The Young Turks - Wannabe Assassin

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Support independent, progressive news coverage from TYT. Report claims Roger Stone discussed assassinating House Democrats. The UN warns Gaza is now "uninhabitable" as war continues. Inside Israel's plan to quash South Africa's Gaza genocide case. Democratic candidate Cenk Uygur joins the show for an interview. Biden is making his campaign about how scary Trump is, and Biden supposedly values democracy more than Trump ever will. HOST: Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have a gigantic show ahead for you today. Lots of important stories to get to a few lighter stories later in the second hour of the show. But first we begin with a late breaking story from today involving yet more potentially incriminating audio that has been obtained in regard to Roger Stone, a close Trump confidant, and someone who had been prosecuted as part of the Mueller investigation.

Well, let's talk a little bit about the latest that we are learning about and what it could mean for Roger Stone moving forward. has exclusively obtained more damning and potentially incriminating audio transcripts of Roger Stone, featuring Roger Stone. Now, last week on Friday, the same outlet Mediite released a transcript of Roger Stone allegedly telling an NYPD officer, or I should say basically telling an NYPD officer to abduct and punish a prosecutor involved in the Mueller investigation. But now this new audio that Mediite has listened to and has provided transcripts of indicates that Stone has plotted for the murder of two Democratic lawmakers, specifically

Jerry Nadler and Eric Swalwell, both Democratic congressmen in the House of Representatives. Now in the new transcripts of the audio that were obtained and released by Mediite, Stone tells his associate and former NYPD officer Sal Greco, quote, it's time to do. do it, let's go find Swalwell, it's time to do it. Then we'll see how brave the rest of them are. It's time to do it. It's either Nadler or Swalwell has to die before the election, meaning before the 2020 election. And he continues to say they need to get the message, let's go find Swalwell and get this over with. I'm just not putting up with this crap anymore. Now, a source familiar with the discussion that Roger Stone had with Sal Greco, again, the former NYPD officer

who was serving as security for Roger Stone, basically says to Mediite that he or she believes that Stone was absolutely serious about what he was proposing here. It was definitely concerning that he was constantly planning violence with an NYPD officer and other militia groups. So what was the reasoning behind the threats? What motivated Roger Stone to want to go after, essentially violently, against Nadler and Swalwell. Well, apparently Stone had been at war with Nadler and Swalwell for years. He just hates them, according to the source. He just wanted to get Trump back into office so these things would stop.

So both Nadler and Swalwell serve on the House Judiciary Committee, and at the time of this conversation that Roger Stone had, which by the way took place at Café Europa, Nadler had announced the committee would be investigating then Donald Trump's decision to commute Stone's sentence after he himself was convicted of federal crimes in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. So specifically, Roger Stone was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering, he was threatening witnesses, and also lying to Congress during the Mueller investigation.

sought a nine year prison sentence for the longtime Republican operative, but Trump's Justice Department reportedly intervened to impose a less severe sentence. Stone's sentence though was eventually commuted by Trump days before reporting to prison, so he didn't serve a single day behind bars. Now that decision by Trump was what the House Judiciary Committee was supposed to investigate, and apparently that got Roger Stone's dander up and led to him wanting to, according to what he said to this former NYPD officer, essentially murder Nadler and Swalwell as a result of what they wanted to investigate. Now, these comments were released after Mediite's first article indicating that, you know, there were other audio clips that they listened to in those

audio clips and they shared the transcripts of this. Stone was making similar threats toward prosecutor Aaron Zelensky. He said, quote, he needs to be punished. You have to abduct him and punish him that has to be done, it will be easy to abduct him because he is a weakling. And once again, Roger Stone blamed the comments on AI. So he is denying that he ever said any of this stuff. He claims that these are fake audio recordings created by artificial intelligence. And Stone told Mediite regarding the Swalwell and Nadler statements, quote, total nonsense, I've never said anything of the kind, more AI manipulation, you asked me to respond

to audios that you don't let me hear and you don't identify a source for absurd. However, interestingly enough, Mediite reached out to the former NYPD officer, Sal Greco, and Greco did not deny the veracity of the audio. He did say this, though, I don't think your reader is interested in ancient political fodder. I don't know, Sal, I think if someone was plotting to murder sitting members of Congress, law enforcement at least should be interested in learning more about that. So is this going to be investigated? Because I totally think it should be.

I mean, look, Roger Stone should want it investigated. He's claiming that this is artificial intelligence. So someone's completely in his words making up that Roger Stone has said these terrible, terrible things. that are incredibly incriminating, so wouldn't he want the authorities to investigate it? I'm just looking out for Roger Stone. I really want to get to the bottom of the truth. I think they should investigate it. Because if it's untrue, then the public should know about it. And if it is true, I think it is unacceptable to say the least to have public figures like Roger Stone plotting for the murder of sitting members of Congress. How is that okay?

So look, this story just broke and I'm sure it's going to develop. I'm sure we'll learn more about it. But I am very curious to see what the response is. Is this just another story that's going to fall by the wayside and we're going to pretend like it's not a serious issue? Or is it going to be investigated by the authorities? Because again, we're talking about a guy who was plotting the January 6 riots with the proud boys, Enrique Atario specifically.

In fact, Donald Trump's connection to Enrique Atario, that link was Roger Stone. I mean, this guy gets in the middle of everything and causes so many problems. And so if he did in fact say these things, if he was in fact trying to persuade Greco to engage in the murder of sitting members of Congress, well, then there should be consequences for that. And we should question whether or not there were any actions taken to fulfill that proposal. Now luckily doesn't appear that anything terrible has happened to Nadler and Swalwell, but it is unbelievable to me that he can, that Roger Stone can just, if this is proven to be true, call for this kind of violence and for literally years get away with it. Because this conversation clearly happened in 2020. It didn't happen last week. And so now that we know about it, now that we have more details, let's see if there's going to be any action taken to investigate this. I hope there will be. But we'll fill you in if we learn more about it.

some of the updates on the war in Gaza. Unfortunately, none of the updates are great. All of the updates are just heart-wrenching and devastating. But nonetheless, let's get started. And the grief here is so suffused with desire for revenge, that peace seems ever more distant. Netanyahu, he says, you are a criminal. I ask God to keep you alive, just so you see you.

children as I'm seeing mine now. It's remarkable that he survived this Israeli airstrike on his home. One of more than a hundred attacks in the last 24 hours, bringing the reported death toll to over 22,000 Palestinians. The situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip continues to be dire, continues to devolve, and now we are three months into Israel's war. into Israel's war on Hamas and the UN humanitarian chief is describing Gaza as uninhabitable. Famine is looming and public health disasters continue.

Martin Griffiths, the UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that Gaza's 2.3 million people face daily threats to their very existence while the world just watches. He also says, quote, people are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded and famine is around the corner. And of course, that has to do with the fact that humanitarian aid is still severely restricted and limited. Right now, there are on average about 200 humanitarian aid trucks coming into the Gaza Strip, but that falls short of the 500 trucks that would come in prior to the war. Now, Israel's air, ground, and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 22,835 people, two-thirds of them, women and children.

The three-month conflict has displaced some 85% of Gaza's population, and the UN has identified more than 37,000 structures destroyed or damaged in the war so far. Palestinians have been displaced, and they have been forced to evacuate to the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip. But as we all know, they are not safe there either. Even the Rafa border crossing where the humanitarian aid comes in through has been riddled with air strikes in this war. I wanna give you more details about what's going on. But as I do, you're gonna see some pretty terrible footage of the carnage in the Gaza Strip.

I just wanna give you fair warning. These are difficult images to view. But the UN humanitarian chief also said that tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children have been killed or injured. families are left homeless and are sleeping out in the open as temperatures drop. Areas where Palestinians were told to evacuate have been suffered, have suffered deadly airstrikes and there isn't a single fully functioning hospital left in Gaza due to medical facilities under relentless attack. Around 180 Palestinian women are giving birth under these conditions every single day. Some of them are unable to deliver their babies in a safe environment, obviously.

The hospitals aren't functioning. And so it is honestly a miracle when a baby is born alive and the mother is okay. But there have also been stories of mothers dying from airstrikes as they're giving birth. Infectious diseases are also spreading. Martin Griffith said the humanitarian community is facing an impossible mission, trying to help more than 2 million people while UN staff and aid workers from partner organizations are killed, communications blackouts continue, roads are damaged, truck convoys are shot at, and vital commercial supplies are almost non-existent.

Griffiths also reiterated UN demands for an immediate end to the war and the release of all hostages declaring that it is time for the international community to use all its influence to make this happen. But there's absolutely no reason to believe that this war is coming to an end anytime soon. Multiple Israeli government officials have declared that the war will continue for at least, at least several months. Many of them have also claimed that the war will last throughout 2024, and in the meantime, there are videos all over the internet featuring IDF soldiers just admitting to their brutality, which I, you know, Israel at the moment is very clearly losing the PR war. And for anyone who doesn't understand why that is, I want to give

you exhibit A. I want to give you an example of why there they're losing the PR war. Let's watch. So for those who are listening to the audio version of the show, you just heard from IDF soldier Yishay Shalev, who said the following, he's standing in front of destroyed buildings. For all those asking why there is no education in Gaza, oops, we've had a missile fall on them. That sucks. Oh, too bad. That's how you'll not be engineers anymore. There are also horrific videos, horrific footage like what you're about to watch, where a woman is literally waving a white flag, which means she's not posing a threat, but she's shot by IDF soldiers anyway. Let's watch.

But members of both parties in the United States continue to defend Israel and the actions they're taking in the Gaza Strip, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who over the weekend signed his name on a bomb that the IDF plans to drop in Gaza, very likely killing more civilians, especially when you look at the number of civilians that have already died in Gaza, I just don't understand it, man. I don't understand how we can all see the same thing, how we can watch the same footage, how we can hear the same stories, how we can learn about journalists being killed and entire families being wiped out and still think that it's okay. For Mike Pence to proudly sign his name on a bomb, it's very likely going to

kill more civilians and he feels good about it. He feels proud about it. I just don't understand the lack of humanity, the lack of concern for innocent people who have no place to go, nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide, nowhere for safety. How is this okay? How are we okay with this? And these are bombs that are supplied by the United States that have killed UN workers, doctors, journalists in Gaza as well. And so I want to talk a little bit about what journalists have been experiencing. Starting with this. Southern Gaza and Wail Dadu, for many, the voice of Gaza, mourns another son.

Hamza Dadu's car destroyed in an airstrike, both men, well-known journalists with Al Jazeera. Whale's story is that of so many Palestinians. He's now lost his wife, three children, and a grandson to Israeli people. bombs, dropped following the Hamas atrocities of October 7th and decades of failure to bring peace to these contested lands. The world, says Wael, is blind to what's happening in the Gaza Strip. Just to give you more details about what this man has suffered, which I can't even fathom. I don't even know how I would be able to continue after some.

suffering the tragic losses that Yael has suffered. But Palestinian reporter Yel al-Dadu lost his wife, several children, and his closest colleague to Israeli airstrikes and shelling. On Sunday, his son Hamza al-Dadu, the one who had followed in his footsteps and became a journalist was killed alongside another colleague, Mustafa Theraya.

And according to Al Jazeera, Hamza, who's only 27 years old was on assignment for the Al Jazeera News Network, where his father is the Gaza Bureau Chief when a strike targeted the car he was traveling in near the southern city of Rafa. On both occasions, I don't know how YL does it, but he loses these family members,

he suffers some of the worst tragedies imaginable, and literally the next day he's back on air doing his job. I mean, the bravery, the tenacity, The courage is admirable. He's a stronger person than I would be because I don't know if I'd be able to move forward. But this is bigger in his mind than the losses that he himself has suffered. And that's why he continues doing the job he's doing. The pain became harder and more severe each time while told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

I wish that the blood of my son Hamza is the last of journalists and the last of people here in Gaza. Gaza and for this massacre to stop. The committee to protect journalists says that at least, at least 79 journalists and media workers have been killed so far. There have been other agencies that have come out with other numbers that are a little higher than that, but I'll stick to the conservative number here with the committee to protect journalists saying that 79 have been killed. But the number is very likely higher and previous investigations from international agencies have

concluded that journalists have been targeted. An investigation by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International concluded that IDF forces had targeted a group of Lebanese, American, and Iraqi journalists in South Lebanon on October 13th. The Israeli military has denied allegations that it targets journalists, insisting it targets only militants. My heart breaks for the 2.3 million gossens who are just suffering from relentless airstrikes, who are experiencing their families getting wiped out, who have no access to clean drinking water, who are dying as they deliver babies, who are dying from dehydration and malnourishment. And my heart also breaks for the Israeli civilians who to some extent probably think that what's

currently taking place right now in Gaza is somehow going to keep them safe, but is very likely going to do the opposite. Because as more people suffer from the destruction that's happening in Gaza right now, as more people lose more of their family members, I have no doubt. I have no doubt that it breeds more hatred, more extremism. more desires to destroy Israel. I don't know how this is in any way going to end well for any, anyone, whether we're talking about civilians in Israel or whether we're talking about innocent civilians in Gaza.

All I know is more people continue to die. We keep hearing pretty little lies from our government about how the Biden administration is wagging its finger at Netanyahu, urging him to rain it in and stop, you know, conducting this war in a way that leads to an insanely high number of civilian casualties, while Netanyahu basically laughs in the American government's face and we continue to provide more weaponry so we can carry out more devastation in Gaza. That is what's currently taking place. And I don't see a future in which both parties live great lives that live in peace. Because I think back at Martin Luther

King Jr. in one of his speeches about how the means need to justify the ends, you are not going to conclude with a peaceful solution when you're relying on utter violence, destruction, annihilation and atrocities to allegedly get to that place. You're never going to get there. You're never going to get to peace. So all of these lives are lost in vain. All of these lives are lost because Israel's angry. Israel's angry over the atrocities that were committed by Hamas on October 7th.

And I understand that rage. I understand that anger. And you would hope that cooler heads would prevail in a more strategic military operation would take place. But that is not what's happening right now. And it absolutely breaks my heart to know that we here in the United States are represented by a government that has no interest in listening to what we have to say or considering how we feel about Israel's war in Gaza. They're going to support whatever Israel wants to do through their words, through their actions. They're going to pretend like they're trying to get Israel to reel it in.

They're not reeling it in. It's abundantly clear. And we're going to keep sending those bombs to a government. With a military that has no problem dropping it on residential buildings, on refugee camps, on hospitals, on universities, as you saw from the video I showed you earlier, it's shameful and absolutely heartbreaking. We got to take a break. We'll be right back. Welcome back to TYT. Joining us now is Jank Yugar, presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in a primary that the Democratic National Committee is not really allowing to happen.

Jenk, how are you? I'm good, I'm hanging in there. We have a super important hearing on Wednesday, so I'm a little excited. Okay, tell me more about the hearing. So it's in South Carolina, federal district court. This is where the rubber hits the road, and we are going to adjudicate two different things. There's many different parts of the case as there usually is an illegal case. But number one is the core constitutional issue. Am I allowed to serve for president of the United States, right?

And we make a great case, 14th Amendment, First Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, etc. Okay, the second part of it is, is a state allowed to make any decision on a constitutional issue to keep you off the ballot. Now this one affects both me and Donald Trump, because South Carolina has, and this is really interesting because both red states and blue states have done this. Both California and South Carolina said, hey, when it comes to Trump, I cannot make a constitutional decision, so I'm gonna put them on the ballot. And both states said, well, I, in the case of Jake, I can make a constitutional decision,

I'm the greatest judge in the world, I'm gonna keep them off the ballot. So wait a minute, none of you are judges, and you just said you literally can't do it when it comes to the other candidate in this race. So it's gonna be really interesting to see how South Carolina rules. Are they gonna say, yeah, no, neither one of you can be on the ballot, or both of you can be on the ballot, or are they going to invent a reason why he can, but I can't? And so there's a lot of very interesting and very important issues for the court to resolve, and it's all on Wednesday.

So just so I'm understanding this correctly, three, Through this process, the courts will determine whether state election officials and politicians can make those constitutional decisions. Yes, so there's two layers to it. That's exactly right. Layer one is, should we even comment or consider in putting on the ballot or not putting on the ballot based on constitutional issues? Because a lot of the states have said when it comes to Trump, I don't know the constitution,

I'm not gonna make that decision, right? So I'm going, hence, my default is put them on the ballot. And those same states have said, oh, when it comes to Jake, I'm a constitutional law expert. And I can make a constitutional decision, and I have made it. So they are in direct contradiction of themselves. And by the way, we're going to ask South Carolina in court. We're assuming the attorney general, the governor, the board of elections, the state, and the Democratic Party in South Carolina.

But in places like California, I'm asking the reporters to ask, the Secretary of State says she's not a constitutional expert and can't judge Trump's case, but she is a constitutional expert and can judge my case. And the default is to keep Trump on, but the default is to take me off, which makes no sense at all. Yeah, there is a contradiction in states like California in that they are allowing for Trump to be on the ballot, but think that you should be left off the ballot. And my understanding of just basic government rules is that it's the courts that decide the constitutionality of various issues that come up. In this case, the issue is whether or not you can run for president as a naturalized citizen. And so your argument is you should be allowed on the ballots until the courts adjudicate whether or not you should be allowed on the ballots. 100%. And now let me explain why this hearing is so interesting and important for the second. reason, right? The core constitutional reason. Because Anna, how everyone has treated it so far,

both in the Democratic Party, let alone the Republican Party, and mainstream media is, a jank's crazy. Oh, there's no way. It's in the Constitution. Somebody today in South Carolina wrote that he's saying that the Constitution is unconstitutional. Yeah, that's what every amendment says. 14th Amendment changed in giant chunks of the Constitution. And then you could say, Oh, does three-fifths clause mean that that part of the Constitution is unconstitutional? Yeah, that's what amendments are for, right? And so in this case, because everybody learned in the eighth grade in civics class, they just shut off their minds.

They don't want to hear it. Now all of a sudden, two things have happened. Number one, Larry Lessig, one of the top constitutional law experts, just published an article saying, it's not crazy at all. It's a perfectly valid case. Which way it comes out, he's not sure either. But let me give you a sense of why Professor Lessig is saying that. He's at Harvard law, again, one of the most respected law professors in the whole country.

He's saying, look, in 1868 when the 14th Amendment was passed, women did not have rights. They did, they were not equal, and they did not get equal protection, okay? But our American jurisprudence, the court system later said, oh no, equal protection does mean women have equal rights. They basically updated what equal means to actually equal. So he's saying, well, now Jank is saying on national origin, which is another place where you cannot discriminate, why isn't it updated in the same exact way? And that is a perfectly legitimate question. So finally, a constitutional law expert is like, yeah, it's a great case, right?

And now, but more importantly, the federal district court, the way that it works, the way to get to the Supreme Court is district court, circuit court is where it can. gets appealed to and then Supreme Court. So you have to start in district court. And in this case, we got a senior judge in South Carolina. And he has moved, this is really interesting. He has moved the case from a courtroom to a law school where he teaches. And now we are hearing from local council that some of the top lawyers in South Carolina,

and even other federal judges might show up to hear, to listen and watch the case. What does that mean? That means they're taking it super seriously. This is a real issue to which I want to scream, I totally, I told you, I told you, guys, for the audience, there's something, for my purposes as a campaign, in order to adjudicate the civil rights issue, we need money. We have giant legal bills, right? Jenkforamerica.com.

And for so long, people wouldn't give because they read from everyone else. Oh, it's not real. Oh, there's no way. Nothing in the original constitution could ever be amended. No, if it's discriminatory, it must stay discriminatory. And now finally, law professors and judges are going, that's not at all true. Jesus Christ, give this guy his day in court, and that's what's happening on Wednesday. All right, one other question for you.

Last time we talked, you mentioned a few of the states that did allow you on the ballot, but there's a bit of an update to that. In fact, after the interview, there were other states that decided to put you on the ballot. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so that's another thing where people were like, I just, I want everyone to understand, no matter who I'm talking to, which outlet, et cetera, right? And I tell this to the audience of other shows as well, which is don't believe them when they tell you the things are not possible.

They're trying to get you to not try, right? So I was told that I couldn't get on any ballots in any states. Well, I'm on six now. On that day that you interviewed me last, I got off the air and I got a notice from North Dakota. Then I went to go check my mailbox and got a letter from Louisiana. And they both accepted me. So now I'm on the ballot in six states, Minnesota, North Dakota. to Louisiana, North, I'm sorry, Vermont, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Nice. That is a lot of states. And we've gotten down in about half the states. And the other half the states are like South Carolina. No problem, because again, we need to sue somewhere. South Carolina has been particularly egregious, especially because they're saying that what I explained earlier, for Trump, no constitutional test, for a jank, a constitutional test. And that is contradictory, hypocritical, I can't wait to see what the judge says.

Nothing is at all guaranteed. But another reason why we really, really need money is because if we win, we need to be able to appeal it, right? Or they, or be able to respond to their appeal. Every round costs a significant amount of money. But do we think the civil rights happen without any legal bills and any fights? And it's no, that's what we need it for, jankforamerica.com. And I'm gonna do a town hall.

No one is more connected to their voters than I am. I'm gonna do a town hall after the hearing, later in the day. You can go to jangferamerica.com and hit events, and you'll see it, or you could follow me on Facebook, Instagram, where I put these. And I'm going to do a town hall where I explain what happened. They're going to hear it first. Nice. Okay, and you also have an event coming up on Friday of this week where News Nation is going to have

you and other primary challengers to Biden on, including Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips. Yeah, 100%. I mean, Anna, it's really interesting. Everything is happening all at once right at the beginning of the year. Piers Morgan had me on for an interview earlier today talking at length about my presidential campaign. Before the media was like, we'll talk to you about Gaza, we'll talk to you about different things, but not about your presidential agreement. All of a sudden they're like, whoa, this thing is real, right?

So it's a really nice development. And News Nation on Friday of this week, Dan Abrams show 9 o'clock Eastern, me, Marianne and Dean, for the first actual debate on the Democratic side in the presidential race. And we're obviously happy to have Joe Biden come join us. Right. But if he, you know, he's probably taking a nap and probably won't be able to make it. But it'll be, it's the first, isn't it amazing that it's the first opportunity other than the one forum that we did on TYT, that any media has said, yeah, we'd like to hear the other candidates in the Democratic race. And remember, especially as Joe Biden gave that speech the other day about how democracy is on the line and Trump's going to end democracy.

So you know that I believe that too. and I'm certainly worried about it. Now they're up to four states where they've canceled the election completely in the primaries. Right, Joe Biden, famous for wanting to protect democracy while dismantling it in areas that are beneficial for himself. I mean, come on. 100%. And look, it's such bad optics for the Democratic Party to say that democracy is on the line with Trump. Plus, we'd like to keep Jenk, Marianne Williamson, and Dean Phillips off the ballots.

Plus, we'd like to keep Trump off the ballots. We'd like to keep everyone who's opposed to Joe Biden off the ballots because he's at 33% approval rating and has no chance of winning this election. So we just like to end any election here and just install Joe Biden as president. But remember everybody, democracy is on the line. Now remember, that is not the only choice you have. You can choose me or many other candidates and have a Democratic candidate who actually fights for you, who actually believes democracy is on the line, and actually actually.

like it and isn't sitting at 33% approval rating. I'll give you last fact on that, Anna. No person running for federal office has ever come back from that far down in an election year, ever. So the people in Washington and running the Democratic Party are making the argument that Joe Biden is going to make the most miraculous comeback in American political history. Of course, I mean, all he needs to do is fearmonger about Trump a little more and it will work, Right? So I mean, look, this is the first two campaign events he's ever done, whereas Trump

has already done like 200. Put me in, coach, put me in. Jangforamerica.com. We need every piece of help we can get right now, as this is now an absolutely critical time. And the campaign could be on the verge of taking off. And we certainly need it for the legal issues, the civil rights issues. And I appreciate everyone who donated. And it's in a super exciting week. And I hope you watch the debate on News Nation. I hope you come join us for the town hall to find out what happened on the Wednesday hearing. And I'm feeling incredibly optimistic right now. All right. Well, we'll have you on soon for updates. For now, though, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got more news for you, including some more updates on the

ongoing war in Gaza. And we'll also talk a little bit about various Democratic officials and politicians who are also terrified that Biden is going to lose the election, especially if it's between him and Trump. So we'll give you the details on that and more coming right up. Don't miss it. your host, Anna Casparian, just want to read a quick question from one of our viewers, stinky, stinky feet who asks, seriously, how is Roger Stone not in prison already? The dude literally looks like a Batman villain, especially with those round sunglasses on. I mean, I think he takes joy in appearing that way.

But look, I don't believe in just throwing people in prison, right? Like, the audio that we've just learned about where he calls for the murder of two Democratic congressmen, that needs to be investigated because if he does in fact pose any actual, like, physical threat to people, well, then the authorities need to know about it. So I don't know what's going to come from that audio. I don't know if there's going to be a robust investigation. I hope there will be. Of course, Roger Stone is going to make himself to be some sort of victim if he did in fact

say it and he's being investigated for it, we'll see, we'll see what happens. But I take your point, this is insane, absolutely insane that someone can say that and think that it's okay. Anyway, with that said, let's get back into Israel-related stories because, of course, as we all know, South Africa is pursuing genocide charges against Israel, and now we're learning how Israel is planning to essentially get the, you know, international community on its side in this battle. So let's discuss. Axios is now reporting that Israel has sent out an urgent cable to its embassies around the world that urges diplomats and politicians in these host countries to issue statements against South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice. South Africa is accused

using Israel of carrying out a genocide in the Gaza Strip. And since Israel is a signatory to the International Court of Justice, it has decided to defend itself. But before defending itself, it has also decided to essentially reach out to the international community and pressure politicians and diplomats to issue statements condemning what South Africa is doing. Now before we get to the cable itself and what it says exactly, I want to give you some more details about what South Africa is claiming.

Now, they filed this case with the International Court of Justice, and in its 84-page brief, South Africa argues Israel's military campaign in Gaza breaches its obligations under the 1948 genocide convention, which defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. Now, South Africa alleges Israel's actions in Gaza are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian population in the enclave. Now, it's reporting about the death toll in Gaza has slowed down considerably. We were getting numbers updated much more rapidly in the past, but as you can imagine, the situation on the ground is absolutely dire. The majority of buildings have either been completely destroyed or damaged.

There's a lack of water, clean drinking water, of course, no functioning hospitals, or at least no fully functioning hospitals. There's one hospital I was reading about today that has about 30% functionality. People are dying of starvation as a result of the lack of food. There is potentially a famine in the Gaza Strip. It's just a completely disastrous dire situation. Dozens of journalists have died since the beginning of that war. So we're getting numbers a lot slower than we did previously.

But the most recent numbers indicate that around 23,000 people have been killed. Now, unlike in previous cases at international tribunals, Israel this time has decided to appear in front of the court because again, it is a signatory to the genocide convention, Israel will be represented by the ICJ, or at the ICJ, I should say, by the British barrister. His name is Malcolm Shaw. And the hearings are set to begin on January 11th. Now let's pivot to the cable. Let's talk about what the cable says and how the Israeli government is applying pressure to diplomats and politicians around the world to essentially turn its back on South Africa and condemn what South Africa is doing here. The cable sent by the Israeli foreign ministry on Thursday illustrates Israel's diplomatic action plan ahead of the international criminal,

international court of justice hearing to create international pressure on the court to not issue an injunction that orders Israel to suspend its military campaign in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu understands how deeply unpopular he is with the Israeli people. And for good reason, I don't know how aware Israelis are about the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu himself funded and propped up Hamas, the very terrorists that committed the atrocities in Israel on October 7th. But what I do know is that Benjamin Netanyahu very clearly failed to keep his people safe. IDF soldiers took a long time to respond to the atrocities that were being carried out on October 7th because most of them were protecting settlers who were pushing Palestinians out of the West Bank and building illegal settlements in the West Bank. And so he has been a complete, another failure.

And Netanyahu understands that the only reason why they have not ousted him yet is because of this war. He's preaching unity. We need unity in Israel in order to fight back against Tamas. And so Israelis, for the most part, it appears, have decided to buy that and are keeping him in power. He knows the second the war is over, I mean, he's facing criminal charges for corruption. The Israeli people want him out of office. So he has a conflict of interest here. He wants to stay in power. And so as a result, he is going to keep this war going as long as possible. And he has made that clear. He wants this war to play out through 2024.

And so he does not want, his government does not want this war to end. So it is interesting to me that the cable specifically asked for these diplomats and politicians to make it clear that they do not want international pressure that would force Israel to end this war. The Israeli foreign ministry cable states that Israel's strategic goal is for the court to reject the request for an injunction, refrain from determining that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and recognize that the Israeli military is operating in the strip, according to international law, which, I mean, when the Israeli soldiers, when members of the IDF, the snipers killed the two people, the mother and daughter in a church compound, just wiped them out,

just killed them, sniped them. Was that in accordance to international law? The collective punishment of Palestinians and the very clear intention to carry out ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, is that in accordance with international law? I don't know. I'm just a dumb talk show host, So I'm waiting to see what plays out in the international court of justice. But I would ask you to read the 84 page document that South Africa has basically used to argue that Israel's military campaign in Gaza is breaching its obligations to the 1948 genocide convention. Please read it. And take a look at the mounting evidence, which including which includes footage, which includes the death toll, the insane ratio of civilian casualties versus Hamas militants who have died. The very clear plans and the statements made

by Israeli politicians to push Palestine, whatever remains of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, push them out into the Sinai desert. I mean, they tell on themselves every day. But I guess We're supposed to pretend like they're not saying the quiet parts out loud. They're not indiscriminately bombing the Gaza Strip. We'll see how it all plays out. And the cable specifically also reads that a ruling by the court could have significant potential implications that are not only in the legal world, but have practical bilateral multilateral economic and security ramifications.

We ask for an immediate and unequivocal public statement along the following line. So here's what we would like you to say. We're gonna give you the script to publicly and clearly state that your country rejects the outrageous, absurd, and baseless allegations made against Israel. Now, it's unclear which countries will follow these orders being made by the Israeli government. We do know that there are some countries that have scoffed at this, including Jordan and Turkey. And we also know about this cable because three different Israeli officials shared it with Axios. Israel claims that it's doing its best to minimize civilian casualties and increase humanitarian aid into the region.

Now, in the cable, the Israeli embassies were instructed to ask diplomats and politicians at the highest level to publicly acknowledge that Israel is working together with international actors to increase the humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as to minimize damage to civilians while acting in self-defense after the horrible October 7th attack by a genocidal terrorist organization. So Hamas is genocidal, and they can point to some of the statements that Hamas is made, and we should take those statements seriously. But the genocidal statements that are made by Israeli politicians, you know, like Amakai

Aliahu, who wanted to drop a nuclear bomb in Gaza, we shouldn't take that serious. Right, we shouldn't take that seriously. When they talk about Nakhba to all Palestinians, I mean, Basile Smotrich's statements almost on a regular basis about wiping Palestinians out. That's, we shouldn't take that seriously. We should only take the genocidal statements by Hamas seriously. Okay, noted. And by the way, right now there are on average 200 trucks of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, which is a a far cry of the number of trucks necessary to get Palestinians, the food and clean drinking

water and the medical supplies necessary to stay alive. And there's also evidence that Israel is intentionally slowing down aid to Gaza through arbitrary rejections of goods by inspectors. In fact, Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley pointed to a cumbersome process that is slowing relief to Palestinians in the besieged territory, largely. due to Israeli inspections of aid cargoes with seemingly arbitrary rejections of vital humanitarian equipment. The system to ensure that aid deliveries within Gaza don't get hit by Israeli forces is totally broken, they said. In fact, I want to show you some of what Senator Chris Van Holland had to say about all of this. Let's start with what he has experienced with aid trucks

getting turned away. There are two big things that are happening. One is the unnecessarily cumbersome process going through the Israeli screening process, which I believe is the result of political decisions by the Netanyahu coalition. For example, many items that should be allowed to go into Gaza, water sort of filtration systems, Other systems like that were in a warehouse of rejected items that we visited. While we were there, we saw a truck turned away that had a big box from UNICEF, which is, of course, the UN organization that helps children.

It was a unit to help with water desalinization. It was rejected. And when one item on a truck is rejected, the entire truck is rejected. So, rejecting an entire truck because one or two items in that truck were arbitrarily rejected by the IDF is insane to me. But it gets even worse because in the next clip he talks about the risk to humanitarian workers themselves who are fearful for their own lives as they try to deliver the humanitarian aid to Gazans.

Let's watch. The other big issue is within Gaza, the so called deconfliction process. which is just a fancy name for those who are providing humanitarian assistance to have the confidence that they can deliver it without being killed. And according to all the international NGOs that we talked about who've been operating in conflict zones around the world, they've never seen a worse process for assuring the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance. And I want to do a better job providing information about the brave humanitarian workers who risk their lives on a regular basis in order to help

Palestinian civilians. One of our viewers, a member in fact, Miss Anonymous 617, who's been a member for 13 months, makes a good point. 144 aid workers have been killed, five being from my agency. My heart breaks for Yael, that is a journalist who has lost many members of his family. I will keep him in my thoughts. He needs all the support he can get. So we'll see how many countries are willing to follow the Israeli government's orders to essentially condemn what South Africa is trying to do in the international courts. But based on what I've seen, to argue that the IDF is the most moral military in the world is laughable to say the least. How worried are you about black voters showing up for President Biden in November? Well, I'm not worried. I'm very concerned, and I have sat down with President Biden.

I don't know. I saw those reports. I've also seen at least one report indicating that I have sat down. down with President Biden and I did with him. And I've told him what my concerns are. I have no problem with the Biden administration and what it has done. My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall. Well, you heard it here, folks. Well, you heard it over there at CNN first, likely, and you're hearing it here again. One of Biden's closest allies, Democratic Congressman James Clyburn, is absolutely concerned about the upcoming 2024 presidential election, one in which we are going to likely experience a rematch between incumbent President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Now, Clyburn isn't the only

who is concerned about this upcoming election. In fact, we're now learning that former President Barack Obama met with Joe Biden to air his concerns. Now, during a private lunch with Biden at the White House, Obama grew animated in discussing the 2024 election and former President Donald Trump's potential return to power, one of the people said, and has suggested to Biden's advisors that the campaign needs more top-level decision-makers at its headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, or it must empower the people already in place. So apparently, Obama has been fundraising for Biden. He's been trying to help in any way he can. But this report is interesting because you have Obama trying to provide some advice to steer the

Biden campaign in, in his mind, the right direction. Now, Obama has not recommended any specific individuals, but he has mentioned David Plouffe, who managed Obama's 2008 presidential race as the type of senior strategists that the Biden campaign might need in order to steer the campaign in a better direction. The mention of Plouf, in particular, irritates some longtime Biden aides because it was Plouf who Obama dispatched or Pluff. I don't know if it's pluff or ploof. I don't really care. But it was, he was the guy who, Obama dispatch to warn Biden that he faced long odds if he decided to seek the presidency in 2016. The president was not encouraging, Biden wrote in his memoir, Promise Me Dad.

Now during the lunch, Obama also noted the success of his reelection campaign and the success of the 2012 structure of his campaign. And I just, look, I don't, I don't understand why Obama maybe he said things that have not been reported, right? Maybe he said things to Biden that have not been reported. But guys, there was a big difference between campaign Obama, the hope and change Obama, the I understand your economic frustrations and I'm going to pretend to do something about it if I get reelected Obama versus who he was when he was actually president. So he knows what he needed to do to win.

He knew what his messaging needed to be. He was charismatic, he was appealing, Democratic voters loved him. That is not what Biden is experiencing right now. And I would venture to say it has very little to do with the structure of his presidential campaign. Okay, I think that there's something deeper going on here. But Obama's trying, he's trying to help a brother out. I don't know if it's going to work. Actually, if I had to bet money on it, I would say, you know, messing around with the structure of Biden's reelection campaign, ain't it.

It's not going to make that much of a difference. So we'll see, but Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden's campaign manager, is based at the campaign headquarters in Biden's hometown of Wilmington, while the president's top political advisors, Anita Dunn, Jen O'Malley Dylan, Mike Donnellan, and Steve Ricketti work more than 100 miles away at the White House. And so it seems as though Biden has begun to take Obama's advice to heart. Just today, it was reported that his so-called infrastructure czar, a guy by the name of Mitch Landrieu, will be moving out of the White House and into Biden's presidential campaign.

And if you're unfamiliar with him, he's a former mayor of New Orleans and a former lieutenant governor of Louisiana. So apparently he is going to move away from the Biden administration to work on behalf of Biden's campaign. And also, again, notice how Obama is hyper-focused on campaign structure as opposed to campaign messaging or policy based on what we know from the reporting. Again, we weren't there during this meeting, during this lunch. So there's a possibility that Obama touched on messaging a little bit. But nonetheless, Obama has long-harbored worries about Trump's political strength,

telling Biden during a different private lunch just last summer that Trump is a more formidable candidate than many Democrats realize. And that is indeed true, especially when you look at the polling and you see that in the average of polls, Biden is still trailing by a couple of points. And remember, Trump has an incredibly loyal following. He has a friendly conservative media infrastructure backing him up. And we also have an incredibly polarized country that he uses to his advantage, especially when it comes to electoral politics. And of course, we all know that Biden is deeply unpopular, so unpopular that some Democrats are even worried about running for reelection with him at the top of the ticket. Get a load of this. Representative Elisa Slotkin,

a Democrat from Michigan who is running for her state's open Senate seat, has expressed concern to allies that she may not be able to win if Biden is at the top of the ticket, according to people familiar with the conversations. A spokesman for Slotkin's campaign said that she looks forward to running with President Biden. Does she, does she look forward to it? Come on, come on, come on. And to be fair, she does have cause for concern.

Just before years end, Biden's rating tied his record, I'm sorry, Biden's rating tied his record low with 38% approving his performance and 58% disapproving, according to the Washington Post. Their average of 17 polls in November and December, Democrats are also concerned about Biden losing support among younger voters and communities of color due to his handling of the Israel-Gaza A war, for instance, in December, and we shared this with you, a New York Times-Cyanna College poll found that 57% of voters disapproved of Biden's handling of the Israel-Gaza war, while 33% approved. And just today, Biden's speech was interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Without light, there's no path from this darkness. If you really care about the live loss here, you should learn the line of loss is over. ceasefire and Palestine. That's all right. That's all right. That's all right. Siege fire now. Siege fire now.

I understand their passion. And I've been quietly working. I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out. I significantly get out of Gaza and using all that I can to do that. That message is not persuasive to young American voters who see what's currently taking place on the ground in Gaza, who see the United States government under the leadership of President Joe Biden sending more weaponry, more bombs to Israel. just recently, Biden decided to bypass Congress altogether to send hundreds of millions

of dollars of military weaponry to the IDF. And so the days of an uninformed electorate are over. Information is pouring through every avenue imaginable, whether it's online, television, radio, podcasts, people know what's going on. And so if he thinks he's going to pull a fast one on young Democratic voters, he's got another thing coming. And Biden aids are really hanging their hat on the notion that Trump becoming the Republican nominees actually a good thing for Biden. They're going to paint him as a threat to democracy, as you know. They think that his chaotic style will eventually persuade voters to side with Biden over

Trump, and indeed to mark the three year anniversary of January 6th, and to kick off the Biden campaign, Biden issued a speech and where he fearmongered about Trump and the threat to democracy. Let's watch. The violence of January the 6th. And since that day, more than 1,200 people have been charged for their assault in the capital. Nearly 900 of them have been convicted or pled guilty. Collectively to date, they have been sentenced to more than 840 years. 840 years in prison.

What's Trump done? Instead of calling them criminals, he's called these exerate, these insurrectionists, patriots. They're patriots. And he promised to pardon them if he returns to office. Trump said that there was a lot of love

on January the 6th. The rest of the nation, including law enforcement, saw a lot of hate and violence. One capital police officer called it a medieval battle. That same officer was called vile race's names. He said he was more afraid in the capital of the United States of America, in the chambers, when he was fighting as a soldier in the war in Iraq. Now obviously we agree with Biden over, you know, what happened on January 6th. It's something worthy of condemnation. But if this is going to be what he hangs his hat on

as the main campaign strategy to get reelected, I'm not entirely sure it's going to work. That messaging resonates with people who already support Biden, who already intend to vote for Biden. But what happens with the individuals who voted for him in 2020, but have decided they just are not in favor of the fact that he abandoned the voting rights act? He didn't even fight for it. You know, the black voters who worked really, really, really hard to get two Democratic senators elected in runoff elections in 2020, due to the promise that if Democrats take control of the Senate, Biden's going to fight for voting rights. That didn't happen. These kinds of foibles aren't small. They bother voters. It communicates to voters that you're not

willing to actually follow through on your promises. But that's honestly in the landscape of the Biden term, that's one of the smaller things, believe it or not. What's happening in Gaza really bothers young Democratic voters. Fear mongering about Trump, fear mongering about the destruction of democracy, I don't think is going to work. I couldn't be wrong. I don't know, I'm just making a prediction here. But the final thing I'll say is when you have the Democratic National Committee refusing to hold primary elections, basically squashing any attempt for anyone to challenge Biden, how is Biden going to then claim that he is the protector of democracy? Democracy means that voters should have options. They should get to decide if they're Democrats,

right, who the Democratic nominee should be. And considering how unpopular Biden is, the Democratic National Committee should allow for a robust primary, and they are not allowing for that. So the argument that the Democratic Party and Biden himself will protect democracy kind of, for anyone who was informed, it kind of falls flat. Biden doesn't really have much of a leg to stand on on that issue. And so Biden will be forced upon us as the Democratic nominee, even while everyone knows, even while the Democratic establishment knows just how vulnerable he is, how unpopular he is, and how much support he has lost since 2020.

So buckle up. It's going to be a wild ride in 2024. All right, we've got to take a break. Jen Kier will join us in the next hour. over. I'm going to do. I'm going to be. You know,

Buhn't know Buhn't Bhop Bhop B. Thank you.