in on her because I think she's the best candidate. And at the time, guys, this is, listen to this. AOC was down 35 points. What Shortcott did was totally visionary and bold. And I said, look, brother, you're running it. You're the executive director. If you think that's the right decision, let's go for it.

Okay? And they did. And he became a manager, Corbin, who was a communications director for just Democrats, became AOC's communications director. And they pulled off a miracle, a miracle. He was then her chief of staff. And he said, behind the scenes, he's an angel, okay? She wouldn't endorse him in his race to replace Pelosi.

But Pelosi had already dropped out. And then all of his opponents started running ads saying, Shoycott can't be trusted. Even AOC doesn't trust him when he was her former chief of staff. There's something wrong with Shoycott, Chuck. party and he was within two points of first place, he dropped into third and lost. And she watched all that happen and did not intervene. She let him lose in that brutal fashion when he was on the doorstep of winning.

By the way, the guy that it came in number one, thanks to AOC, is the one that is being chased all around San Francisco now for and refuses to say free Palestine. Scott Weiner, yeah. Scout Weiner. So look guys, this isn't about shortcut. This isn't about Valdez and Chevalier and Lander, who she also didn't endorse. She hasn't endorsed a challenger to an incumbent in the last two election cycles. That doesn't surprise me. Okay, so what it is about is she was supposed to open the gates once she got inside, okay? She shut the door. Okay, because the whole idea was we're challenging the Democratic establishment and we need as many

primary challenges as possible so that more people can get inside the gates. So if we're lucky and good enough to get people inside, you've got to open the gates. Instead, she slammed him shut and said, no, these are my new friends and colleagues. And now I'm doing deals with Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And I'm going to tell you about how They're fighting against the genocide, which wasn't true at all. Those are because those are her new friends. And so now she doesn't back any of the challengers. And I'll do a prediction for you.

Because she's embarrassed by it now, I guarantee you going forward, she'll be like, oh, I'm now doing new, yes, of course, I will endorse these people. Oh my God, it's so funny that you say that, because an hour ago, drop site news reported the following. And I'm reading from their ex post verbatim. New, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has introduced an amendment that could effectively halt all offensive and defensive U.S. military aid to Israel under current conditions as part of a package of 11 amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2027. The proposal would require all U.S. defense articles and services to be used in accordance with international law and consistent with Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act prohibit transfers to countries that restrict U.S. supported humanitarian aid unless the president certifies

the recipient is complying with those requirements and Congress separately authorizes the transfer. It's practical, practical force lies in the stripping of president's discretion to look past existing law. Section 6201 already bars aid to governments that block U.S. humanitarian assistance, but administrations have repeatedly declined to determine that Israel is in violation despite restrictions on aid, even still entering Gaza. Under the amendment, the president would have to affirmatively make that determination and Congress would have to specifically authorize the transfer through legislation before covered military aid could proceed. Okay, so that's her trying to cover her tracks.

Oh no, no, no, no, of course, of course I'm against Israel. But you know what guys, it's okay. I'll take it. I'll take it too, this is great. Yeah, I will give her credit for that. Thank you for turning around. And by the way, why is she being more aggressive now? And her voting record on Israel is not bad.

It's not perfect. Anna's right about what she said. MTG is right about what she said. But overall, it's better than a lot of the other congresspeople and that's a good legislation. But I wanna give you guys the credit because without pressure she doesn't do that. That's right. So keep up the pressure in a good way. You don't have to, not of course don't hate her.

Look guys, we're talking about the context of people who are supposed to be on our side that we want to be better fighters, right? We're not talking about bad guys, right? So keep the pressure up, not like, oh, we don't like you. But by the way, go take that Senate seat in New York, take Chuck Schumer's seat. That would help so much. Let me also just be very clear in what I feel needs to change about our culture of politics in America.

I think Americans across the political spectrum, including progressives, including people on the far left, they've been conditioned and trained to see everything. as tribal. And what happens is you end up working for the politicians as their defenders, as the people who provide cover for them, as opposed to remembering, these are elected officials who signed up to represent you to be public servants. So it is actually your obligation to apply pressure on our elected officials on our own side to carry out the very policies they promise to carry out. And when they don't, it is not up to you to provide cover for them. You're only hurting yourself, you're only hurting the country.

It is up to you to ensure that they are fulfilling their role as public servants and not reneging on their campaign promises. Yeah, and so we're not tearing her down. We're telling her to run for the Senate and get a super important Senate seat away from Chuck Sherman on the progressive side. But if you say you're not going to do the things you said you were going to do, like support primary challengers against incumbents, then it's our job to hold you accountable. If we don't do that, then we're letting down our audience and Democratic voters, et cetera. So I'm glad she's introducing

that bill. She should do what she said she was going to do all the way back when she was running against an incumbent, which is support people on her side who are challenging her beloved colleagues. Because those colleagues are deeply corrupt. They're not our friends. They're not our allies. they are very, very, very often our opponents, our political opponents. Exactly. And if Hakeem Jeffries is Speaker of the House and he gets to decide what types of bills are introduced to the House floor, you think he's going to introduce an AOC bill that holds Israel accountable for its atrocities? Doubt it. Anyway, let's take a break when we come back. We'll finally get to those SCOTUS rulings I was telling you about.

All right, back on TYT. I'm going to read a lot of these blind. James Kelly writes, in on super chat. So if they're talking to attack Egypt and Turkey, they should create an alliance with Iran. Well, Egypt and Turkey actually used to be opposed to Iran, but the lunatics in Israel have now made everyone, the whole world are enemies, so they've ironically brought Turkey and Iran together and maybe even Egypt. So congratulations. Gregory Farr says people need to stop blaming boomer between Gen X and millennials. There are a total of 280, between both the house and only 233 boomers. All right, forget the boomer thing, all right,

let's just not say it anymore. The zombies or whatever, because people can't understand what we're saying demographically on average. We don't mean you if you're watching this. You're obviously a good person. My dad's a boomer who's a super progressive populace. All right, okay. Yeah, my parents are both boomers and they are very much opposed to Israel.

So I get what you're saying to like, don't take it personally. All right, yeah. Let's keep going. The lady Rose-O-1 says, Israel takes everything from us. to bankrupt and destroy USA economy, morally, socially, religiously, militarily, and weaponry. So we won't go after them when we solidify their stance. So I'm not sure what you mean by that. But if we do find out that Israel has done some things in this country that are despicable,

I could see why they'd want to make sure that we're not in fighting shape. Ed Oliver writes in Narco Rubio. That's a good way of putting it, since he obviously definitively works for Israel. Todd Wilkinson says, new members, sorry, took me so long, don't worry about any of that. You're with us now, and I love all of our members. All right, I'm out of time. We'll be right back. All right, back on TYT, Jank and Anna, with you guys.

So on to our next story. President Trump suffered a major loss at the Supreme Court, and this one's a doozy. It's really important because it affects our elections and our democracy. So Anna, tell us about it. Yes, in fact, shockingly, and I did not expect this myself, the Supreme Court's, majority actually decided to slap down Trump's challenge to mail in voting. And the determining justice, the person who broke the tie, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who of course was nominated by President Trump in the tail end of his first term.

So let's get to the details here because this has to do with a Republican-led attack against mail-in voting and you know these states having the right to determine what their mail-in voting laws are. So this outcome maintains current state level mail-in ballot laws and spares elections officials from having to, you know, deal with the headache of changing their rules and changing their laws as we have just a few months left before we head over to the midterms. Now the ruling upheld a Mississippi law allowing election officials to count mail-in ballots received up to five days after the election day. That doesn't mean that people voted after election day. It means that they submitted their

mail-in ballots and election officials didn't receive it until after election day. Now, if they received it up to five days after election day, those ballots need to be voted on or needed to be counted as part of the official tally. Now the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the Watson versus RNC case with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, as I mentioned earlier, citing with the majorities. In fact, Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion, which I'm sure enraged Trump even more. Now, those who supported the current mail-in ballot laws as they stand, Justice John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Jackson, I'm sorry, Brown Jackson, as well as Amy Coney Barrett. And in her majority opinion, Barrett said the following. She said that Congress

could change the law if very deadlines for ballot receipt similarly call for a national solution. The American people must choose it through their elected representative. So in other words, if you want to formalize a national standard as it pertains to mail-in voting, it needs to be done through Congress. Okay. But here's the really interesting thing, guys. Remember, In 2020, after Trump had lost the election, there were efforts to pass certain election laws that Republicans weren't in favor of because Republicans wanted states to continue to have their rights in how they carry out elections. The way that this, you know, mail-in ballot law was being challenged, it would essentially formalize a national standard, which Republicans

claimed that they were against. Now, Samuel Alito, Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the dissenting opinion said the following. Alito argued that the decision could threaten election integrity and increase the risks of fraud. He said that the majority based its decision on a flawed understanding of the election day statutes. Election day is a specified date, not a span of multiple days. But what Alito seems to totally downplay is the fact that these are Americans who voted before election day.

It's just, and the ballots are postmarked before election. day. It's just that the election officials in the state didn't receive the ballot until again, up to five days after election day. So they're postmarked before election day. So guys, normally I'll explain to you both sides of a case in a situation like this and say, you know, here's the argument in one direction, here's the argument in another direction, and here's why it came out this way. Sometimes it'll be close, sometimes Trump will win and he's not necessarily wrong. And I explain that, some might get annoyed, etc. It's very rare, but it's happened a couple of times, and I think that they've been generally right.

So in this case, the four conservative justice that voted in the other direction, just utter nonsense. Utter nonsense. Like they're not even trying to make an argument. So you know the vote is so important. But 750,000 people's votes came in, like they mailed them before election day, but they came in after election day, right? So you would disenfranchise 750,000 Americans. So if you were saying that voting is so important, well, you're doing the opposite. So it doesn't make any sense, right?

And then conservatives are supposed to care about states' rights, judicially, and legally. And this takes away states' rights. Yes. So elections are the purview of the states. And what Amy Coney-Barrant is saying is, in rare cases, Congress could set national standards, But if it goes to the federal level, it is definitely Congress. The executive branch has nothing to do with these types of elections. So that is super clear.

That is why she and John Roberts voted with the liberal justices because the law is so crystal clear. And the conservative justice's answer was basically, whatever, dude, we want the Republicans to win. Screw states rights, screw the law. Yeah, we don't like it. So we think it's unconstitutional. That's not a thing, man. It's embarrassing. And also, you know, Justice Samuel Alito says, well, this could increase fraud.

I mean, we've had mail-in voting for a while now. I mean, you could bolster your argument by showing examples of widespread fraud that actually has an impact on the outcome of elections, but that doesn't exist because that hasn't happened. You get what I'm saying? So it's just, you're right, Jake. I mean, the conservative justices who were against state, allowing for the tally of mail and ballots that came in after postmarked before election day but came in after election day I just they don't have an

argument you're right now Trump is enraged by this enraged by the ruling and so here's what he posted on truth social in light of the tremendous loss in the Supreme Court today concerning voters rights and the fact that people's votes are allowed to be counted long after an election is over he's obviously engaging in hyperbole there, but whatever. It is more important than ever to pass the Save America Act, which is all voters must show photo ID, all voters must show proof of citizenship, no mail in ballots except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel, and then he goes on.

But I wanna talk briefly about the Save America Act because it's not just Democrats who are against it. Now every single congressional Democrat is against it, but there are also Republican who are against it, which is why the Save America Act hasn't passed yet. So for those who are unfamiliar with the Save America Act, I'll give you some of the relevant provisions within it. Now, let me just also note that the five senators who are against it, Senators Lisa Murkowski, Republican from Alaska, Susan Collins, Republican from Maine, Tom Tillis, Republican from North Carolina, Bill Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana, and Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky.

Now, the Save America Act is basically legislation that would limit who is able to receive a mail-in ballot, and it would impose ID and documentary proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote. It would restrict registration to vote to basically being in person. Like you'd have to go to your local election office and register that way. It would severely harm your ability to register online, which I think the vast majority. of Americans register online at this point. It would impose new nationwide mandates on voter registration documentation. As I mentioned in Kansas, where documentary proof of citizenship is already required, the

law blocked over 30,000 potential registrants around 12% of all voter registration in just two years, despite the fact that 99% of these potential registrants are US citizens. So like the whole point is to restrict an eligible voters ability to vote. So I think the Republican members of Congress who are honest were able to see that and they have a problem with it. And you never know, it could actually end up hurting the Republican Party by severely restricting the ability of Republican voters, eligible Republican voters from being able to vote. Roughly 9% of Americans, more than 7 million voters registered to vote by mail in 2022.

and 43 states allow online voter registration. So there are issues with the Save America Act, which is why it hasn't passed Congress. It doesn't even have buy-in from every Republican. Yeah, so to back that up, so there's also other provisions in the bill that don't have anything to do with voting, and it's just a disastrous bill overall. Yeah, trans stuff. They literally included trans stuff in it. Okay, if you want that, make it a separate bill, man.

What does it have to do with voting? This is so stupid. Yeah. Okay, so, but on top of that, guys, for example, 50% percent. 50% of Americans don't have, you need either a passport or a birth certificate. 50% of Americans don't have a passport. You know which side has less passports? The Republican side, okay?

So by a lot. And so that's why some of the smart Republicans are like, hey, idiot, this could actually hurt us, right? And birth certificates, you'd be surprised at how many people don't have their birth certificates readily available. So on that alone, it's gonna knock out like 20 to 25% of all voters. We're gonna knock out a quarter of the voters in this case. country, that's crazy.

Just out of curiosity, I have my birth certificate, right? But that's because my mom was like meticulous in keeping all these documents or whatever. And I have it. Do you have access to your birth certificate? I know a lot of people who don't. I have access to my passport and to my, the document that made me a citizen. Okay, all right. Okay, so, but yes, that is a thing that you have to like dig up somewhere in your parents'

basement or wherever it is. Right. And a lot of people don't have access to it. And it's not just Democrats, it's also, by the way, older Republicans who are like, are you insane that I'm in Oregon now and I got my birth certificate of years in Kansas like 70 years ago, right? Yeah, what happens to people living in rural America who don't have, like they don't have their birth certificate, they need it in order to, you know, register under this, you know,

proposed law. Let's say they're elderly. I mean, it's just, it could actually really hurt Republican voters. I like, it's just hilarious to me how short-sighted Trump is in pushing for this. Okay, last thing's about Trump, right? So throughout all of this and throughout all of these cases, how has Trump voted? Mail in ballot every time. Of course. It's, I mean, it's just remarkable, remarkable. And they take pictures of the entire Trump family mailing in their votes. It's amazing. It's amazing.

Okay, so the second of all, you know, this bitch has been crying about the stolen election in 2020, For six straight years now, right? And at this point, look, I'm open to the government doing anything, right? So okay, show me the proof. Good news, you're at the Supreme Court. This would help your case so much. Look at all this fake votes in 2020 from the mail-in ballots. That could prove your case definitively.

Zero. That's such a good point, Jank. If ever there was an opportunity to make your case about how mail-in ballots are so bad, there was widespread fraud, why not show it? Why not prove it? Why not provide it during the Supreme Court decision? This now makes 62 court cases at a minimum where Trump has presented absolutely zero evidence of voter fraud in his election. By the way, to Anna's earlier point, you could open it up and say, oh, forget Trump's 2020 election.

Let's show you all the disastrous voter fraud that's happened from mail-in ballots. No evidence presented. So obviously it's totally utterly BS. They're trying to trick you into, by the way, accumulating power not just for Republicans or for Trump, but for the powerful. Because the donors are starting to get angry that there's rebellions on the left and the right. There sure is. And they want to shut that stuff down. They sure do.

Don't help them do that. All right, when we come back, I've got a great interview for you guys on is Zoran Mamdani the kingmaker now in the Democratic Party? It's an interesting discussion. We'll do that when we return. Back on the revolution here. So guys, I think that especially for this program here where we're trying to ignite some sort of rebellion revolution that's political in nature against the establishment, Tuesday of last week was our Concord, our Lexington.

Three progressives winning in New York and destroying the establishment candidates was a sign that in my opinion the revolution has begun. And I think a huge part of it is not listening to mainstream media, they're the great deceivers. And so now we wanna have a conversation about what are the ramifications of that? What should we learn from that? And what is it portend for the future? So to help us do that, we're gonna bring in David Smith. These are the Washington Bureau Chief of the Guardian, an outlet we trust.

Will the Mamdani effect make 2028 the year of the left wing president, he asked. So David, welcome to the show. We appreciate you coming on. All right, great to be here. All right. So first, let's have you lay out your thesis. And then I want to ask about some of the nuances in there because I think it's very important. And we might even have a disagreement on which direction is going.

But that'll be fun and that'll be for later. Tell us what your thoughts on at work. Yeah, as you say, these fascinating election results in New York last week with three Democratic Socialist or left-wing candidates prevailing, all backed by Mayor Zoran Mamdani, and they beat establishment or incumbent candidates. And they are not alone in that, because here in Washington, D.C., the week before, we also saw a Democratic Socialist win the Democratic primary for mayor. and there have been similar results in Seattle and other parts of the country.

It does feel like changes in the air. And in this article that I wrote for The Guardian, I interviewed several pundits and some of the groups like Democratic Socialists of America. And there were a few themes to explain why this is happening. Some of it is about frustration with the current Democratic Party leadership. And of course, it just so happens, Jeffries and Chuck Schumer both based in New York themselves. And Jeffreys had endorsed a couple of the candidates

are actually lost in those elections. A feeling that they have failed the test of the Trump era. They've not stood up to Trump's authoritarianism and the Democratic Party needs new leadership. Other issues, Israel was absolutely crucial in these elections. And of course, we saw Bradlander beat Dan Goldman, one pundit suggested the only real difference between them is that lander has said military aid to Israel should stop, whereas Goldman is more supportive of Israel. And you see it in the polling.

Nationwide, even among Republicans, there is a shift against Israel because of the death and destruction in Gaza. And among Democrats, especially young progressives, that shift is pronounced. So, again, one commentator, Bill Goldston said, you know, come the 28 presidential primary among Democrats. You can no longer hide from the Israel issue. Everyone will be asked, where do you stand? It will be a real litmus test. I think another key issue here is capitalism itself for so long.

Just unquestioned faith in capitalism for all candidates in U.S. politics. Now, with the cost of living crisis, with big money in politics, the influence of big tech, all of that is under question. and suddenly, socialism is no longer a dirty word. And some of these candidates are embracing the phrase democratic socialism. So for all these reasons and others, I think you are seeing a potential shift to the left of the Democratic Party. And some people I interviewed really celebrated that.

And others feared that it actually could give Donald Trump and Republicans an opening. Yeah. So I want to come back to that because that's really important in a second and I want to come back to capitalism socials But I want to figure out why they won these elections and what are the consequences but the first thing is On the on the issue of Israel in that 10th district in New York So Bradlander versus Dan Goldman like you say the main differences is Israel they're both Jewish And it is a third most Jewish district in in the country right so after Afterwards, of course, Dan Goldman says he lost because of anti-Semitism.

That's all the Jewish voters, voted for the other Jewish candidate because they're all anti-Semites. Okay, whatever. But the consequence of that is, and it was a 30 point landslide. And Dan Goldman was the golden boy for the Democrats. And so he was treated with reverence and some even thought he was going to run for president one day. So, and for him to get landslided like that, all of that is in prelude to me asking you, Did you sense some degree of panic in DC when you talk to people about these results?

Yeah, and indeed so much has changed, hasn't it? Because we'll remember Dan Goldman from that first Trump impeachment trial when he did seem to be more pugnacious and leading the anti-Trump charge. But yeah, I think there is, in some cases probably panic in others certainly disquiet. And Bill Goldson, I mentioned, who's a veteran of the Clinton administration, when I interviewed him, in his usual quite understated way, he said, you know, this is giving me food for thought as a centrist. He's dwelling on it. He's thinking about it. But yeah, I think in some quarters of the Democratic Party, there is something close to panic because they can see which way the wind is blowing. and they are aware, and some of them have been quoted in various media saying this, they're aware that the left at the moment is out-organizing them, has more energy, has more dynamism,

and they feel they've got something clear to coalesce around and the windows at their backs. Where do the moderates and the centrists go from here? And you see politicians like Slotkin, Michigan and Murphy of Connecticut trying to get their head around that and say, well, look, the voters are telling us they do want boldness, they do want change. And that raises a question of how much of it is just looking for someone to fight hard against Trump and how much of it is actually ideological and policy-based. But certainly with Mamdani as a symbol of all this,

personifying it, I think at least some of it is based around policy. And, And as you said, that Landa Goldman race, I think that was another factor worth bearing in mind, just the Mandani effect. Yeah. So let's talk about one thing before we get into the consequence of this and the split within progressives that I feel has been a little bit unaddressed, which is the centrist main thesis, right? Centrist Democrats claim, look, we're for the same policies you guys are.

We just plan to do them 30 years from now. We never have enough votes. We never, we don't even want to try. But trust us in the real back of our heads, we theoretically agree with you. So that was never a winning argument for them. So that's not what they relied on. They relied on the argument. Yeah, well, that's true.

We suck and we never do anything. But we're more electable. So if you don't elect us, Donald Trump will win, the boogeyman will win, Freddie Kruger will win, et cetera. Right? But now they've lost the electability argument. The people who are way to the left of me are winning elections and I was so enthusiastic Bernie Sanders supporter. And they're getting their asses handed to them on a regular basis.

And after two humiliating losses to Donald Trump, ones that they told us it's guaranteed that Hillary Clinton's gonna win. We're sure Kamala Harris is gonna win. In fact, you have to defeat Bernie Sanders and you have to defeat all these people Because we are the most electable. So I say that all in prelude to asking, do the centrists believe their own BS? Do they really think they're more electable? Or do they realize, oh my God, we've been caught in our lie and we have literally nothing left to stand on.

And hence why they're worried. Well, I wouldn't dare to speak on their behalf. I could try and play devil's advocate on their behalf. I guess they would respond. Yes, you've mentioned Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. But in between that, what about Joe Biden? He was a centrist who, you know, be progressives in 2020 and apparently was more electable, and that's what the nation wanted they would say.

With, of course, with an ironic twist there that actually defenders of Biden would say, once he was in office, he was, you know, relatively radical for a moderate, more than they expected, and he had input from Bernie Sanders and so on. Again, with my devil's advocate hat on, I think the centrist would say they also had some victories on Tuesday night. I think one in New York and others in other places. And for now, men in the party would say, you know, we can put this fight on hold because just the nature of midterms, you know, you're going to run the candidates who are suitable for any particular districts under a certain purple districts where you do want

someone perceived as more moderate term. However, obviously that's not really going to wash in 28. A choice will have to be made between the moderate. and progressive wing. And yes, to your point, if you take away the moderate electability argument, what else do they have left? And, you know, it's interesting for a long time.

I think many of the policy positions of progressives have been extremely popular with the public. When you, you know, when you survey people, they like the idea of universal healthcare, for example. It's just a case now of getting that into election. politics, finding the right candidate, and of course, dealing with the issue of, well, a lot of right with media and also the incredible amounts of money that various vested interests would throw against those candidates. So, okay, so what I'm getting out of that

answer is no, they don't get it. And so, and the purple states, the moderates have no advantage. They never have an advantage. That's just made up. That's just something people in D.C. say with evidence. So like they told us McCaskill is going to win in Missouri because she's a moderate. She lost if she'd embraced the minimum wage ballot measure that won by 32 points she might want. But instead she decided to be a moderate and got clowned. Donnelly in Indiana, same thing. And I can go through a dozen of the so-called moderates who were supposed to win and lost because like idiots, they ran as Republican light. Well, then why would I want to vote the light version? I'll vote for the actual version. So, okay.

So all that is already in the history books. So now, David, I think the main thing that folks are missing in DC, including in reporting circles, is that there are two wings of progressives. So that's, I think that things are being misattributed, right? So they look at it and they go, oh, okay, the socialists have won. And that's kind of the right wing framing that people want. Now it's not that that was not incorrect. A lot of DSA candidates did win, and they are Democratic Socialists.

Right? But is that the reason they want? Like Shivay has said some genuinely outrageous things, right? Is that the reason she won? No, I think the reason she won is because she's also in the other half of the progressive movement. The progressive movement has two branches, identity politics and economic populism, right? And identity politics represented by generally speaking AOC, Jasmine Crockett, et cetera.

economic populism represented by Roe-Connor, right? So I think that what the voters are looking at and is going, I know what the status quo is, and I hate it. And so anyone who is not serving the donor class, which by the way, both sides of progressives are totally in agreement on, but especially the economic populists go, no, no, no, we should not be serving APEC, we should not be serving the oil companies and the big pharma, et cetera. I think that's the actual super popular part of the progressive movement and gets almost no coverage in DC.

So what's your take on that? Yeah, I think I agree with all of that. I mean, if I'd have to say what is fundamentally driving a lot of current politics, it is cost of living. And I was around for 2016, when you had the populist insurgencies on both sides, Donald Trump, a fake populist for the Republicans. And Bernie Sanders, I would agree, a more genuine one on the Democratic side. And it's one of the great historical what-ifs.

What if Bernie Sanders had won that election instead of Hillary Clinton. And I think all the issues we saw there over the last decade have not gone away. Maybe there's a brief interregnum for COVID. But it's still there in terms of people finding their children are worse off than them. that they can't afford to buy a house, asking that question, who is to blame, who is the villain of this piece? And some of the people I interviewed for this article said, you know, the centrist, the moderates are really bad at identifying villains. They don't want to go there, whereas progressives and democratic socialists perhaps much better at pointing to the wealthy corporations and the elites and raising the idea of imposing taxes, Just to your argument, I mean, I know there's also debates going on around our Democratic Socialists of America,

certainly in New York, full of transplants, so often white and college educated. Is that separate from a constituency in black and Latino and more working class areas? I talk to some people about that. I wouldn't necessarily dwell on here. It's interesting, but I think more unifies these groups than divides them. And I hope for their sake, they find a united voice, particularly around a 2028 candidate. Yeah, I actually don't hope for that. I hope that the Democrats have a big politically bloody fight and they come out with a super

strong candidate. This whole, don't fight, don't fight is a trick because they say don't fight. Now you have to back Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris. Just to be clear, I actually meant the left-wing groups not turning on each other. Oh, I see. I agree more broadly. The Democratic Party, and this is it. Right now, people are fretting or panicking and saying Democrats at each other's throats, this is terrible.

I mean, I think that's, it's still preferable to the Republican model, which right now is authoritarian. And if you dare to disagree with a cult leader, you're kicked out. healthy, vigorous debate is, you know, is valuable. It's what it's all about. Yeah, absolutely. And there's nothing wrong with our own side having that debate and discussion too. Of course, you gotta air it out. Otherwise, you never actually resolve anything.

Okay, so now let's go to Israel because, you know, you said the centrist moderate Democrats don't really wanna label villains, right? And that's certainly true. And clear and obvious, right? So my thesis is not a controversial. Well, well, in DC, I'm sure it will be controversial, but in the real world it isn't, which is that they don't want to label the villains because the villains are their donors. So they don't want to say, hey, big pharma is robbing you blind.

What do you mean we can't negotiate drug prices? Because big pharma donates to a giant percentage of the centrist Democrats. They're not centrist, they're corporate Democrats. So, and then now when you come to Israel on that issue, they're certainly not gonna label Israel or APAC as the villains, because those are the guys who've been paying them this entire time. Decade after decade, the overwhelming majority of the Democratic Party took legalized bribes from the Israeli lobby.

So if they made them the villains, then we'd realize that those centrist Democrats are also the villains, right? Who actually were the henchmen of those guys. So that leads up to this question. My sense of it, David, is that people like that these elections are not just around the edges. The votes are overwhelming now, because the voters are using Israel as a proxy. So it's become so clear that so many of our politicians are controlled by a foreign government, that they think, well, if you're controlled by a foreign government, then you're also controlled

by big pharma and the oil and defense and all those things. So I don't trust you at all. So I'm gonna vote for someone whether I agree or disagree with all of their policies, because at least I could trust them to be honest and not corrupt. And if you're an establishment Democrat, almost by definition, especially if you support Israel, I would argue if you support Israel because you've taken Israeli lobby money, by definition you're corrupt. So to me, really what's driving this is corruption and Israel being a proxy for that corruption.

Okay, what do you think of that thesis? Yeah, I mean, I think it's been fascinating recent years just to see how APAC has become such a politically toxic brand compared to 10 years ago or so. And it now motivates people to actually vote against someone. And you see candidates having to say, you know, I don't accept APAC money. I have heard the concern raised that actually APAC may provide a shield for some candidates. They will say, hey, look, I distance myself from APAC, and then they'll decline to comment on the more fundamental issue of Israel's conduct in Gaza. But, yeah, I think what we're seeing here, you know, ultimately is also a, you know, I see a generational break. Biden was the personification of that generation of Democrats who regarded Israel as the

plucky underdog in the Middle East, has to be supportive of that question at all times. Many younger progressives are coming through now, seeing the death toll in Gaza, questioning that being much more critical of Israel. And again, I think APAC money, that kind of influence, will be a crucial question in many of these elections going forward. Yeah, so yeah, they'll try to hide and run. But to your point, about 2028, there's no hiding and running in 28. So you can tell me you distance yourself from APEC, but brother, do you want a free Palestine or not?

And so like in actually opposing Israel, they just can't bring themselves to do it. They're hooked on the donor money and the donors definitely want a genocide. So let's keep it real. They're saying no, you have to fund Israel's wars and genocide. Otherwise, we're gonna pull your money. And without our money, you don't even exist. So the centrists are built on a mirage. They're not centrist, they're the corrupt Democrats.

So they're in a kind of a self-imposed pincer move, David. They can't not take the money. That's the only source of power they have. But now if they take the money, we all know they're crooks. So they're really, really, I don't think they have any idea how screwed they are. So which leads us to 2028. And so how do you see that presidential race shaping up, giving all of these, given all these dynamics? Yeah, I mean, people I talked to over this article really felt that the evidence of last week suggests we're going to have a very strong, serious contender on the left, more so perhaps than.

four years ago or six years ago I should say maybe Mamdani who of course is not eligible to run himself will be a big voice there you know one can imagine a scenario does he endorse a candidate and does that carry a lot of weight does he become a really national figure but I think you know for all these trends we've we've talked about just the the dissatisfaction the feeling that something in the model is broken, and that's how we got Trump in the first place. There is that appetite for something more dramatic and more radical rather than business as usual. Nobody wants a candidate who's just saying, hey, I'm going to turn back the clock to 2016 or 2020 or whatever.

And obviously, as I was interviewing people, the first name that naturally crops up irresistibly is Alexander. Acacia Cortes, another great political talent, very charismatic, very strong on a lot of these issues. I know criticized by some on the left sometimes for sort of playing too much of the mainstream of House Democratic leadership. We'll have to see how that goes. There are others, two who may rise, maybe people we don't even know yet. But I think, yeah, come that primary, It's that fascinating situation where Trump, for all the horrors of the Trump era, has shaken the kaleidoscope and made people think, well, hang on, if Republicans and MAGA can be so radical and dramatic and just, you know, go for what they want and get it, why can't people on the left do the same, break through the old conventions and actually say, hang on a minute, of course we should have universal health care and, you know, we're going to do it. Yeah, so look, universal health care is super popular, higher minimum wage is super popular, money out of politics. All of the populist positions are two-thirds or above.

So mainstream media has been lying to the American people my whole life, pretending those are radical positions when they poll at 67% or higher. And every developed nation on earth has universal health care except us. Even the tiny countries in the World Cup, they all have universal health care. We're the richest nation on earth and we don't have it. We don't have paid family leave. Every country on earth, including the non-developed ones, except I think a couple of island nations and us, they all have paid family, we don't. That's not a radical position. That's the most, it's polls at 84%.

Every mainstream media reporter is a liar. They all pretend these are radical left-wing positions when they're in fact, they're super popular. So David, another thesis here, and then we'll get to, you know, the issue at hand here is that I think that part of the reason why we had these spectacular victories in New York and why Mamdani won and why we're talking about how a left-wing candidate has an excellent chance of winning the primary in 28 is because mainstream media has lost its power. Before, they would lie to you and tell you Bernie can't win when he was polling 12 points higher than Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. They would see the poll and they would lie on air 24-7, right?

But now nobody's listening to those liars except a bunch of zombies that still watch TV, and most of them are inside DC. And I like them being misdirected. So with the power of mainstream media greatly reduced, number one, I'm curious if you sense that people in DC sense that or if they're still utterly clueless about it? And number two, since they won't, they'll still be relevant, but they won't be as relevant as they were when they defeated Bernie single-handedly. Do people have a sense of how much of a difference that could make in 28, or is it going to

totally shocked them. I think some of it is percolating through and you can see that in the way that various politicians including potential 2020 contenders increasingly go on podcasts and engage

with influencers and seem to realize that they can't just do an editorial board meeting within the New York Times or go on MS now and have done with it. I generally agree with your thesis and it's a fascinating, again, transformation from, say, a decade ago.

There's been so much media fragmentation. Obviously, on the right in 2024, Trump, despite his age, was kind of somewhat ahead of the game in terms of going on Joe Rogan and various other podcasts, kind of realizing there was a constituency there. And I think generally, the Gaza issue as well, Sometimes people are finding out about that more from, obviously, on social media than the mainstream outlets. I suspect, you know, Washington moves so slowly.

There are still plenty of people who are not really clued up, and it will be a shock to them. But, yeah, I think it's a very good point that if a Democratic socialist run strong in 2028, they will be making the most of all of this. And probably, you know, case study number one is, of course, Mamdani himself. I think, you know, how did he become mayor of New York against Andrew Cuomo, who was very much sort of trapped in the 20th century media model? Part of it was, as you're saying, strong policies that appeal to people. Part of it was a very good, well-organized ground game, knocking on doors.

but another crucial component was this brilliant, just intuitive social media strategy. And you see older Democrats, including many moderates, you know, trying to be authentic and do fun stuff on social media and it falls flat on its face. Ma'am Darnie has the touch. He has the gift. Even just the other day, he was kind of diving into a swimming pool and his suit and everyone loved it. So I have friends who say, you know, their first piece of advice to the 28 Democratic nominee, whoever it is, is, you know, hire Mamdani's communications social media team. And again, I think that will throw into sharp relief the old model of the mainstream media being slightly out of touch now.

Yeah. All right. So last question. By the way, just a quick aside, I think Mamdani is eligible to run. But you can call me about that later. That's a different topic. Okay. So look, there's Mamdani, you know, people, conventionalism is that he can't run, although constitutionally, I think he can, but he's probably not going to, right, given the challenges that that would involve, especially being so young. So then you've got AOC as a possibility, but it feels like people are sleeping on Roecona. So he comes in with the same exact super popular proposals on universal health care and all the things that we just talked about that are all polling above two-thirds.

But he does not have the unpopular parts of some of the progressive movement, the defund the police, the leaning towards socialism, which is doing fine with younger voters in New York, but might not play as well in the rest of the country and in the swing states. So given that he's in the Bernie Lane, he might actually be the only one in the Bernie lane if AOC decides to run for the Senate, and that he has nothing but super popular policies, is that someone that people should be looking out for? Yeah, I think definitely a possibility, not least because, I sort of place a bet 99% certain he is going to run,

and I've seen him all over Iowa and New Hampshire in other places and a very appealing policy agenda. It's interesting that his district is kind of home to the billionaires or trillionaires of Silicon Valley. I don't know if that's a positive or a negative overall. If I can be a little sort of cruel and unfair, I know just anecdotally when I talk to people about Rokana, an objection they raise is that he doesn't necessarily have the speech-making charisma of some

candidates who've gone on to president. Maybe that's on the eye of the beholder. Maybe he will learn it. But for now, they don't feel that sparkle, that excitement when he talks to a room, we shall see. But yeah, I think, yeah, he should definitely be in the mix. One other point just generally I wanted to mention again is, you know, how Republicans are going to play all of this, if it's Cassio Cortez or O'Connor or whatever. I, you know, I went to a Trump speech last week in Washington. And they, of course, are leaping on this, describing the left as godless communists leaning into a sort of red scare playbook.

It's not just Trump being wacky and grabbing ideas. Mike Johnson, the House Speaker, has been going after this several times as well, kind of reading a supposed list of the crazy things these people are saying. And certainly there are warnings from moderate, ex-Republicans, anti-Trumpers and so on, that all of this could be a gift electorally. I suspect you disagree with that, but it's fascinating to see how, yeah, the Republicans feel they've been thrown in lifeline and are really going to sort of go in hard on how these people are, you know,

sort of American versions of Jeremy Corbyn in Britain who lost the general election there. Yeah, yeah, that gets into a whole other conversation because, you know, we can show you the most extreme Republicans in Alabama and Mississippi and say they are the Republican Party, but mainstream media generally doesn't do that. But the minute Republicans show you one person who said one extreme thing, that's a Democrat, just talking about 24-7.

until all that anybody thinks about the Democratic Party is the most extreme policy from the most extreme person. And so that's how mainstream media tries to deceive you into voting for either corporate Democrats or corporate Republicans. So it's a game they've played a million times over. But the good news is, look, even when they try those dirty tricks, almost nobody's watching cable news anymore. So you can dirty trick all you want there.

So have at it, Haas. It's not working. Goldman lost by 30 points. So, and, you know, they're, oh, communists. Yeah, for the 90 year olds that still remember communism, maybe that's effective. But for the rest of us, we don't care about your stupid demagoguery about communists. Like, there's no communist that's gonna win the presidency. This is insane, right? And so anyways, like I said, that's probably for another day.

David Smith, Washington Bureau, Chief of the Guardian. We should talk more as this develops. I really appreciate your contribution here. Thanks for joining us. Thanks very much. Yes. All right guys, so we're gonna do a bonus episode for the members. So if you're not a member yet, hit the join button below on YouTube or t.t.com slash join.

We are gonna continue to do interactions. So if you've got questions for me or comments, send it in now. I'll try to read that during the bonus episode and I have a ton of comments left over. And I wanna respond to you guys. And so we talk to the members when we return. Look, I don't know what your plans are for the summer, but if you're still paying Verizon or AT&T tons of money for your phone plan, you should stop.

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