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for the tickets. So Donald

1:17

Trump made a big stink

1:19

last night about how he

1:21

brought free speech and jumps

1:24

the medium and hits some

1:26

head on. It's the chimney

1:28

tour show. So Donald Trump

1:30

made a big stink last

1:33

night about how he brought

1:35

free speech back to America.

1:37

Now what I say about free

1:39

speech is that, yeah, I don't

1:42

think Elon Musk is a

1:44

free speech warrior. I don't think

1:46

so. I think he's happy to suppress

1:48

when he has to for his own

1:50

interests, right? But it's not as bad

1:52

as it was, right? So that's what

1:55

I say. For people like me who

1:57

wanted to tell the truth about COVID,

1:59

I was allowed to tell the

2:01

truth about COVID. I was allowed

2:03

to tell the truth about Syria.

2:05

I was allowed to tell the

2:08

truth about Ukraine. So it was

2:10

it was a big deal for me.

2:12

But no, I don't, I don't, in

2:14

fact, Steve Bannon was on the show

2:17

and he made the same point. And

2:19

he's not a, you know, he's a,

2:21

he's a tech, he wants to be

2:23

a tech overlord. He doesn't really

2:25

care about free speech. He put

2:28

this out, I think, yesterday. He said

2:30

all federal funding will stop for any

2:32

college, school, or university that allows illegal

2:34

protests, agitators will be imprisoned or permanently

2:37

sent back to the country from which

2:39

they came. American students will be permanently

2:41

expelled or depending on the crime arrested.

2:43

No masks. So you're not allowed to

2:45

wear a mask so they can now

2:48

digitally identify you and put you in

2:50

a database. Thank you for your attention

2:52

to this matter. It sounds very scary.

2:54

What this is a response to

2:56

is, you know, him being everybody

2:59

in government, including Donald Trump, you

3:01

know, the way he talked to

3:03

Zilinsky is the way a lot

3:05

of Maga wants him to talk

3:08

to Netanyahu. So this is all

3:10

about his subservience to Adelson, it's

3:12

about his subservience to Israel, and

3:14

so this organization, Fireorg, We defend

3:16

and promote free speech for all

3:19

Americans in our courtrooms on campuses

3:21

and our culture. They did a,

3:23

they had a couple of tweets

3:25

about it and they say the

3:28

First Amendment protects controversial political speech.

3:30

We don't use the law to

3:32

punish dissenters. Instead, as a nation,

3:34

we have chosen a different course

3:37

to protect even hurtful speech on

3:39

public issues to ensure that we do

3:41

not stifle public debate. They go

3:43

on to say, as fire knows

3:45

all too well from our work

3:48

defending students and faculty rights under

3:50

the Obama and Biden administrations, threatening

3:52

schools with the loss of federal

3:54

funding will result in a crackdown

3:56

on lawful speech. Schools will censor

3:58

first and ask questions later. Today's

4:00

message will cast an impermeable

4:02

chill on students' protests about

4:04

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict paired with

4:06

President Trump's 2019 executive order

4:08

adopting an unconstitutional definition of

4:10

anti-Semitism and his January order

4:13

threatening to deport international students

4:15

for engaging in protected expression.

4:17

Students will rationally fear punishment

4:19

for wholly protected political speech.

4:21

We already talked about at

4:23

the top of the show,

4:25

Matt, about your great work

4:27

exposing the sensor industrial complex,

4:29

censorship industrial complex, and you're

4:32

very sensitive to this because

4:34

you're a leading journalist, and

4:36

you've had the IRS try

4:38

to intimidate you and to

4:40

not saying certain things, and

4:42

I've been censored. I've been,

4:44

you know, my own tax

4:46

dollars have been used to

4:48

sponsor VOCs. Ukraine media which

4:50

did hit pieces on me

4:53

to try to get me

4:55

de monetized and kicked off

4:57

YouTube so I'm sensitive to

4:59

that and so so Trump might

5:01

want to protect certain speech but

5:03

now he's doing this which is

5:05

just the opposite and so you

5:08

being sensitive to something like this

5:10

how would you respond to it well I'm

5:12

against it I mean I when he

5:14

when he signed the executive order,

5:16

and then there was the

5:18

anti-Semitism Awareness Act that got

5:20

passed last year, and then

5:22

this thing, this year, which

5:24

is really just an extension

5:26

of that, it's to me a clear

5:28

First Amendment issue. You know, normally

5:31

what they would do, right? Like

5:33

to if you wanted to, if you

5:35

wanted to, if you wanted to,

5:37

if you wanted to, if you

5:39

wanted to, if you wanted to

5:41

be a real... uh... really aggressive

5:43

about palestinian protesters and stay within

5:45

the letter of the law you

5:47

wouldn't say that we're throwing you out

5:49

of the country because of your protests

5:52

right they would just they would round

5:54

people up who had committed crimes and

5:56

then they would deport them which is

5:58

what they're doing uh... in other

6:00

areas. But you can't say

6:03

that you're doing it for

6:05

that reason. I think the

6:07

Trump, by doing this, is

6:09

making a huge political

6:12

mistake or a

6:14

potentially huge one.

6:16

The Democrats have gifted

6:18

the First Amendment to

6:21

the Republicans for a

6:23

generation, really. I mean,

6:25

they were so bad

6:27

on this issue. they could

6:29

run in this forever. All

6:31

they have to do is

6:33

just show basic respect for

6:36

the institution. And this is,

6:38

you know, it's clearly not

6:40

in the spirit of the

6:42

First Amendment. You have organizations

6:45

like Fire that I think

6:47

fought very bravely for speech

6:50

when the ACL you wouldn't.

6:53

And you know, there... they're

6:55

not turning on Trump. That's

6:57

not what they want. You

6:59

know, I think they have

7:01

to be more cognizant

7:04

of, you know, what they have

7:06

here. I think Jamie Vance

7:08

is somebody who understands

7:10

the speech issue and

7:12

is more instinctively

7:15

in tune with it. But, you

7:17

know, they have a blind spot

7:20

about this one issue and

7:22

that's unfortunate. is that

7:25

the Democrats agree with him?

7:27

Well, right, that's... I was about

7:29

to say that, like, the reason

7:31

that you're not going to get

7:34

pushback from the other side on

7:36

this is, you know, you watched

7:38

that 60 minutes segment,

7:40

those exact same laws are

7:42

the ones that got Roger

7:44

Waters in trouble, right? You

7:47

know, for advocating for Palestinians,

7:49

you know, really what they

7:52

just do is they... define

7:54

anybody who supports the Palestinian

7:57

cause as being pro-Hamaas or

7:59

uh... for advocating terrorism and

8:01

then it's any one of

8:03

a dozen different laws that

8:05

can come into play at that

8:07

point uh... you know that they went after

8:10

all sorts of politicians in

8:12

the u k for being

8:14

quote any simitic when really

8:16

what they were doing was

8:18

protesting the behavior of the

8:20

Israeli government uh... Palestinians are

8:22

often kind of the canary in the

8:25

coal mine for... Speech offenses like

8:27

they're kind of the first people

8:29

who they try out some new

8:31

horrible tactic on Because they have

8:33

no lobby but But that's it,

8:35

but you're absolutely right. There is

8:37

nobody on the other side. He

8:39

was going to stand up and

8:41

say you're really wrong about this So

8:43

Caitlin Johnson tweeted out. She said

8:46

if you support freedom of speech

8:48

You now have an ethical obligation

8:50

to oppose Israel even if

8:52

you didn't before Western government

8:55

support for Israel is the

8:57

biggest threat to free speech

8:59

in our society today. Civil

9:01

rights are being stomped out

9:03

throughout the Western world to

9:05

protect Israel information interests. And

9:07

speech is being suppressed in

9:09

support of Israel more aggressively

9:11

than with any other topic.

9:13

We're not seeing this level

9:15

of all-out warfare against free

9:17

expansion in any other area. So... Yeah,

9:19

I disagree with her about that though. Well,

9:21

I mean, for instance, the

9:24

Europe, look, Israel is not,

9:26

they're terrible on speech, right?

9:28

They have been, going back

9:30

to 2015 to 2016, Glenn

9:32

Greenwell did a story about

9:34

how Facebook had to make

9:36

a deal with the massage in

9:39

order to operate in Israel

9:41

and how they abided by,

9:43

I think it was 95%

9:46

of their recommendations. But the,

9:48

absolutely the most dangerous. thing

9:50

right now with speech is the

9:53

European Union, which has already passed

9:55

a law called the Digital

9:57

Services Act, which is a

9:59

comprehensive official censorship

10:01

law that mandates that every

10:04

platform abide by the

10:06

recommendations of thousands of

10:08

these credentialed content reviewers

10:11

called trusted flaggers. They have

10:13

to be in agreement with

10:15

them or else they suffer

10:17

crippling penalties and go out

10:20

of business. And that law

10:22

is the model for what

10:24

they want to impose everywhere

10:26

in the world. They've done

10:28

it pretty much everywhere in

10:30

every Western democracy except the

10:33

United States. And yes,

10:35

Israel's bad, but Europe has

10:37

already imposed the model for

10:39

like a true dystopian kind

10:41

of speech control, you know,

10:44

that can be imposed at scale. So

10:46

I'm more scared than that

10:48

than am of Israel, but

10:50

I understand her position. So the

10:52

threat that Trump is making

10:54

is that he will defund. colleges

10:57

of federal funds and

10:59

here's a brief video

11:02

from Glenn Greenwall to

11:04

explain why that's incorrect

11:07

that's an unconstitutional

11:10

position. Let's listen. What

11:12

is going on? Okay,

11:16

here we go. Universities, or there

11:18

should be, that's independent of the

11:20

free speech point, which is that

11:22

once the federal government, or any

11:24

government, decides to offer a benefit

11:26

that's optional, it doesn't have to

11:28

provide it, but it decides it's

11:30

going to, it cannot then condition receipt

11:32

of that benefit, it's going to,

11:35

it cannot then condition receipt of

11:37

that benefit on you're expressing a particular

11:39

view, or you're refraining from expressing a

11:41

political view. Oh, obviously it's not a

11:43

First Amendment violation to deny federal funding

11:46

of a university because the government doesn't

11:48

have to provide funding to universities in

11:50

the first place. It's true, the federal

11:52

government doesn't have to provide funding to

11:54

universities. But once it decides to do

11:56

so, it cannot then punish the universities

11:58

by withdrawing that funding. only for universities

12:00

that allow a particular view to be expressed

12:02

or a particular type of protest to take

12:05

place and not any other. That is a

12:07

clear violation of the First Amendment. There's so

12:09

many court cases on this. There have been efforts,

12:11

for example, to deny property tax exemptions

12:13

to people who refuse to sign a

12:15

vow saying they're not in favor of overthrowing

12:17

the government of the United States, saying, oh,

12:20

you only get a property tax exemption. If

12:22

you sign a no saying you don't support

12:24

the overthrow of the United States government. But

12:26

people who sign that loyalty pledge

12:28

to the US government will get

12:31

property tax exemptions. Obviously you

12:33

don't have to provide the property

12:35

tax exemptions, but the Supreme Court

12:37

said once you do, you can't

12:39

condition it on a loyalty of

12:41

the United States government because that

12:43

is a violation of free speech.

12:45

There have been all kinds of other

12:48

cases like that where there's funding

12:50

to legal aid funding from the

12:52

government are those who... support welfare

12:54

reform or who stays silent on

12:56

about it, the court has denied.

12:58

That is unconstitutional. There was an

13:00

effort to say any news outlet,

13:02

public media company that gets federal

13:04

funding, has to refrain from editorializing

13:06

about anything the minute they try

13:08

to editorialize about something, they lose

13:10

their federal funding, that they try

13:12

to editorialize about something. They lose

13:14

their federal funding. The Supreme Court

13:17

said that's unconstitutional as well. That's

13:19

because once you offer a benefit, opts

13:21

to provide unemployment benefits, people who

13:23

get fired, lose their job. Obviously it

13:25

doesn't have to provide unemployment

13:28

benefits, it decides that it's going to.

13:30

Imagine a law enacted by a state, say

13:32

Massachusetts, that said, if you support Donald

13:34

Trump or express support for the

13:36

Republican Party, you will be ineligible

13:38

to receive unemployment benefits, are those

13:40

who take a note to support

13:42

the Democratic Party. Everybody would

13:44

immediately understand why that's unconstitutional.

13:47

And yet. You could justify that law based on the

13:49

same distortion, the same war rationale as it being

13:51

offered for the Trump administration's actions this week, which

13:53

is, oh look, the government doesn't have to give

13:55

you unemployment benefits, you can't claim that it's a

13:57

violation of your constitution, that the government takes unemployment

13:59

benefits. from you. And the obvious answer

14:02

is the state has the right

14:04

to terminate unemployment benefits programs for

14:06

everybody if at once, but it

14:08

can't withdraw them or deny them

14:11

as punishment for a particular view,

14:13

nor can it condition receipt or

14:15

the right to have those benefits

14:17

on affirming a particular view. Or

14:20

the right to have those benefits

14:22

on affirming a particular view. So

14:24

the fact that federal funding is

14:26

optional doesn't mean the government has

14:29

the constitutional right to deny it

14:31

to certain universities that allow a

14:33

certain type of protest to serve.

14:35

pro-Israel donors, which is, oh, we're

14:38

just going after illegal protest. What

14:40

is an illegal protest? Obviously, if

14:42

somebody breaks the law, they're going

14:44

to get arrested. There have been

14:47

hundreds or thousands of protesters on

14:49

college campuses throughout 2024, including huge

14:51

numbers of Jewish students who were

14:53

protesting the Israeli war on Gaza.

14:56

They got arrested. But there's this

14:58

thing as an illegal protest. And

15:00

if you're going to deny federal

15:02

funding based on quote unquote permitting

15:05

a legal protest, you can't just

15:07

have that be the case for

15:09

hate speech against Jews or hate

15:11

speech against Israel would have to

15:14

be applied universally. Otherwise it's clearly

15:16

unconstitutional as an attempt to punish

15:18

institutions for permitting a certain kind

15:20

of protest expressing a view that

15:23

this current government dislikes. This is

15:25

not controversial. This is not in

15:27

dispute. It's entirely clear there are

15:29

multiple Supreme Court cases on it.

15:32

Just common sense tells you that

15:34

you can't condition the receipt of

15:36

a receipt of a benefit. on

15:38

the requirement to affirm a certain

15:41

view, nor can you withdraw that

15:43

benefit as punishment for expressing another

15:45

view consistent with the First Amendment.

15:47

So, you know, I remember when

15:50

I was at the Rescue of

15:52

the Republic, I mean, I'm sure

15:54

everybody would agree with what he's

15:56

saying. I don't think, like he

15:58

said, it's not controversial. And, you

16:01

know, you pointed out that this

16:03

is a real blind spot for

16:05

the Trump administration. I don't know

16:07

if it's a blind spot or

16:10

just him intentionally serving his donors

16:12

and the APAC lobby because the

16:14

APAC lobby has the ability to,

16:16

you know, make him lose his

16:19

control of the Senate in the

16:21

house, right? So they, so he

16:23

has to, he's got to, he's

16:25

serving as, you know, Bob Dylan

16:28

said, you got to serve somebody.

16:30

And so that's who he's serving.

16:32

I think he's doing it consciously

16:34

and I think he knows. It's

16:37

a contradiction to his free speech

16:39

stance. But when I was at

16:41

the rescue, you make the point,

16:43

it's politically... disastrous I think for

16:46

Donald Trump to do this because

16:48

he'd be much it would make

16:50

him look like much a stronger

16:52

man if he allowed the protests

16:55

to happen and just kind of

16:57

make fun of it if he

16:59

wants or kind of point out

17:01

how it's an un-American or they

17:04

don't whatever you want to do

17:06

but he should tolerate it because

17:08

it makes him look weak and

17:10

authoritarian because that's what it is

17:13

and when I was at the

17:15

rescue of the Republic I made

17:17

a strong defense of you have

17:19

to Freedom of speech means freedom

17:22

of speech that you hate and

17:24

if it includes pro-Palestinian protesters because

17:26

if they can take the rights

17:28

of them away they can take

17:31

ours away and that's what this

17:33

is all about we're all here

17:35

because we had our freedom of

17:37

speech taken away during COVID or

17:40

other or another way and people

17:42

cheered and so that was Donald

17:44

Trump's audience they cheered that. Right?

17:46

And I saw people in the

17:49

audience, lots of Maga people who

17:51

are pro-Palestinian or not pro-Israel. They

17:53

had, you know, pro- Palestine posters

17:55

in their hands at that rescue

17:58

of the Republic rally. So, I

18:00

mean, do you see, I mean,

18:02

I don't, I see this as,

18:04

how do you see this playing

18:07

out? Well, I've given up a

18:09

long time ago trying to figure

18:11

out. Trump's political strategies. Every time

18:13

I think he does something that

18:16

is politically disastrous that he'll never

18:18

recover from, somehow it works out

18:20

in a way that's different than

18:22

I expected. I feel very, I

18:25

do feel very strongly that they

18:27

should not be punting away the,

18:29

you know, the good standing they've

18:31

gotten on the speech issue. They

18:34

fought hard to be taken seriously

18:36

on that issue. and people like

18:38

Jim Jordan and Ran Paul have

18:40

gone through a lot of grief

18:43

for the Republican Party to be

18:45

taken seriously on this issue, just

18:47

to throw it away on this.

18:49

And I can't, I find it's

18:51

very hard to believe that this

18:54

is a calculation that's meant to

18:56

guarantee control of the House and

18:58

Senate. Trump, I think, has always

19:00

understood that his support is really

19:03

his voters. That's his base. So

19:05

if he's making that calculation, it's

19:07

a wrong calculation. But sometimes he

19:09

will do things like this. It

19:12

seems to me, in defiance of

19:14

the law openly, because he wants

19:16

people to see that he's willing

19:18

to cross a line. in a

19:21

certain direction. I don't agree with

19:23

him on this one, but there

19:25

are times when he will do

19:27

that. But otherwise, this is illogical

19:30

to me, and I think it's

19:32

a perilous thing for the party.

19:34

The other stuff that he's doing

19:36

in terms of these mass cuts

19:39

and these other drastic changes that

19:41

he's making, some of which are

19:43

probably not going to survive legal

19:45

challenge. He needs the absolute support

19:48

of his voters in order to

19:50

see that through. And if it

19:52

falls apart because of something like

19:54

this, then there's a problem, you

19:57

know, then he's got nobody but

19:59

himself to blame, I would say.

20:01

And just to put a button

20:03

on this fire says if college

20:06

violates if the college violates anti-discrimination

20:08

laws like Title VI or Title

20:10

IX. The government may ultimately deny

20:12

the institution federal funding. by taking

20:15

it to federal court or via

20:17

notice to Congress. and an administrative

20:19

hearing. It is not simply a

20:21

discretionary decision that the president can

20:24

make. Likewise, students who engage in

20:26

misconduct must still receive due process,

20:28

whether through a campus or criminal

20:30

tribunal. This requires fair, consistent application

20:33

of existing law or policy in

20:35

a manner that respects students' rights.

20:37

President Trump needs to stand by

20:39

his past promise to be a

20:42

champion of free expression. That means

20:44

for all views, including those his

20:46

administration dislikes. You know, we'd like

20:48

to see that. It's, I haven't

20:51

seen anybody do it in my

20:53

lifetime. And the problem is that

20:55

the opposition party agrees with what

20:57

he's doing and saying. And so

21:00

there will be no, you know,

21:02

a powerful opposition to it, except

21:04

grassroots, right? Right. And, you know,

21:06

not everybody in the world is,

21:09

you know, a First Amendment lawyer,

21:11

right? So the nice thing. I

21:13

mean, this particular branch of First

21:15

Amendment law can get... pretty weedsy

21:18

for some folks and it extends

21:20

into places where even sometimes I

21:22

roll my eyes at it like

21:24

for instance the the business with

21:27

the AP credentials like that falls

21:29

under the same principle like if

21:31

you're going to give credentials to

21:33

anybody you you have to you

21:35

can't deny them because AP doesn't

21:38

use the word word skull of

21:40

America now I don't think that

21:42

like credentials matter. I think journalists

21:44

who whine about credentials are pussies

21:47

and I find the whole issue

21:49

kind of laughable, but if they

21:51

took it to court, AP would

21:53

win. I think you'd have to

21:56

concede that, but I don't see

21:58

that as a crime against humanity,

22:00

but on the other stuff, you

22:02

know, like denying federal funding to

22:05

colleges over Palestinian protests, like you

22:07

can't do that because that... That

22:09

will undermine any claim that he

22:11

had. to being a champion of

22:14

the First Amendment. Hey, you know,

22:16

here's another great way you can

22:18

help support the show is you

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become a premium member. We give

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Clicking on Join Premium. It's the

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business. And it's a great way

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Thanks for everybody who was already

22:47

a premium member and if you

22:50

haven't, you're missing out. We give

22:52

you lots of bonus content. Thanks

22:54

for your support. This happened last

22:56

night. It's strange how the Democrats,

22:59

liberals. who are now illiberals have

23:01

gone from being defenders of staunch

23:03

defenders of free speech to being

23:05

staunch defenders of censorship and authoritarian

23:08

fascists in that way and then

23:10

now they've also become pro-war and

23:12

here's Donald Trump calling it out

23:14

last night with the with Elizabeth

23:17

Warren let's watch with no end

23:19

in sight the United States has

23:21

sent hundreds of billions of dollars

23:23

to support Ukraine's defense with no

23:26

security with no anything. So now

23:28

those are Democrats applauding that they're

23:30

just endlessly supporting a proxy war

23:32

by that has been instigated by

23:35

NATO the West and Americans economic

23:37

hit men. Watch what it goes

23:39

on. Do

23:48

you want to keep it going

23:50

for another five years? Yeah, yeah,

23:52

you would say Pocahontas says yes.

23:55

Pocahana says yes sounds like if

23:57

Disney animation did porn anyway I'm

24:00

just she puts the poke back

24:02

in Pocahana slip but let's watch

24:04

her clap and there she goes

24:07

and there she just clapping along

24:09

because my theory is her mighty

24:12

native bloodline she knows intuitively that

24:14

if the tribal leader says something

24:16

you can't beat him you should

24:19

join him that's what I think

24:21

is happening there so that's Elizabeth

24:23

Warren clapping like a seal for

24:26

the war machine and she's supposed

24:28

to be you know of some

24:31

big liberal champion and there's Trump

24:33

calling her out for it and

24:35

it's so easy for Donald Trump

24:38

to get to the left of

24:40

these people because they're all authoritarian

24:43

tools of war and here's Bernie

24:45

Sanders just yesterday he tweeted this

24:47

out for 250 years the United

24:50

States has supported democracy which is

24:52

lapable especially what we know now

24:55

about USAID and the NED. I

24:57

mean, we've all known that, but

24:59

now regular people are getting to

25:02

know that stuff. He says now

25:04

in the middle of a horrific

25:06

war that Putin started, again, he's

25:09

just, he's being a historical. Trump

25:11

is turning his back on Ukraine

25:14

and democracy. And democracy. Ukraine is

25:16

not a democracy. It's now a

25:18

dictatorship. He's outlawed opposing political parties.

25:21

He's outlawed the opposing political parties.

25:23

He's skeptical or critical media. He's

25:26

killed and jailed journalists like Gonzales

25:28

Gonzalera. American journalists. That's right. And

25:30

it was such a, it was

25:33

so egregious that he got. community

25:35

noted on Twitter. It said even

25:38

under Obama in 2015 the United

25:40

States was providing weapons and or

25:42

military training to 73% of the

25:45

world's dictatorships as classified by Freedom

25:47

House. The US is the number

25:50

one supporter of dictatorships in the

25:52

world. And so there is that

25:54

so Just to let you know,

25:57

I just want the listeners, here's

25:59

the leading scholar, international scholar, Mirchheimer,

26:01

and he's gonna tell you what

26:04

Trump is doing in Ukraine is

26:06

the right thing. I mean, he

26:09

just, he has no real option

26:11

here other than to go along

26:13

with what President Trump wants. And

26:16

as you and I have said

26:18

on countless occasions, actually what Trump

26:21

wants is what's best for Ukraine.

26:23

Zelenski doesn't realize that and most

26:25

Ukrainians don't realize that. But what

26:28

Trump wants to do is shut

26:30

down the war as soon as

26:33

possible and that is in Ukraine's

26:35

interest. It's not Ukraine's interest to

26:37

continue this war. And although Zelenski

26:40

thinks that's the case, he's just

26:42

dead wrong. So in a very

26:45

important way, I think that what

26:47

Trump wants to do is good

26:49

for Ukraine. I mean even Prima

26:52

Radical shows you that the people

26:54

in Ukraine want their elections. Then

26:56

Zilinsky won't give them an election

26:59

and he says when does criminalizing

27:01

opposition and canceling elections equals democracy.

27:04

So how did this, again, my

27:06

question is the same as before,

27:08

is a little different. How did

27:11

liberals go from being staunch anti-war,

27:13

anti-CIA, anti-war machine to being people

27:16

who are sitting there applauding endless

27:18

war, which we all know now

27:20

is a proxy war that was

27:23

instigated by NATO in the West?

27:25

It's amazing. You just think about

27:28

the difference. between now and you

27:30

know the Bush years when you

27:32

know the average American liberal actually

27:35

agreed with the Colin Powell position

27:37

that you can't go in to

27:39

a war without a clear objective.

27:42

You know you break you own

27:44

it, there has to be a

27:47

goal. Soldiers need a goal, right?

27:49

And we can't just go to

27:51

war just to do it. And

27:54

Ukraine is a slightly different situation

27:56

because it was a country that

27:59

was invaded, right? But this is

28:01

a situation that can't be won

28:03

militarily. Barack Obama made this exact

28:06

same decision in not going to

28:08

Crimea. For the very sensible reason

28:11

that it was always going to

28:13

have Be more important or to

28:15

Putin Than within that area is

28:18

going to be to us And

28:20

so they're they're not going to

28:23

lose that war like Russia is

28:25

not going to be defeated in

28:27

this conflict Ukraine can't defend itself

28:30

at all by itself So what

28:32

we're being asked to do is

28:34

to support in perpetuity and incredibly

28:37

bloody a dangerous war that not

28:39

only involves a huge loss of

28:42

life in Ukraine, but puts us

28:44

in real jeopardy of getting into

28:46

a global conflict with a nuclear

28:49

power. And what's so funny is

28:51

that when you mention that now,

28:54

that's called a Russian talking point.

28:56

You know, if you bring up

28:58

the nuclear clock, which has been

29:01

part of American society since what

29:03

the 50s or 60s. That's now

29:06

called a Russian talking point. Worrying

29:08

about nuclear war is a Russian

29:10

talking point. It's a Putin talking

29:13

point. But it's true. We had

29:15

NATO countries firing missiles into Russian

29:18

territory and only because they decided

29:20

not to expand the situation, are

29:22

we not in some kind of

29:25

a shooting war? with the nuclear

29:27

power. It's astonishing, it's astonishing to

29:29

me that people who, you know,

29:32

people I marched with, I remember

29:34

in 2002 against the Iraq war,

29:37

are so for this, they're rabidly

29:39

for this. And I, and it's

29:41

a mystery to me. I mean,

29:44

is it to you? I mean,

29:46

it's a, it just, it got,

29:49

it just shows you how weak-minded

29:51

people who I used to think

29:53

weren't are, people who I thought

29:56

would be able to see through

29:58

the war machine, the censorship machine,

30:01

and it, Trump broke their brain,

30:03

and that's just, there's no two

30:05

ways around it, Trump broke their

30:08

brain, and so now anything that

30:10

they can, you know, if Trump,

30:12

if Trump said he liked vanilla

30:15

ice cream, they would say, it.

30:17

They they look what happened with

30:20

COVID. I mean, they became the

30:22

you know, they went from being

30:24

my body, my choice. And and

30:27

to People used to protest GMOs

30:29

in their food were now wanting

30:32

to take your kids away if

30:34

you didn't want to inject them

30:36

with an experimental medical treatment with

30:39

no long-term studies. They wanted you

30:41

to lose your job. They wanted

30:44

you to lose your job. They

30:46

wanted you to lose the right

30:48

of travel. If you wouldn't take

30:51

this big farm of products, so

30:53

they're no longer, they're not for

30:56

bodily autonomy anymore. They're pro-abortion. You've

30:58

seen that shift, I've seen it.

31:00

I'm pro-choice. Being pro-abortion is a

31:03

dark thing. There's no way around

31:05

that. And so, yeah, that's, to

31:07

me, it's just Trump derangement syndrome.

31:10

But, you know, the fact that

31:12

Bernie Sanders, it's like, is someone

31:15

else writing your tweets? I mean,

31:17

what, so he was never what

31:19

we thought he was. I'm Elizabeth

31:22

Warren, I didn't know much about,

31:24

but Bernie Sanders, I, you know,

31:27

he used to start every speech

31:29

with sounds like you ready for

31:31

a revolution. And he just turns

31:34

he turns into, um, you know,

31:36

Lindsay Graham. I mean, it's just

31:39

like at the snap of a.

31:41

finger and he doesn't have any

31:43

shame and it turns out he

31:46

has no dignity and he at

31:48

all I mean at all he

31:51

if you're willing to do that

31:53

you're there's there's no bigger I

31:55

mean I don't want to be

31:58

hyperbolic but that's the scum of

32:00

the earth activity when you're cheering

32:02

on the slaughter of innocent Ukrainians

32:05

for an economic hitman's war in

32:07

Ukraine that that's that's so There

32:10

are no leaders in the Democratic

32:12

Party. That's what I've, there is

32:14

no point to the Democratic Party,

32:17

but you know, we're not ruled

32:19

by parties, we're ruled by oligarchs.

32:22

And they control both parties, and

32:24

they can't control Trump as much.

32:26

And that's why they tried to

32:29

kill him twice. That's why they

32:31

rush agated him, impeached him twice,

32:34

and did January 6th, and then

32:36

did 92 felony indictments, right, while

32:38

George Bush walks the earth of

32:41

free man. So, to me, that's,

32:43

it's, again, I've just. I turned

32:45

to you because you're you're much

32:48

smarter wiser more you know educated

32:50

man by myself I'm a nightclub

32:53

comedian and I just like is

32:55

there a way out of this

32:57

like how the the Democrat there's

33:00

just no snapping these people out

33:02

of it. Yeah I don't know

33:05

first of all I would gladly

33:07

trade places with you and be

33:09

a nightclub comedian but that sounds

33:12

like a much better job to

33:14

me but um But no, I

33:17

mean, you bring up Bernie. Bernie

33:19

is probably the politician that I

33:21

know best personally of any in

33:24

the world. Like, in 2006, he

33:26

invited me to spend the better

33:29

part of a month following them

33:31

around in Congress. He never once

33:33

asked to be off the record.

33:36

And, you know, I've had dinner

33:38

with him socially. He's gone out

33:40

with my family. I had an

33:43

image of him that was, I

33:45

guess, different from the reality or

33:48

I'm just confused about this this

33:50

recent turn. There's only one explanation

33:52

that I can really come up

33:55

with because my impression of Bernie

33:57

always was that he was a

34:00

person of integrity. I thought I

34:02

thought he was doing these things

34:04

not for money, not for fame,

34:07

not for the usual politician reasons.

34:09

But I did have a conversation

34:12

with him once where he said

34:14

some interesting things. about kind of

34:16

his affection for the Democratic Party

34:19

and he talked sort of very

34:21

passionately about what it meant to

34:24

him when he was a kid,

34:26

you know, growing up in poor

34:28

in Brooklyn and how nobody he

34:31

knew was a Republican, everybody he

34:33

knew was a Democrat and Joe

34:35

Biden had been a friend of

34:38

his when he got to the

34:40

Senate, you know, from the House.

34:43

Biden had been a mentor to

34:45

him, how the how the place

34:47

worked. And I think there is

34:50

a part of him deep inside

34:52

that believes kind of in the

34:55

classic lefty way in party politics,

34:57

right? In other words, you know,

34:59

party before self. In a way

35:02

that Americans don't really associate with.

35:04

That's the only rational explanation I

35:07

can come up with for a

35:09

lot of this stuff because on

35:11

so many other issues. Bernie and

35:14

he will say this openly that

35:16

he and Trump were really mining

35:18

the same territory politically in both

35:21

2016 and 2020. But now he's

35:23

just gone over into this red-bating,

35:26

you know, sort of John Brennan

35:28

style version of what the Democratic

35:30

Party is. And there's no other

35:33

thing I reason way I can

35:35

account for it. Can you? I

35:38

mean, I don't know. It just

35:40

reveals the worst, you know, he's

35:42

just... He would have been much

35:45

better figure out of politics after

35:47

2020 because his legacy is just

35:50

garbage now. He's just turned into

35:52

the thing he used to be

35:54

fighting against. And he is the

35:57

monster. There's really no other way

35:59

to put it. And he was

36:02

so close too. That's the funny

36:04

thing about it. He had them

36:06

by the Shorten Curlies where he

36:09

really did. Yeah, and he could

36:11

have. He could have demanded things.

36:13

He could have extracted concessions. You

36:16

know, if he had a little

36:18

bit of Matt Gets in him,

36:21

he could have did something. But

36:23

he doesn't. He doesn't have that

36:25

in him. And, you know, I've

36:28

had other people, you know, I've

36:30

seen Michael Parente. talk about Bernie

36:33

Sanders and how after you know

36:35

the bombing a coast of always

36:37

stop talking to Michael Parenti and

36:40

things like so Bernie's always been

36:42

kind of a cuck to the

36:45

war machine in a way and

36:47

It's that that is just it's

36:49

disgusting. There's nothing. There's no that's

36:52

just again. That's John Brennan stuff.

36:54

That's not stuff you would expect

36:57

from somebody who calls himself a

36:59

progressive or represents the working man

37:01

or anything. It's all the ante

37:04

that you know every every bomb

37:06

that's produced every gun is taking

37:08

a you know as Eisenhower said

37:11

it's taking a meal out of

37:13

the poor kids' mouth and it's

37:16

just, and he doesn't care about

37:18

any of it. I don't know

37:20

what he's doing. He's trying to

37:23

not be, well, as he told

37:25

Chris Hedges, I don't want to

37:28

end up like Ralph Nader. And

37:30

now Ralph Nader saying the same

37:32

stupid shit that Bernie's saying. It's

37:35

amazing. Ralph Nader still thinks that

37:37

there's communism. In Russia, did you

37:40

see his latest tweet? It was.

37:42

Oh, I didn't see that. What

37:44

did he say? Yeah, it drives

37:47

me crazy when people say that.

37:49

What did he say? Yeah, he

37:51

was referring to Russia as a

37:54

communist and yeah, it was just

37:56

like, dude, what, what, I don't,

37:59

you know, but and. I almost

38:01

tweeted about it, I almost said

38:03

whoever is running his Twitter account

38:06

should be fired, but I just

38:08

let it go. And it's, I mean,

38:10

that's a 40 year old error, you

38:12

know what I mean? Yeah. It's been

38:15

a while or 30 years, or whatever

38:17

it's been, it's been a while. Yeah,

38:19

yeah. Since they tore down the, since

38:22

they tore down the wall, and, you

38:24

know, since the, the vulture capitalist took

38:26

over in Russia. So I'm

38:28

here with Matt Taibi and last

38:31

night Trump had a state of

38:33

the union and they did some

38:35

quick polling and So here's CNN

38:37

doing some quick polling and you

38:39

could see how It didn't go well

38:41

for CNN They you know they instantly

38:44

regretted this, but while I'm going

38:46

to show you in a minute how they

38:48

spun it. It's crazy. So So

38:51

the reaction to Trump speech 44%

38:53

of the people were very positive

38:55

somewhat positive. Now if you

38:57

add those together, that's 69%

38:59

right? And that's an overwhelming

39:02

majority of people who

39:04

are somewhat to very positive

39:06

about the speech. And then

39:08

there was 31% that were

39:10

negative, right? So I mean, to the

39:13

results, what was your reaction

39:15

to Trump speech? 44% of

39:17

speech watchers in our instant

39:20

poll tonight, say they had

39:22

a very positive. reaction to

39:24

Trump's speech 25% somewhat positive

39:27

31% negative. And that is

39:29

not the guy who got caught

39:32

jerking off on a Zoom call

39:34

during COVID. That is a different

39:36

guy who looks like that

39:38

guy. That's the guy who

39:41

he used to sell bed.

39:43

You're killing me Larry in

39:45

Los Angeles. That's who that

39:47

guy is. Anyway. So Muse says

39:49

CNN instantly regretted this poll. The vast

39:51

majority of Americans think Trump's policies will

39:54

move the US in the right direction.

39:56

Look at that. Trump's policies will move

39:58

US in the right direction. 66% said

40:00

yes, 34% say no.

40:02

Here, even CBS, views

40:05

of Trump's speech, 70,

40:07

they had it even

40:09

higher, 76% approved. 23%

40:11

disapproved. To me, I

40:13

was like, those are

40:15

really big numbers. Time

40:17

Trump spent on issues

40:20

that you care about.

40:22

63% of the people

40:24

said a lot. 28%

40:26

said a little and 9% said

40:29

none of all. That's everybody at

40:31

Rachel Maddows House. And also, does

40:33

Trump have a clear plan for

40:36

inflation? 68% said yes. So whether

40:38

he does or not, people liked

40:40

it. Trump's plan among speech watchers,

40:43

wasting government spending, 77% like it.

40:45

Immigration and the border, 77% like

40:47

it. Ukraine and Russia, 73% liked

40:50

it. And tariffs, 60, so this

40:52

overwhelming majority of people, in fact,

40:54

even CBS News concluded, Poll on

40:57

Trump's 2025 joint address to Congress,

40:59

large majority of viewers approve, approve.

41:01

So, but I want to play

41:04

this for you, I don't know

41:06

if you've seen this. Here's how

41:08

they, here's how CNN found a

41:11

way to make that not good.

41:13

In fact, they made it, they

41:15

made it, you're not, maybe you

41:18

won't believe this. Hold on to

41:20

your, here it comes. Reaction. And

41:22

what about to his modern day

41:25

predecessors, how does this 44% very

41:27

positive stack up? Again, it's the

41:29

bottom of the barrel here, 51%

41:32

in 2021, when Joe Biden gave

41:34

his first joint address, were very

41:36

positive. Donald Trump himself was at

41:39

57% in 2017, and you see

41:41

that Bush and Obama even higher

41:44

than that. So this was not.

41:46

Donald Trump's best speech, but obviously

41:48

still the plurality of speech watchers

41:51

had a very positive reaction. So

41:53

that's the bottom of the barrel.

41:55

That's how he spun it. It's

41:58

the bottom of the barrel. I

42:01

mean, this is how media works

42:03

now, right? If you go to

42:05

political fact and something is totally

42:07

true, then the judgment is needs

42:10

context. Yeah. And, you know, when

42:12

you read the context, they find

42:14

some way to tell you the

42:16

opposite of, you know, what the

42:19

actual fact is. But those numbers

42:21

are extraordinary, as you mentioned, because

42:23

they must include Democrats. They must

42:25

include a pretty healthy portion of

42:28

Democrats in order for Trump to

42:30

even sniff those kinds of positivity

42:32

numbers. Remember, this is somebody who

42:34

never really broached higher than 50%

42:37

approval rating as the president the

42:39

first time around. So the numbers

42:41

are different now. People are looking

42:43

at his whole presidency differently and

42:45

those issues that you showed. That's

42:48

really the key thing, which is

42:50

that the Democrats don't really have

42:52

a strategy for returning fire at

42:54

the moment. There is no place,

42:57

there's no winning theme for them.

42:59

And they're grasping around to try

43:01

to find something to attack with.

43:03

And it's been bizarre watching them

43:06

cycle through the kind of the

43:08

same old same old and seeing

43:10

each one of those strategies fail.

43:12

They have to rethink who they

43:15

are and I don't think they're

43:17

capable of doing that. You know,

43:19

as my friend Russell Dobular says

43:21

that the Democrats, well, during Clinton,

43:24

he decided, well, if he can't

43:26

beat him, join him. So he,

43:28

when he became president, him and

43:30

El Gore did the Democratic Leadership

43:33

Council. which was just them staying

43:35

to Wall Street. Hey, work is

43:37

easily corruptible and viable as the

43:39

Republicans, so please come do it.

43:42

In fact, the Democratic Leadership Council

43:44

had legit board members of the

43:46

Koch Foundation in the Democratic Leadership

43:48

Council. And so that's when Bill

43:50

Clinton did things that even Republicans

43:53

couldn't do, like pass an after,

43:55

deregulate Wall Street, explode the prison

43:57

population as he guts welfare, and

43:59

he was about to privatize Social

44:02

Security, except Monica Lewinsky scandal, stopped

44:04

it, and people still pretended he's

44:06

some kind of friend of the

44:08

working man. And he's not. And

44:11

so there's, as Russell Dobbler says,

44:13

there's no point to a left

44:15

party that is beholden to Wall

44:17

Street. And so that's why we've

44:20

been talking about, you know, gender

44:22

affirming care and trans and white

44:24

supremacy and Nazis and dictators and

44:26

all that stuff because they can't

44:29

actually advocate for workers because they're

44:31

beholden to Wall Street and you

44:33

can't be beholden to Wall Street

44:35

and workers at the same time.

44:38

And it's just like Chuck Schumer

44:40

said in 2016, we don't care

44:42

if we lose blue-collar voters because

44:44

for every blue-collar voter we lose,

44:46

we're going to add two and

44:49

three white-collar colors. suburban voters and

44:51

you can repeat and he said

44:53

that and that's been their strategy

44:55

their strategy was to become the

44:58

party of Republicans that we're gonna

45:00

appeal to the Republicans nor and

45:02

so that's why it's flipped. RFK

45:04

has talked about this that the

45:07

parties have flipped more people who

45:09

make less than $100,000 voted for

45:11

Donald Trump than voted for Kamala

45:13

Harris. They're now the party of

45:16

the working class not because they're

45:18

gonna represent their interests but because

45:20

they got nowhere else to go.

45:22

And I remember after Trump got

45:25

elected in 2016, I interviewed a

45:27

Waffle House cook from Virginia and

45:29

his name was Nick Smith and

45:31

I said, why would you guys

45:34

vote for Donald Trump? Do you

45:36

really think he's going to help

45:38

you? And he said, we've known

45:40

that Donald Trump was a loud

45:43

mouth Yankee who should have had

45:45

his ass kicked a long time

45:47

ago, but at least he's offering

45:49

us something. Hillary Clinton came and

45:51

said she's going to close down

45:54

our industry and he didn't. else

45:56

to go. Right. And so they're

45:58

put they've been pushed and if

46:00

the left doesn't offer solutions to

46:03

workers they're going to be pushed

46:05

into the hands of the right

46:07

wing and that's exactly what has

46:09

happened. So that I think that

46:12

go ahead. No I think that's

46:14

right and I mean I mean

46:16

it may even be worse than

46:18

that I think one of the

46:21

things that's come out especially lately

46:23

with this Ukrainian issue and then

46:25

also with you know, vances speech

46:27

to Munich and to the Munich

46:30

Security Conference about the censorship issue,

46:32

is that the dividing line, yes,

46:34

it's left and right, but it's,

46:36

I think it's really more pronounced

46:39

along the lines of people who

46:41

support a kind of a globalist

46:43

vision of government and people who

46:45

think politicians should take care of

46:47

their own countries. and then worry

46:50

about their imperial responsibilities. And the

46:52

Democrats have become a party of

46:54

imperial responsibility. That's what they're all

46:56

about. That's why they're all cheering

46:59

for the Ukraine effort. That's why,

47:01

you know, they automatically side, you

47:03

know, with Europe on the censorship

47:05

issues. That's why they were working

47:08

so hard to fold us into

47:10

laws like the Digital Services Act

47:12

or, you know, the... code of

47:14

practice on disinformation. I think they

47:17

believe in this vision of a

47:19

kind of government by committee that

47:21

knows better than everybody else. And

47:23

the average American just doesn't believe

47:26

that they want to see their

47:28

president, even if he's deeply flawed,

47:30

motivated to fix their particular problems

47:32

first. And Trump. you know that

47:35

that's what he does you know

47:37

you mean You may disagree with

47:39

how he gets there, but he

47:41

is clearly saying in almost everything

47:44

he does that, you know, I'm

47:46

going to advocate for people who

47:48

actually live in this country and

47:50

vote in this country. Zilinsky had

47:52

his meeting and he said that

47:55

we're far far away from. having

47:57

an end to this Ukraine war

47:59

and that you can't negotiate with

48:01

Putin because he breaks every agreement

48:04

he ever made even though that's

48:06

not true either and now this

48:08

is March 4th Zilinsky ready to

48:10

work under Trump's strong leadership after

48:13

regrettable showdown so now he's you

48:15

know mr. I don't know mr.

48:17

BlowMonkey needs another cookie and I

48:19

think that's his secret service code

48:22

Dame BlowMonkey and repeat blow monkey

48:24

needs another cookie and so now

48:26

this is the tune he's speaking

48:28

now after he after this happened

48:31

to us in big trouble can

48:33

i know no no you've done

48:35

a lot of talking your country

48:37

is in big trouble i know

48:40

you're not winning you're not winning

48:42

this i You have a damn

48:44

good chance of coming out okay

48:46

because of us. We are staying

48:49

in our country, staying strong from

48:51

the very beginning of the war.

48:53

We've been alone and we are

48:55

thankful. I said thanks in this

48:57

cabinet. We gave you through the

49:00

stupid president 350 billion dollars. We

49:02

gave you $350 billion. We gave

49:04

you military equipment and you met

49:06

a brave but they had to

49:09

use our military. If you didn't

49:11

have our military equipment. war would

49:13

have been over in two weeks.

49:15

No, I don't always get hard

49:18

from watching a video, but when

49:20

I do, it's this video. And

49:22

so Zalenski leaves White House without

49:24

signing the minerals deal after the

49:27

Oval Office blow-up. So this was,

49:29

by the way, that was all

49:31

orchestrated. That was all planned ahead

49:33

of time in case you don't

49:36

know that. He went and he

49:38

had a meeting with Demeter. leaders

49:40

before he went into this meeting.

49:42

He got bad coaching and so

49:45

he now he's so that and

49:47

then Trump said this after that.

49:49

Everybody has to get into a

49:51

room so to speak and we

49:53

have to make a deal and

49:56

the deal can be made very

49:58

fast. It should not be that

50:00

hard a deal to make. It

50:02

could be made very fast. Now

50:05

maybe somebody doesn't want to make

50:07

a deal and if somebody doesn't

50:09

want to make a deal I

50:11

think that person won't be around

50:14

very long. Because I believe that

50:16

Russia wants to make a deal.

50:18

I believe certainly the people of

50:20

Ukraine want to make a deal.

50:23

They've suffered more than anybody else.

50:25

So here's a very corleone way

50:27

of putting things. I just say,

50:29

who do you not want to

50:32

be right now? You don't want

50:34

to be a horse that belongs

50:36

to Zilinsky. That's what I'm saying.

50:38

That's absolutely true. And so after

50:41

that, now here it is. He's

50:43

ready. It's, oh, I'm sorry, I'm

50:45

sorry, I acted like that, I

50:47

promise I won't do it again,

50:50

let's work together. And so this

50:52

is from the BBC, overnight it

50:54

was announced that the US President

50:56

Trump suspended deliveries of military aid,

50:58

so he cut him off. What

51:01

followed was a barrage of reaction

51:03

from Ukraine and its allies, Russia

51:05

and the United States. Four hours

51:07

afterwards, however the key players stayed

51:10

quiet, Ukraine's President Zelenski and US

51:12

Donald Trump were up and acted,

51:14

but both. steered clear of mentioning

51:16

the pause this then mid his

51:19

afternoon. Salinsky shared a lengthy statement

51:21

in which he expressed a willingness

51:23

to consider a partial truce if

51:25

Russia agreed to do the same.

51:28

He also thanked Trump personally for

51:30

his support for Ukraine and said

51:32

their fiery meeting in the office

51:34

oval office was regrettable. It's time

51:37

to make things right. Let's make

51:39

things right. Now he sounds like

51:41

Al Pacino in Scarface. Let's make

51:43

this right. Ukraine is ready to

51:46

come to the negotiating table as

51:48

soon peace more than Ukrainians. My

51:50

team and I stand ready to

51:52

work under President Trump's strong leadership

51:55

to get a peace that lasts

51:57

the president. We are ready to

51:59

work fast and to end the

52:01

war. Wow. As our North American

52:03

correspondent Tom Bateman puts it, the

52:06

key question now is Weather Zalinsky's

52:08

statement. will be enough. And so

52:10

just to give you the rundown,

52:12

clandestine did a great rundown. He

52:15

said Friday, Zilinsky throws a fit,

52:17

refuses to sign the minerals deal

52:19

at the White House. Saturday and

52:21

Sunday, Zilinsky runs off to London

52:24

to beg for money from Europe

52:26

that they don't have to give.

52:28

They gave him $2 billion. That's

52:30

nothing. I mean if the $300

52:33

billion we gave him hasn't done

52:35

anything, they're losing to that $2

52:37

billion is not going to just

52:39

going to take that and buy

52:42

some more vineyards in France and

52:44

Italy with it. They give him

52:46

a minuscule amount of funds and

52:48

tell him to go beg Trump

52:51

for forgiveness. On Monday, Trump says

52:53

that if Zelenski does not come

52:55

to the table ready for peace,

52:57

then he will not be around

52:59

very long. Hours later, Trump cuts

53:02

off all the weapons, aid, funding,

53:04

funding, stock files, etc, etc, until

53:06

Zelenski is committed to a ceasefire,

53:08

a ceasefire, a ceasefire, and a

53:11

ceasefire, and a peace deal. Today,

53:13

Zilinsky is ready to commit to

53:15

a peace deal, first thing this

53:17

morning. You just witnessed the art

53:20

of the deal play out in

53:22

real time. Trump is holding all

53:24

the cards and forced Zilinsky to

53:26

submit. Zilinsky was trying to play

53:29

games and keep this war going.

53:31

So Trump dropped the hammer on

53:33

him. Trump essentially told Zilinsky, you

53:35

either work with me on stopping

53:38

this war, and we will let

53:40

Putin kill you. So, that's, we

53:42

should check and see if he

53:44

has all 10 fingers. That's all

53:47

I'm saying. So what do you

53:49

make of Zilinsky's turn around? Well,

53:51

it was clearly, as you say,

53:53

it was clearly orchestrated. Not only

53:56

did he meet with, you know,

53:58

people like Chris Murphy before he

54:00

went in, but I think even

54:02

more conspicuously, the instant that meeting

54:04

was over, there were prepared statements.

54:07

from almost every European leader, pledging

54:09

support for as long as it

54:11

takes to, you know, to stay

54:13

with Ukraine in the war. So

54:16

those statements had to have been

54:18

prepared. They couldn't have been, you

54:20

wouldn't compose on the spot a

54:22

statement contravening American foreign policy, you

54:25

know, and then just sort of

54:27

tweeted it out. So this was

54:29

a plan thing and then as

54:31

that clandestine notes he you know

54:34

he ran off to England he

54:36

jumped in the lap of Cure

54:38

Starmer and Starmer promised him that

54:40

he would stay with him till

54:43

the end and then gave him

54:45

two billion dollars which as he

54:47

said wasn't enough. So I think

54:49

he was probably playing out the

54:52

string to prompt to see how

54:54

much he could get out of

54:56

the Europeans and it turned out

54:58

to be not that much. The

55:01

Europeans were very happy to see

55:03

this thing take place because they

55:05

wanted to see Trump showing up

55:07

a little bit. But in the

55:09

end, America doesn't have anything to

55:12

gain or lose in this situation.

55:14

Really all Trump was saying is,

55:16

okay, if you're not going to

55:18

do what we want, we're out

55:21

and you're on your own. see

55:23

how you like that. Well, he

55:25

didn't like it for more than

55:27

10 minutes. It appears, right? So

55:30

he either takes a deal that

55:32

he considers insufficient or, you know,

55:34

he's going to be overrun. And

55:36

logically, and this is what's so

55:39

crazy about this time period, is

55:41

that people have been trained not

55:43

to think in terms of what's

55:45

logical about all this. He has

55:48

to make a deal. It's in

55:50

everybody's interests. Everybody wins. from a

55:52

deal being made and not only

55:54

that we all knew what the

55:57

parameters would be of this deal

55:59

when three years ago when it

56:01

started at this at this show

56:03

i said this war is going

56:05

to end however Russia wants it

56:08

to end. But that's how it's

56:10

going to end. And this is

56:12

amazing that I knew that. And

56:14

because Salinsky didn't and everybody in

56:17

Europe didn't know that. But maybe

56:19

they did. Well, but Jimmy, don't

56:21

you think that's I mean, I

56:23

think that's fascinating, right? Because common

56:26

sense and you're absolutely right. It

56:28

was clear to everybody how this

56:30

was going to play out from

56:32

the start. No. some of us,

56:35

including me, didn't see the invasion

56:37

coming. I thought it was, I

56:39

didn't, that was a little bit

56:41

of a surprise. But once it

56:44

did come, there was no way

56:46

that this was going to end,

56:48

that didn't involve Ukraine losing some

56:50

territory, and then eventually having to

56:53

sue for peace that it wasn't

56:55

going to like. The Russians were

56:57

not going to give up. There's

56:59

other things that happen in the

57:02

interim that, you know, Russia wants

57:04

to extract a little bit of

57:06

a pound of flesh for, everything

57:08

from the might on revolution to

57:10

the orange revolution to things that

57:13

took place in the Don Bass.

57:15

They want to... they wanted to

57:17

see Ukraine punished for some things

57:19

and they weren't gonna, they don't

57:22

mind out losing a few soldiers

57:24

to make that happen. So this

57:26

was always going to be the

57:28

end game. They were always going

57:31

to lose those two provinces and

57:33

you could have guessed that this

57:35

was the general end and people

57:37

like Mir Shammer did years ago.

57:40

And now it's going to end

57:42

that way and everyone's going to

57:44

say that it's like a tragedy.

57:46

We're here with Matt Taebi, former

57:49

Russia resident and athletic where enthusiast,

57:51

who also is the host of

57:53

co-host of America this week podcast

57:55

and of course is great sub

57:58

stack, racket news. Hey

58:01

become a premium member,

58:03

go to member.com. Sign up,

58:05

it's the most affordable premium

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most affordable premium program in the the

58:11

voices performed today are by

58:13

the one and only, one

58:15

and only the can be found

58:17

at mikemacray.com. He can be found at

58:19

Mike mcrae.com That's it for

58:21

this week. You be the

58:23

best you can be

58:25

and you keep and I'll keep being me

58:57

Do freak out. out.