Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 10/21/26: Trump & Bibi Plot Iran Escalation, Vivek Doubles Down On Disgusting Ad, Mike Rogers Defends Epstein Coverup

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10/21/26: Trump & Bibi Plot Iran Escalation, Vivek Doubles Down On Disgusting Ad, Mike Rogers Defends Epstein Coverup · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

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  Speaker 1: There's Ryan Grim Hitchman.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 2: just a few days after that.
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  Speaker 1: Getting Saga to possibly go.
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  Speaker 2: 100th show at MSG.
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  Speaker 5: That's so insane. But getting Sager to possibly go would be, that's.
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  Speaker 1: The golden ticket.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe 2,000 he goes.
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  Speaker 1: That's what the people want.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's basically no way.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah. Sager standing outside of MSG would get a
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  Speaker 1: contact high.
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  Speaker 6: All right.
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  Speaker 4: Tonight we're talking about the likelihood of renewed hostilities. potentially
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: as early as this week, maybe after the Israeli election,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: maybe after the American election.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: We'll see. We'll talk about that.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: We'll talk about the latest on the early vote numbers
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: coming in on the midterms, plus a completely shocking turn
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: of events in Ohio, where Vivek Ramaswamy... Never mind. I
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: don't even want to talk about it. We'll get into it.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk plenty about it, unfortunately.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: Vivek decided that this moment was going to be the
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: time to stand up for sexual assault of children, to
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: be on the side of the sexual assailants?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Like, in this political climate?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: It's a bold move, Cotton. We'll see if it works
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: out for him.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Speaking of which, Mike Rogers explaining in leaked audio why
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: he covered up the Epstein files. It was to protect
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: people who innocently rode on Epstein's plane, he said.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: We'll get into that.
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  Speaker 4: Plus, he's threatening to sue Dropsite News if we didn't
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: retract our investigation into him and his wife's company.
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  Speaker 2: As of yesterday, we did not retract it, so awaiting
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the lawsuit.
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  Speaker 3: I guess.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: We'll see if it actually materializes.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: We'll go through why he sued us.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Meanwhile, the bottom is falling out on the economy. Auto
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: loan delinquencies are surging, and we'll talk about why that
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: is such a blaring red light in the economy, plus
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: home sales plunging to their lowest in many, many years. Plus,
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: we'll be joined by our favorite Israeli analyst, Noga.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: What's her last name? It's complicated. We'll have her on
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: at the end of the show. Tarnopolsky.
• 3:50
  Speaker 7: Say it again?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Tarnopolsky. It's not that different than Jashinsky, to be honest.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Well, it took me a while on that one, too.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Anyway, we'll have her on to talk about the Israeli election,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: where Netanyahu is polling currently behind the opposition party. And
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: polls have been pretty accurate in Israeli elections at this point.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: The election is on Tuesday.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: He's behind by about 12 to 14 seats, enough for
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: the Palestinian parties to then put the opposition over the top.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: So we'll talk about how that factors into his decision
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: of whether to launch the war before Tuesday.
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: Yes, there's a lot to get to on the show today,
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: especially with those elections coming up and then our elections
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: the next week.
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  Speaker 1: So Let's go ahead, Ryan.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: And speaking of timing, start with this Iran block about
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: what may be imminent just in the next couple of weeks.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Here we have Trey Yinkst.
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: Of Fox News reporting about Netanyahu and Donald Trump. So
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: Hegseth actually made a surprise trip to Israel. This is
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: Trey Yinkst. giving people a little bit of a briefing
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: about those conversations between the admin and Netanyahu.
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  Speaker 1: Let's play A1.
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  Speaker 8: As the United States and Israel prepare for the possibility
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  Speaker 8: of resuming strikes against Iran, high-level planning meetings are still
• 5:02
  Speaker 8: taking place. Axios reports that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
• 5:07
  Speaker 8: made a surprise visit to Israel on Monday and met
• 5:09
  Speaker 8: with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an airbase. Hegseth posted
• 5:13
  Speaker 8: photos from an undisclosed location, saying, as always, it was
• 5:16
  Speaker 8: an honor to visit our warfighters in CENTCOM today. The
• 5:19
  Speaker 8: best of our country on a historic mission.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Godspeed.
• 5:22
  Speaker 8: Netanyahu also released a video where he appears to be
• 5:25
  Speaker 8: at an airbase while on the phone with President Trump. Overnight,
• 5:28
  Speaker 8: the Israelis conducted drills, sending fighter jets toward Iran over
• 5:31
  Speaker 8: Syria and Iraq. President Trump spoke about Iran on Monday,
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  Speaker 8: repeating that the country can't have a nuclear weapon. He
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  Speaker 8: did not discuss the possibility of resuming major combat operations,
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  Speaker 8: but did talk about Iranian leadership that has killed thousands
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  Speaker 8: of their own citizens.
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  Speaker 1: And before we get your response to that, I also
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: want to play this clip. It's not AI.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: Apparently, every time I see BB now, I'm like, is
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: this AI? This is Netanyahu on a phone call with
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: Donald Trump. We have video of the Netanyahu side of
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: the phone call.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Let's roll it.
• 5:59
  Speaker 7: So grateful for this incredible endorsement. You've been an incredible
• 6:04
  Speaker 7: leader of the free world of America by far. The
• 6:07
  Speaker 7: greatest friend Israel has ever had or will have in
• 6:09
  Speaker 7: the White House and all of civilization is emboldened by
• 6:15
  Speaker 7: your boldness. Donald, we have a job to finish. You
• 6:18
  Speaker 7: said it and we'll finish it together. We'll finish it.
• 6:22
  Speaker 7: And no one else will do it. Well, let me
• 6:55
  Speaker 7: tell you, what I can say is that our alliance
• 6:59
  Speaker 7: has proved that we can do amazing things together. We
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: still have a job to finish. We have peace that
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: we can broaden because I'm sure that our strength brings,
• 7:08
  Speaker 7: I know that our strength brings other countries. I don't
• 7:10
  Speaker 7: want to enumerate it. We're in an open line. But
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: we all know that we can expand the Abraham Accords,
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: the historic Abraham Accords that we brought together under your leadership.
• 7:21
  Speaker 7: And people in America should know that you have stood
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: up against the greatest danger that faces them. In Iran
• 7:28
  Speaker 7: with nuclear weapons, we won't let it happen.
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: Well, Ryan, it's almost uncomfortable to listen into that call
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: because it sounds too intimate for observers.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was just something.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: There's Trump taking credit for the endorsement, saying it wasn't
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: something that was just written by some guy.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: It was crafted by me, myself. You're the guy I
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: want by my side, he just said to Netanyahu.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: None of it's surprising, but it felt a little uncomfortably
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: intimate for the public to see something almost romantic.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: I do like the idea that He thinks Netanyahu has
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: been treated unfairly by some countries. He's a wanted international
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: war criminal. And we are sanctioning and trying to destroy
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: the ICC, partly, I think, in order to protect him
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: from that. So you could say that he's being treated
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: in a difficult manner by some other countries, given that
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: he has warrants out for his arrest for crimes against humanity.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: I suppose that's a fair point. But the key there
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: is that he's saying, we have a job to finish.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: And So the question is, it seems like a matter
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: of when, not if, Netanyahu and Trump collectively resume major combat.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Operations against Iran. We can put up A3.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: As was mentioned earlier, Hegseth made an unannounced surprise visit
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  Speaker 4: to Israel to meet on a military base, A3, down
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: in southern Israel. What I'm told by sources inside the government,
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: is that even Hegseth at this point has cooled on
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  Speaker 4: the idea of renewing major combat operations.
• 9:05
  Speaker 9: Yes.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: And that only Admiral Brad Cooper inside his inner circle
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: remains kind of gung-ho. And Cooper is very close to
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: Mark Thiessen, Mark Levin, Wall Street Journal editorial page, all
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: of which are very close with Netanyahu as well. But otherwise,
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: as I understand it, everyone else in the inner circle
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: thinks it would be a bad idea to renew the
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: war at this point. Part of it goes back to
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: what we've been talking about the whole time, that when
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: we launched the war, gas was like, you know, in
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: 60 bucks, oil was $ 60 a barrel, you know, you're
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: paying two something at the pump. Our strategic reserve was
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: not full, but it had, you know, hundreds of millions
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: of more gallons than it has now. Today, we can look,
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: we put up A4 gas, There was some fake news
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: about a deal being reached Uh, and that sent, uh,
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: oil prices absolutely plummeting pretty quickly. It was discovered that
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: this was completely made up. Like, I don't understand why
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: people still like see news like this and believe it.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Like what, like what, of course, like he's, trying to
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: juice the price. And then it's so immediately the oil starts-
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: It's just the chance, right?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: It's on the chance.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: So then oil starts surging again.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: So you're going to renew hostilities with oil at 100,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: 110 a barrel when you failed when it was at 60.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: You're going to renew hostilities when your ballistic missile interceptors
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: are almost completely depleted when you failed when you had
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: a full magazine of them. You're going to renew hostilities
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: when you're Service members are completely exhausted when your long-range
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: missiles are exhausted, when you've learned you can't keep your
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: aircraft carriers anywhere close to Iran, so you have to
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: use these standoff munitions. You claimed you had complete air
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: superiority over Iran. I think we've lost dozens of MQ-9
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: Reaper drones, plus several multi-tens-of-million-dollar fighter jets. So you're going
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: in completely exhausted.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: And it's going to go better this time.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: That's the only reason I think that they might pull
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: back at the very end and not relaunch this because
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: it makes no sense. But it made no sense the
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: first time or the second time.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: And they did it anyway.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: No, that's an important caveat.
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: The thing, possibility that we were talking about yesterday is that,
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: you know, Thomas Massey introduced impeachment articles against Pete Hegseth.
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: And that's not going to go anywhere in this Congress.
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: It's not really going to go anywhere to the extent
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: that it's not going to lead to Hegseth's impeachment in
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: all likelihood, even if Democrats do take the Senate and
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: the House, as at this point I would say they're
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: favored to.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Do in the next couple of weeks.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: So on that note, though, Hegseth may be feeling like
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: he has to save his ass a little bit in
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: some of this. I have no idea. But obviously the
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: war has not gone well. Obviously the war is unpopular
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: with the public. And so if you're someone who wants
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: to have a political future like Pete Hegseth, then maybe
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: you aren't eager to double and triple down for the
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: sake of your own hide right.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: And the news is that he's going to get fired
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: after the midterms like that's his probably running assumption brad
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: lander by the way incoming representative um for uh manhattan
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: was detained by the idf meanwhile yeah he's calling here
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: let's see what he's got.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Brad how are you uh hi ryan so are you
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: still detained I.
• 12:34
  Speaker 9: Have been released from detention. They seemed not to want
• 12:37
  Speaker 9: a diplomatic incident. So all of my colleagues, the 60
• 12:41
  Speaker 9: ish people that I was harvesting olives with this morning
• 12:45
  Speaker 9: are still in detention. That's about, you know, 30 Americans,
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: 10 internationals and 20 Israelis roughly. And they are still
• 12:54
  Speaker 9: in detention. But I was released about 45 minutes ago.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And, you know, I told you we're recording on breaking points. OK, great.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: So how did you get snatched? What happened? So I'm with.
• 13:07
  Speaker 10: A delegation called Protect the Harvest.
• 13:10
  Speaker 9: That's about 60 folks from around the world, international, but
• 13:15
  Speaker 9: largely Americans, including a big delegation of rabbis from Trujillo.
• 13:19
  Speaker 9: And we're here this week to help protect the harvest.
• 13:25
  Speaker 9: Monday and Tuesday. And it's coordinated together with or alongside
• 13:29
  Speaker 9: Rabbis for Human Rights. So there have been Israeli protective
• 13:32
  Speaker 9: presence providers in the field with us too. And of course,
• 13:34
  Speaker 9: Palestinian farmers whose land we're on and some Palestinian activists.
• 13:38
  Speaker 10: That we're working with as well.
• 13:39
  Speaker 9: And I'm traveling with Tamar Glezerman from Israelis for Peace,
• 13:42
  Speaker 9: you know, who she and I, you know, she's the
• 13:45
  Speaker 9: one that organized, her group organized the October 7th vigil
• 13:49
  Speaker 9: that Zoran and I and others were at. So Monday
• 13:52
  Speaker 9: and Tuesday, we harvested in a, very peacefully in a field,
• 13:55
  Speaker 9: you know, in an olive grove, and we were able
• 13:57
  Speaker 9: to just harvest olives without incident. Today, we went to
• 14:00
  Speaker 9: an olive grove that sits right in between a Palestinian
• 14:04
  Speaker 9: village and a large Israeli settlement. And as a result,
• 14:08
  Speaker 9: Palestinian farmers have not been able to harvest since October 7th.
• 14:12
  Speaker 10: They haven't felt safe to harvest.
• 14:15
  Speaker 9: And so the 60-ish of us showed up and just
• 14:19
  Speaker 9: got to work harvesting. We arrived in the field early
• 14:21
  Speaker 9: this morning, I don't know, 8.30 or so, and got
• 14:24
  Speaker 9: to work. I'm not saying we're excellent harvesters. I imagine
• 14:27
  Speaker 9: that you are.
• 14:28
  Speaker 10: We've gotten better.
• 14:31
  Speaker 9: And so we just got to work harvesting. And, you know,
• 14:34
  Speaker 9: for two hours, let's say, we just harvested olives. We
• 14:38
  Speaker 9: saw the security truck from the settlement drive down and,
• 14:42
  Speaker 9: you know, take a look at us. And then not
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: too long after that, the IDF and the Israeli police
• 14:50
  Speaker 9: showed up and, you know, made us come, you know,
• 14:54
  Speaker 9: out of the, you know, away from the trees and
• 14:57
  Speaker 9: stand in the field and give us, give them our
• 15:00
  Speaker 9: passports for review. We didn't take them, but we stood
• 15:05
  Speaker 9: around for a while. you know, essentially in detention, you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 9: in the field. And then after a while, a big, like,
• 15:14
  Speaker 9: police bus came, and the Americans and internationals got on
• 15:18
  Speaker 9: one bus. I was on that one, so I didn't
• 15:21
  Speaker 9: see after that, but I understand that then the Israelis
• 15:24
  Speaker 9: on a different vehicle, and they took us to, you know,
• 15:29
  Speaker 9: a police station or an IDF station in the West Bank.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: And....
• 15:37
  Speaker 9: Yeah, eventually, you know, we sat on the bus a while,
• 15:39
  Speaker 9: we sat on the police station a while. Eventually, they
• 15:43
  Speaker 9: called me and, you know, I sat in an office
• 15:46
  Speaker 9: for a little while. And then they told me I
• 15:48
  Speaker 9: was being given a warning and released that what I
• 15:51
  Speaker 9: was doing was illegal and wrong.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: What about it? Was it illegal or wrong?
• 15:58
  Speaker 9: We were told creating a public disturbance of public order.
• 16:05
  Speaker 9: But we certainly were not creating a disturbance of public order.
• 16:07
  Speaker 9: We were literally just harvesting olives in a field with
• 16:10
  Speaker 9: the permission and presence of the farmer. And also that
• 16:13
  Speaker 9: on a tourist visa, we weren't supposed to be in,
• 16:17
  Speaker 9: you know, what they called Judea and Samaria.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: Did they explain how they have authority to determine where
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: you can go in the West Bank?
• 16:30
  Speaker 9: And as I understand it, the field where we were
• 16:33
  Speaker 9: is not a place where you are required to coordinate
• 16:36
  Speaker 9: with authorities before going.
• 16:38
  Speaker 10: I'm not the expert here. We were working closely.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: And you were there Monday and Tuesday, right? The same place? Oh,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: not the same field.
• 16:45
  Speaker 9: No, no.
• 16:45
  Speaker 10: We were in a different field today.
• 16:49
  Speaker 9: But I don't believe, you know, there certainly was no,
• 16:51
  Speaker 9: you know, there was no way, did not appear to
• 16:53
  Speaker 9: be in any way a closed military zone, you know,
• 16:57
  Speaker 9: and I don't believe it was when we got there.
• 16:59
  Speaker 9: And I don't believe it was a place where any
• 17:03
  Speaker 9: coordination with authorities is expected or required. So, yeah, I mean, look,
• 17:09
  Speaker 9: you know, what we were doing was harvesting olives and,
• 17:11
  Speaker 9: I mean, the The Israeli occupation of the West Bank
• 17:15
  Speaker 9: and Gaza is illegal under international law, but harvesting olives
• 17:19
  Speaker 9: is not illegal under any law.
• 17:22
  Speaker 10: I am aware of.
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: And so you're one of what sounds like a pretty
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: big group of Americans, right, Brad? Did you say 20
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: Americans with you, something like that?
• 17:30
  Speaker 9: Yes, I think more, but closer to 30 Americans, including
• 17:33
  Speaker 9: a big group of rabbis.
• 17:36
  Speaker 10: You know, maybe 10 of those folks are rabbis.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Are they making you leave? What's the current status?
• 17:44
  Speaker 10: I have been given a warning and released.
• 17:48
  Speaker 9: I am not being deported or arrested or charged further.
• 17:55
  Speaker 9: But we don't know about the rest of the American
• 17:58
  Speaker 9: international volunteers who are here as part of Protect the Arts.
• 18:02
  Speaker 9: They are still in detention and they are at risk
• 18:06
  Speaker 9: of being deported.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: And I'm sure people are going to jump on you
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: and say this is a giant stunt, just like a
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: PR thing. What's your reaction to that or response to
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: that inevitable charge?
• 18:23
  Speaker 10: We were harvesting olives. People can look on my social media.
• 18:26
  Speaker 9: I didn't hide that I was coming, but we were
• 18:29
  Speaker 9: here as part of a big delegation to help protect
• 18:32
  Speaker 9: the harvest. People have seen with their own eyes the
• 18:35
  Speaker 9: elevations in settler violence, the attack on Heidi Levine, the
• 18:38
  Speaker 9: attack on the European diplomats. Every day there are attacks
• 18:42
  Speaker 9: on Palestinians trying to harvest their olives during the olive harvest,
• 18:45
  Speaker 9: which is an essential part of their economic livelihood. And therefore,
• 18:52
  Speaker 9: Protect the Harvest created this effort to bring Americans and
• 18:56
  Speaker 9: others here, both to help with the harvest and make
• 19:00
  Speaker 9: it possible for Palestinians to harvest their fields. And I
• 19:06
  Speaker 9: had met, in addition to Tamar, I'm here with a woman,
• 19:10
  Speaker 9: Amira Mosalem, who's a Palestinian activist from Bethlehem. She had
• 19:14
  Speaker 9: come to Union Square as part of our weekly vigils
• 19:16
  Speaker 9: and talked about what was happening in the West Bank.
• 19:19
  Speaker 10: In June, I actually spoke on election night, primary election night.
• 19:22
  Speaker 9: I met three Israeli protective presence providers who I just
• 19:27
  Speaker 9: was so moved by. And so when the invitation came
• 19:31
  Speaker 9: to come help protect the harvest, I signed up. And
• 19:34
  Speaker 9: I posted about it Monday and Tuesday and made clear
• 19:37
  Speaker 9: that that's our goal.
• 19:38
  Speaker 10: Our goal is to harvest olives.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 19:42
  Speaker 9: I mean, if it weren't for the fact that there's
• 19:45
  Speaker 9: settler violence and state sanctioning of that settler violence and
• 19:50
  Speaker 9: an effort by the Israeli government and the IDF and
• 19:54
  Speaker 9: the settlers to push Palestinians off their land, then we
• 19:57
  Speaker 9: would not be needed.
• 19:58
  Speaker 10: I mean, I wish there was no risk. I wish
• 20:00
  Speaker 10: we weren't needed. There is risk.
• 20:04
  Speaker 9: Or we wouldn't be here. But I mean, let's be clear,
• 20:06
  Speaker 9: that risk is primarily felt by Palestinians. And we were
• 20:12
  Speaker 9: trying to help diminish it by being there as a presence.
• 20:16
  Speaker 9: And again, we did nothing to provoke anyone. And neither
• 20:25
  Speaker 9: are Palestinians who are trying to harvest their olive groves
• 20:29
  Speaker 9: doing anything to provoke I guess I would just.
• 20:34
  Speaker 10: Urge anyone who cares about this to come and see
• 20:39
  Speaker 10: for yourself.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: Last question, and maybe you have to check in on
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: this afterwards, but do you know if any settlers are
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: attacking the harvest now that the protective presence has been removed?
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Was this coordinated?
• 20:53
  Speaker 10: Obviously, I'm not in the field. I doubt anyone. We
• 20:56
  Speaker 10: were the overwhelmed. Everyone left the field, so I would be.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Nothing to attack.
• 21:02
  Speaker 10: I don't think anyone is harvesting that.
• 21:05
  Speaker 9: As I said, the field we were in, we were told,
• 21:08
  Speaker 9: has not been harvested in three years. The Palestinians whose
• 21:14
  Speaker 9: fields it is, because it sits right under this large settlement,
• 21:18
  Speaker 9: have not felt safe to harvest it. And it was
• 21:22
  Speaker 9: our presence that made it happen. So, um, you'll, you'll
• 21:31
  Speaker 9: find out sooner than well, whatever. I mean, every day
• 21:35
  Speaker 9: in there, there have been incidents, you know, I think
• 21:37
  Speaker 9: it's an average of like 20 incidents a day over
• 21:40
  Speaker 9: the last month since the. Harvest began, obviously the ones
• 21:44
  Speaker 9: like Heidi Levine and the Internet and the European diplomats
• 21:46
  Speaker 9: gets more attention, but there have been attacks, multiple attacks
• 21:52
  Speaker 9: every day on Palestinians trying to harvest their fields. And
• 21:56
  Speaker 9: there's multiple places of protective presence, and Rabbis for Human
• 22:00
  Speaker 9: Rights was helping support ours. They were on another one
• 22:06
  Speaker 9: up in the north that I think was, you know, faced... settler,
• 22:12
  Speaker 9: you know, I don't know whether it was violence or menacing, um,
• 22:15
  Speaker 9: threats yesterday. Um, the, the thing which is specifically called
• 22:21
  Speaker 9: protect the harvest, which is, uh, new this year, you know, most,
• 22:25
  Speaker 9: you know, uh, you know, international and American, American international
• 22:28
  Speaker 9: volunteers coming up for a week at a time.
• 22:32
  Speaker 10: This is only day three.
• 22:33
  Speaker 9: So it has, it has not been, it hasn't faced
• 22:36
  Speaker 9: settler violence yet, but it's only on its third day.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Awesome. Well, Well, thank you very much. Let me close
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: that down. Thanks. Thanks for calling.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: And that was an incoming member of Congress, Brad Lander.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: Look forward to seeing you here in Washington.
• 22:51
  Speaker 10: I look forward to it as well.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Take care.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: And that is the split screen where you have Trump.
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: It strikes me genuinely that the split screen is Netanyahu
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: and Trump having that friendly phone call.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Meanwhile.
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: An American congressman being detained by the IDF, and not
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: just an American congressman. An American congressman, as Brad just
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: detailed to us, who was released, given a warning. Meanwhile,
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: it sounds like there are still around, according to Brad,
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: 30 Americans detained for participating in an olive harvest, and
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: rabbis detained for participating in an olive harvest by the IDF.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Brad self-described liberal Zionists. I don't know what
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: they're doing.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Right, it's not Ryan Grimm out there.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: No, it ain't.
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I actually think that's an important split screen.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: And let's go to A5 now as well. This is
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: from Gregory Brew, who says, few developments to watch. Munir
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: is in Tehran.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: He is likely to meet.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Pakistan's dictator, basically.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: And likely to meet with multiple senior officials to discuss
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: the state of U.S.-Iran negotiations. A UAE plan that had
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: carried government officials made two trips since Iran in the
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: last few days, and UAE officials were also reportedly present
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: at that meeting between Hexeth and Israeli security officials. Hexeth also,
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: according to Axios, met with Netanyahu. And the Russian foreign
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: minister Lavrov was in Tehran, where he reportedly engaged on
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: the U.S.-Iran issue as well, suggesting a Russian role. Yes,
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: we've heard that Putin reportedly pitched the China summit between himself,
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: Xi Jinping, and Trump for the Ukraine issue. And then
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: Iranians appear to expect imminent U.S.-Israeli escalation with a number
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: of senior officials threatening retaliation strikes on regional infrastructure, such
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: as data centers and undersea cables.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: That's an accurate summary, I think, Ryan.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: On a knife's edge is... I think the way to
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: put that.
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: Partially because there are people like Brad Lander coming to
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: Congress who have a much different position than the current Congress.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: This is for sure.
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let's talk about some of the new midterm updates
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: we got.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Let's do it.
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: Well, a mysterious ad dropped on the Internet in the
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: Ohio governor race just yesterday. And at first, nobody knew
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: where it was coming from. If it was formally connected
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign, we're going to get into
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: how this all unfolded. But essentially, yes, what you're about
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: to see, the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign owned up to this ad,
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: which features Amy Acton's mother, his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton's mother.
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: So it was shocking enough when it first hit the
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: Internet before anybody actually knew where it was coming from.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: And you're about to see why. Let's go ahead and
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: take a look.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: B1.
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: My name is Donna Arthur, and I'm Amy Acton's mother.
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: I worked at Children and Family Service Association, building one
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: of the first two sexual abuse programs in America. I
• 25:38
  Speaker 6: love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: her opponent, it's not easy for a mother to say this,
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: but Amy has a serious problem.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: She is a liar.
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: She lies about her past. She says she grew up
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: living in a tent. None of that is true. She's
• 25:58
  Speaker 6: lied her entire life. My daughter needs help, and she
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: can't help you if she needs help herself. People can change,
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: but first they have to tell the truth. And my
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: daughter still isn't doing that. Don't vote for people who lie.
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: Don't let her become your governor. If you think she'll
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: make your life better, you're fooling yourself.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: It will only get worse.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: So really shocking stuff, especially if you've been following the
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: Ohio governor's race and you know anything about Amy Acton's backstory.
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: We can put this next tear sheet up on the
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: screen from ABC News. The headline here is Amy Acton
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: campaign slams Ramaswamy over controversial ad featuring estranged mother.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and pull out. This is her brother.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: His name is Philip Stearns. His comment.
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: To ABC News was that this is disgusting. He said,
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: it's a disgusting attack. It's not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: old from our birth mother's husband into a political talking point.
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy's
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: rapist until he died. So, Ryan, That is pretty clearly,
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: first of all, confirming this is Amy Acton's birth mother,
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: as Stern says. That was also up in the air yesterday.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: Nobody knew if that really was Amy Acton's mother. But
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: it sounded like, if you were watching the ad, it
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: was about their disconnect over this alleged lie regarding this
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: sexual assault, regarding the rape. That's what Amy Acton's mother
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: seems to believe started this pattern of alleged lies through
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: Amy Acton's life, that she is a liar because she
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: lied about this alleged awful. I mean, this is like
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: an insane, insane thing to say, go up here, call
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: your daughter a liar because you've always believed your daughter
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: is a liar because she accused your husband of rape.
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: Isn't that I mean, that's what I'm reading into this.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: That's right. And her it's not the was not the
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: only time. her husband was accused of raping a child.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: And there was an indictment. The brother and Amy Acton
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: were both removed from the custody of the mother when
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: she was 12 for the abuse. According to her mother,
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: in an interview she gave in like 2020, lawyers advised
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: them to flee, to just leave, so that as the
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: grand jury was convening that hopefully eventually the charges would
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: just kind of go away. That is the best case
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: scenario for her mom. That's from her mom. Her mom said,
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: lawyers told us to just get out of Dodge because
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: these charges were hanging over us. And so now Vivek
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: has gone out and found this woman who hasn't had
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: a relationship with her daughter since she was 12 because
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: her husband appears to have raped her.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Is very elderly, clearly.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: And I guess paid her. I think it's clear that
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: they paid her.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I would assume they paid her. So let's get into this.
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: At first, again, it was unclear whether this was actually
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: Amy Acton's mom. That was kind of confirmed when the
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: brother came out and gave that statement. It was also
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: unclear to whom this ad was connected. Did this come
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: from the Ramaswamy campaign officially? It started popping up out
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: of nowhere on the Internet yesterday. So by the afternoon,
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: the Ramaswamy campaign did respond. Their spokeswoman, Connie Luck, said,
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: we don't know what happened between, oh, this makes me
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: mad to read, quote, we don't know what happened between
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: Amy and her mother who first spoke out about Amy
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: that the public needs to be aware of before deciding
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: on who to entrust as governor. All right, now, as
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: of this morning, Amy Acton's brother, Phil Stearns, who we
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: heard from earlier, has released an ad for the Acton
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: campaign responding to this.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Let's roll B3.
• 30:13
  Speaker 11: I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got
• 30:17
  Speaker 11: the worst of it. She continued to receive that abuse
• 30:21
  Speaker 11: and because she knew she had to protect me from that.
• 30:24
  Speaker 11: And that if she hadn't done that, who knows where
• 30:28
  Speaker 11: I would have ended up. And she's 11 and 12
• 30:31
  Speaker 11: years old. And to think that that's somehow a talking point.
• 30:35
  Speaker 11: Shame on Vivek. It's the contempt he has for Amy.
• 30:37
  Speaker 11: It's the contempt he has for Ohio. He's not fit
• 30:40
  Speaker 11: to lead.
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: Well, we now know that the Ramaswamy campaign is putting
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: $ 4 million behind this. Let's toss up the next element
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: on the screen. According to Axios, they are doubling down
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: on the ad and now putting $ 4 million behind it.
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: $ 4 million behind this ad where they themselves in their
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: first response said, we don't know what happened between Amy
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: Acton and her mom.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: But we will put $ 4.
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: Million behind an ad making those accusations from her mom.
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: And Vivek Ramaswamy responded on the campaign trail last night
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: in person.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Let's listen to this next video.
• 31:16
  Speaker 12: It is an ad from our campaign. And the thing
• 31:18
  Speaker 12: that I want to say is that I would love
• 31:21
  Speaker 12: for this race and this election to be about the
• 31:25
  Speaker 12: substantive issues that impact Ohioans. And unfortunately, Amy Acton has
• 31:31
  Speaker 12: been hiding from those issues. She won't debate me. She
• 31:35
  Speaker 12: doesn't allow cameras at her events. And I think her
• 31:38
  Speaker 12: record of continuously, certainly during this campaign, I would say
• 31:43
  Speaker 12: spreading some defamatory, disparaging lies about me and my family,
• 31:48
  Speaker 12: that does deserve to be scrutinized. And this is part
• 31:51
  Speaker 12: of a broader pattern, Jesse, that I think bears mention
• 31:54
  Speaker 12: in this.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Race as well.
• 31:56
  Speaker 12: Every person who appears to know her the best, her
• 31:59
  Speaker 12: former boss, her former colleagues in state government, even the
• 32:04
  Speaker 12: doctors of this state, the Ohio State Medical Associations, have
• 32:07
  Speaker 12: told voters not to vote for her, but to vote
• 32:09
  Speaker 12: for me instead. This is part of a pattern of
• 32:12
  Speaker 12: someone else who appears to know her well, who says
• 32:14
  Speaker 12: the same thing. And I do think that it's important
• 32:17
  Speaker 12: for voters to take all of that into account, especially
• 32:20
  Speaker 12: because Amy Acton has hid from debate, induct questions. Now,
• 32:25
  Speaker 12: I know that she's told a lot of lies about
• 32:27
  Speaker 12: me during this campaign. She has lied in an unforgivable
• 32:33
  Speaker 12: way over the course of the last year and a half.
• 32:35
  Speaker 12: That's why I want to debate. to be able to
• 32:37
  Speaker 12: defend my record, and to be able to defend my
• 32:39
  Speaker 12: actual positions. And if she believes that any criticisms of
• 32:43
  Speaker 12: her are unfair or inaccurate, she would want to do
• 32:46
  Speaker 12: the same thing.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: What an idiot. He is bad at this.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever been more disgusted by a politician.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I don't think you're alone.
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: It's the most debased, disgusting, gross, foul, evil.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Just fill in any word you want. Absolutely outrageous.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: And also, I think the reason it's backfiring is because
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: anybody who's human, who watches that first ad of her mother,
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: watches it and is like, okay, something's wrong here. And
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: it is not with the daughter. If you watch that
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: and you're like, oh, wow, very interesting. Her mother has
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: criticism of the daughter. And that was your takeaway from it?
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: You were exposing yourself of having no concept of the
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: way that broken homes work.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: In the United States and around the world.
• 33:44
  Speaker 9: Yes.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: And I'm happy for you that you've been that sheltered
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: throughout your life.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I don't think anybody really has been that sheltered. I
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: don't think so either. I don't think anybody is unaware
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: of this.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: The vague, maybe?
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: It's crazy.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: Like, how does he not understand that you show a
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: normal person that ad, they're like.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: okay, that mother's messed up.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Something's wrong.
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: And something's wrong. And then you're like, I wonder what happened.
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: And then you look like, oh, her husband raped her.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Okay. And she stood by.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: And she defended it, right? Yeah.
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: In all likelihood, that's what it looks like happened. And
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: it wouldn't be the first time that it happened. And again,
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: people have seen that happen in their own communities.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: She stood by. And according to the brother, stood by
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: while the abuse was going on.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: And then stood by while the police are investigating. After it, Amy,
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: a little girl at the time, had the courage to
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: go to the police over it and save her and
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: her brother from this abusive situation. And, yeah, so congratulations
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: to Vivek that decades later you can, you know, pay
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: this woman to go on camera, assuming that they paid her,
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: to call a 12-year-old a liar.
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: And in the most vague and I think that's also
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: even what's so gross about it is that From the ad,
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: you sort of see what they're hinting at, and then
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: you can look it up. But, like, it's not even
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: copying to what their disagreement is about. It's just smearing
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: her as a liar with no basis in, like, what
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: their dispute is actually about. And they're putting $ 4 million
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: behind that while Vivek and his campaign says they don't.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Know what actually happened. I mean, to sleep at night
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: after saying that?
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: The brother's lying. She's lying. The first girl that accused
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: him is lying. All these people are lying.
• 35:28
  Speaker 12: Oh.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: But we're supposed to believe her.
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: I also am now curious if Ramaswamy lied in that response,
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: because just as we were listening to his response there,
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: he said, the Ohio State Medical... He implied that the
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: Ohio State Medical Association had some objection to Amy Acton
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: being a liar. Their endorsement of Vivek, I just wrote
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: it up, it doesn't have anything to do with Acton.
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: They've described it as having all these policy.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Agreements with Ramaswamy.
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: But it's also not saying anything like Amy Acton is
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: a liar. So it may be one person connected with
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: it that said something at that point.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Vivek is a fraudster. This is another good point. The
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: way he got rich was.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: effectively through fraud that probably should still be prosecuted.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know what the statute of limitations is, but
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: it was something like... A little Theranos-y? It was a
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: pump and dump Alzheimer's scheme.
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: It was this thing where you go and you get
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: a drug that you know doesn't work, Alzheimer's drug. You
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: then put it through some new trials. You leak to
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: the press that it's working. The stock surges. You sell
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: all the stock. You rug pull it.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: Walk away with the money. And then you release the
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: actual new results. And, oh, it doesn't work. You always
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: knew it didn't work. And you walk away. That's where
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: he got all his money.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: So, like, if this is a question of integrity or
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: who's selling the truth, that's who we're up against here.
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: He got a protester. We can put B4C. He's already
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: getting yelled at.
• 36:57
  Speaker 10: We're ready to do this. Sir, sir, excuse me.
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: Excuse me.
• 37:04
  Speaker 10: You're going to leave this room.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: As a child.
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: So if you want to be.
• 37:10
  Speaker 12: Patient and you want to ask a question at the end,
• 37:13
  Speaker 12: you're free to do that.
• 37:14
  Speaker 9: Thank you.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: This rain gets to the question of whether it all
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: backfires and backfires spectacularly. So Vivek appears to be able
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: to pull up the RCP average. Last I checked it,
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: he was losing this race in the polling averages. No
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: huge surprise there.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Three or four points or something.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: It looks like she has a relatively comfortable margin, not
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: like guaranteed or anything, but he's down. So he's obviously desperate.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: I saw a wild comment from Frank Luntz this morning
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: who said, something to the extent of like, well, I
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: would have waited to run that until the last weekend
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: because now I expected them to have a good response.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: And it's like, well, maybe just don't run it. Like,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: how about we just don't run the ad? But I
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: got a call.
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: So this was all breaking during the SiriusXM show that
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: I do where I take callers yesterday. And one guy,
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: his name was George in Ohio. He called and gave
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: a reaction to this that also gets this question of
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: whether it spectacularly backfires.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Let's listen to B5. Let's head now to George in Cleveland.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: You're on the Megyn Kelly wrap-up show. What's on your mind?
• 38:07
  Speaker 13: I do not like Vivek Ramaswamy, and I cannot vote
• 38:12
  Speaker 13: for him. I was intending to sit this one out,
• 38:14
  Speaker 13: not check the box. And I've become so disgusted with
• 38:19
  Speaker 13: Trump lately, just recently. It's pushed me over the edge
• 38:24
  Speaker 13: where I am going to vote for two legislators in
• 38:28
  Speaker 13: my state that are Democrats, and I was intending to
• 38:31
  Speaker 13: leave the governor's box unchecked. If it turns out that
• 38:34
  Speaker 13: Vivek's behind this thing, It does tell me that he
• 38:38
  Speaker 13: is too closely aligned with Trump. And my gut instinct
• 38:41
  Speaker 13: to sit this one out was right. And I would
• 38:44
  Speaker 13: vote for Dr. Amy over him. I don't know if
• 38:47
  Speaker 13: his campaign is behind this. It's pretty vile.
• 38:50
  Speaker 9: Who's to say?
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: So, George, you're saying you would actually vote for Amy
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: over Vivek?
• 38:57
  Speaker 11: Yes.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 38:59
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 39:00
  Speaker 13: And I haven't voted for her. I haven't voted for
• 39:03
  Speaker 13: a Democratic senator since John Glenn. I'm going to vote
• 39:06
  Speaker 13: for Sherrod Brown, and I am going to vote for
• 39:10
  Speaker 13: the opponent against Max Miller, Brian Poindexter. Miller's the guy
• 39:14
  Speaker 13: who slapped his wife around. I can't vote for him.
• 39:17
  Speaker 13: But I would vote for Amy over Vivek. And I
• 39:21
  Speaker 13: can give you a reason, because to me, Vivek seems
• 39:25
  Speaker 13: a lot like he's like Trump. And I regret my
• 39:27
  Speaker 13: vote for Trump. I regret what he's turned into in
• 39:29
  Speaker 13: the Ukraine situation of him turning on, you know, we're
• 39:33
  Speaker 13: supposed to be an Article 5 country to NATO, and
• 39:36
  Speaker 13: what he's doing to Ukraine has put me over the
• 39:39
  Speaker 13: edge to vote for these guys. But it would tell
• 39:45
  Speaker 13: me that Vivek is a lot like Trump, and who
• 39:47
  Speaker 13: knows what he would do in his vision. For Ohio,
• 39:50
  Speaker 13: for me, as a more moderate Republican, Eisenhower-type Republican, his
• 39:56
  Speaker 13: vision for me doesn't sit that well, which was why
• 39:59
  Speaker 13: I was going to sit it out. But if he's
• 40:00
  Speaker 13: behind this, I will vote for her.
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: Part of that call I find interesting is him saying
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: Vivek is turning into Trump, or it makes him see
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: Vivek more like Trump. That's very interesting because Trump obviously
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: has super low approval ratings. And there are still voters
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: who have become increasingly grossed out by Trump. It sounds
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: crazy to people who never voted for Trump because they
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: made a different decision in the Kamala versus Trump, less
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: than two evil dichotomy.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: There are some.
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: People who have seen, like really feel, at least I've
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: heard from them, who feel like they really regret their
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: vote because they've seen Trump come back into office and
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: just be so nakedly corrupt for the.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Sake of his personal interest.
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: And I feel like if someone is connecting the dots
• 40:47
  Speaker 5: between Vivek and that, feeling like you'll do anything for
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: the sake of personal gain.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: That is actually kind of an interesting little tidbit from George.
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: And poor George, also represented by Max Miller in Congress.
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: Poindexter is a real progressive populist. This is not a centrist,
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: a corporate centrist that the Democrats threw up against.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: But where is he in Ukraine? That's an interesting question.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: We'll see. We'll find out.
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: Real quickly, one other interesting update from yesterday. We can
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: put up B6. Democrats throwing $ 1. 2 million into Mississippi.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Mississippi.
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: A column there has been running a very, very vigorous campaign.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: Like, he's been.
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: He's been running for a year, year and a half
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: in a way where he always believed he could win
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: this race. And I remember talking to people who were
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: behind him a couple like almost two years ago or
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: something like this. Like, check this guy out. He is
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: deadly serious about winning this race. I mean, that's cute
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: that he's deadly serious.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: And it's like, you know what? It's good. Good for him.
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: Like, it's good to be committed to what you're doing
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: rather than just putting your name on the ballot and
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: then just coasting. And I watched him over time like
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: this guy's super talented, super smart, really wants this, cares
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: about Mississippi.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: And then the bottom fell out for Republicans.
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: And all of a sudden, all of the work that
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: he's been doing over the past year plus is has
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: now built a foundation for this final two week push
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: with Democrats coming in and saying, you know what, let's.
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: let's throw some real money at this and see what happens.
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, and wasn't, this opens up a can of worms,
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: but there's a Wedgwood poll that recently had a closer
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: than expected Mississippi race.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: So we'll see.
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: It was wedged with a scam pollster.
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I'm sure Sagar and Crystal will cover that
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: tomorrow because it's unfolding today or we'll cover it later
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: in the week. But it's kind of like the median strategies, Wisconsin,
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: Francesco Hong thing, but it's now blowing up because it
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: was indexed by Silver Bulletin and I think other aggregators.
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: But anyway, all that is to say, In big wave elections,
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: you do see sometimes these races, and that's what Republicans
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: are freaking out about, moving their money around right now.
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: You do sometimes see these races that you take them
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: for granted because you expect, of course, it's going to
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: be fine. And then if you get a really big wave,
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: it can sometimes be enough to just do the unexpected.
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: So it's not out of the question if we end
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: up seeing just a crazy, what would it be, like
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: maybe 2006 level?
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Is that enough, do you think?
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: Or 94. There you go.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: A little Gingrich revolution from the Dems.
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: I saw in the New York Times-Siena poll this morning
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: that Trump is now the least popular president in the
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: last 100-plus years, except for Harry Truman in 1946. And
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: in 1946, Republicans managed to sweep out the New Deal coalition. Like,
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: the New Deal coalition controlled, like, three-quarters of the country.
• 43:45
  Speaker 7: Like.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: Absolutely impenetrable majorities.
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: Like people were like, there will never be a Republican
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: majority after the Great Depression and World War II for
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: decades to come. And then Truman became so unpopular, Democrats
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: swept out for only one cycle.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: They came back then later.
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: But 46 was even worse than 94 in some ways
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: when it comes to the wipeout that was suffered.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: So we'll see.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: Finally, before we move on, you may remember we covered
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: this ProPublica report on a defense company called Navitek about
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: a month ago.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: ProPublica has a follow-up report that has some....
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: Some shrapnel hitting the South Carolina delegation, Jim Clyburn and
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: Lindsey Graham, whose sister, of course, took a seat and
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: is now on the ballot in a closer-than-expected race against
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: Amy Andrews. ProPublica's headline is How Trump's FBI Purge Saved
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: Lindsey Graham and James Clyburn from a Bribery Investigation. So
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: the allegation in the ProPublica piece is from a man who,
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: I mean, he's... In jail, right?
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: He's in prison right now. He was caught up in
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: all of this.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: For bribery.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: For bribery, who says that other people were involved in
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: the screen.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: He didn't bribe nobody.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: He's saying the other people haven't gone to prison. Having
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: read this, again, I had a similar take as when
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: we first covered the Navitek thing, is that a whole
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: lot of this is actually legal. It's like legal bribery
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: through the campaigns. But it is nasty stuff. And it's definitely,
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: I mean, I'm sure Darlene Graham is going to have
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: to answer. She hilariously has the same spokesperson, obviously, as
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: her brother. The office just moved.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Over to Senator Graham.
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: But she's definitely going to have to answer questions about
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: this stuff.
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: And also, Jim Clyburn, like Cal, the guy who's in prison,
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: says that He met with Clyburn.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: They talked about money.
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: And in exchange, Clyburn put into the House bill language
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: that would mirror the Senate bill that Graham was doing,
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: that would make sure that this company got this utterly
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: fraudulent and worthless millions of multi-million dollar contract from the
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: Defense Department. And If you look, that language appeared in
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: the House, and they've got emails with.
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: It's very solid what ProPublica's got here. And it's being
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: completely ignored by South Carolina press, and largely by the
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: national press, too, who are like, oh, well, just a
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: little bit of bribery among friends here.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: Just ripping off the American public.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, so much of it is run-of-the-mill. Like, at
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: one point.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: I think that people.
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: national reporters, like, and the South Carolina reporters need to
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: be careful thinking that people are actually okay with this.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: They're definitely not okay with it.
• 46:26
  Speaker 5: No, and that's what's so interesting to me about these
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: stories is that, like, when you see it written out,
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: the average person looks at it and they're like, this
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: is completely disgusting and insane. And that is exactly what
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: Washington is numb to.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: The idea that you would be... Because it actually is legal.
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: And Graham's spokesperson says.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Some of this.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: The Supreme Court has basically legalized all bribery.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: So I was going to say.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: So you're right about that.
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: I think the most shocking part in the story is
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: unfortunately legal where Graham asks for X amount of money
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: for a sit-down dinner.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, not Graham. Graham's fundraiser asks for X amount
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: of money.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Graham can't ask for more than a max.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: And so they show up to Charlie Palmer, which RIP
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: is now closed.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: It was never that good to begin with.
• 47:08
  Speaker 5: But they show up to Charlie Palmer, like lobbyist hotspot
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: steakhouse in D.C.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: With envelopes of cash.
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: As a transaction for sitting down with Lindsey Graham to
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: get a yes, meaning he will assign all this money
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: to Navitac.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: And that is legal.
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: Like, that is actually, that should be a huge revelation
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: to people that that's what's happening in the steakhouses in Washington, D.C.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: But as Graham's person points out.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Well, Graham would have to say, yeah, the money and
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: the meeting are different than the decision.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: The decision was made just.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Plausible deniability.
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: It's almost impossible to poke a hole in it because
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: of the way that our laws are written. So anyway,
• 47:43
  Speaker 5: it is completely insane, of course. And the other insane
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: part of it, I posted this on X yesterday, is
• 47:49
  Speaker 5: that if you talk to people on K Street... Once
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: a very prominent person in media made this defense of
• 47:54
  Speaker 5: K Street to me as well. They said, no, lobbies
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: are good because Capitol Hill doesn't know the industry like
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: the industry knows the industry.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: This is a serious defense.
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: You've probably heard it before as well, that the industry
• 48:05
  Speaker 5: knows how to write these bills because these are the
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: people who are actually building the companies, who are actually
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: doing the work. Navitek was propped up By all accounts
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: in this reporting, it was a useless company. It's the
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: least efficient way. This is a great example of lobbying
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: creating a massive market inefficiency, which is common in the
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: defense industry.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: But it's a good example of that.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: Total thievery.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: Yep, 100%.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to Michigan.
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: New audio is circulating of former Representative Mike Rogers, who
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, for why...
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: If he was in Congress, he would have voted to
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: either keep the Epstein files secret or be much more
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: careful about how they were released. Now, he was not
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: in Congress, so he didn't have to take that vote,
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: unlike so many Republicans who are now suffering for it
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: at the polls. But let's listen to this new audio
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: circulating from Mike Rogers.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: I do believe you have to protect victims. You also
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: have to protect somebody who got on an airplane and
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: rode with them, didn't go to, was not a participant
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: in any other activities other than, you know, they may
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: have had business, you know, legitimate business reasons. You can't
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: put that person out there. The court of public opinion would.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Ruin their life.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: For no reason. And so that's what you have to
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: be careful of. But the things that they have that
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: happen around the island and all of that, to me,
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: that ought to be released. But I would be cautious
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: how you do it. And I don't think a big,
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: ugly vote on the House floor was the right way.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: To do that.
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: You do have to protect not only the victims, but
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: the innocent people who get sucked up. So their name
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: is on a report somewhere. It doesn't mean they did
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: one thing wrong in the raw files.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: You don't want to.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: Hurt that person's career or reputation or family either. And
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: so that's the way you have to do it. You
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: can't do it in a big sloppy way. And listen,
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: people who just want to be after Trump are just
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: going to beat this drum all day long because they
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: don't have anything else.
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: And so what's interesting is that this is being circulated
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: as quote-unquote leaked audio. The image there that you see
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: is the one that's on it as it's going around
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: social media, but it's not. It's an interview, which goes
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: to something really interesting in our politics today, which is
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: that so much corrupt and disgusting stuff is happening out
• 50:23
  Speaker 4: in the open that would be shocking to people if
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: it were done in secret.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: This has been Trump's genius. He has done.
• 50:33
  Speaker 4: all of his corruption and criminality for the most part,
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm sure there's plenty underneath the tip of
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: that iceberg, but he does it above the surface. It
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: just tells you, Oh yeah, I fired this guy because
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: he was looking into Russia. I'm doing a, you can
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: pay me a hundred thousand dollars to see my truth
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: socials first. You can, you can buy into this crypto
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: company that I'm starting. You, and then as, In exchange,
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: you get to hang out with me.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: Whatever. Like, my son is going to do this Azerbaijan mine.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Don't worry about it.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: And you're going to give him half of it.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: America first.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: So he does it all publicly.
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: The kinds of things that if they were exposed by
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: the press, people would be shocked by and would be
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: talked about relentlessly.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: But if you just say it.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: So what Roger's opponents cleverly did here is presented this
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: publicly as leaked audio.
• 51:29
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: And people are like, oh my God, he got caught.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: Little trick.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: But exactly, this is just what he was saying publicly.
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: So what do you think of how his argument is
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: going to flow? Because I've also been a guy who's like, hey,
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: due process is a good thing. We don't want to
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: unfairly accuse people. On the other hand, you're... Releasing the
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: files is not an accusation.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 51:50
  Speaker 5: And the public is smart enough to know that. I
• 51:52
  Speaker 5: think that's what the public, because yes, I mean, so
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: he's not, he's making an argument that has.
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: Norman Finkelstein was in the Epstein files.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: But he comes out great in them.
• 52:03
  Speaker 5: He's making an accusation, or he's making an argument that
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: I think most people agree with, which is that Not
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: everybody in the Epstein files is guilty.
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: My name is in the Epstein files. Somebody forwarded him
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: an article of mine.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Was it a Huffington Post article? Amazing.
• 52:19
  Speaker 5: But the— see, Arianna Huffington's name.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: Also, Huffington.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: Huffington, yeah.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 52:25
  Speaker 5: But it treats the American people kind of like children,
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: and I think that's why this argument hasn't worked. And
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: I think that's why just about everybody was upset with
• 52:31
  Speaker 5: folks who voted against it going to the floor. or
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: voted against it on the floor because they're like, we're
• 52:38
  Speaker 5: not dumb. We know how to sort the wheat from
• 52:40
  Speaker 5: the chaff. And we just want all of the information
• 52:42
  Speaker 5: humanly possible. We want total disclosure on this particular case.
• 52:46
  Speaker 5: So he's making an argument that's reasonable in theory, but
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: I think the reason it doesn't work for the public
• 52:52
  Speaker 5: is precisely because it treats.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: The public like children.
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: And it's a bit under the surface or under the radar,
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: but Republicans are getting crushed around the country by their vote.
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: there are multiple votes to cover up the Epstein files.
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: Like Adam Hamilton is using it against Roger Marshall in Kansas.
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: For instance, it's showing up in ads. You're seeing it
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: in ads in Idaho, all over the place where they're
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: just citing this vote that they took not to release
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: the Epstein files, a failed vote, by the way, like
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: eventually broke on and Thomas Massey got it over, over.
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: But in the process, hundreds of Republicans who did not
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: think that they were facing competitive races voted, with Trump
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: to keep the Epstein files secret. And now it's coming
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: back to bite them because all of a sudden they
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: do have close elections. Now, related to Mike Rogers, the
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: man wants to sue Dropside News. Should we talk about
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: this a little bit?
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: If you want to talk about it, we should talk
• 53:48
  Speaker 5: about it.
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: If you remember last week, we reported that while, so
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: Mike Rogers was appointed to the House Permanent Select Committee
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: on Intelligence in 2005. He became chairman after the 2010
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: Tea Party wave. His second wife, who worked in Iraq
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: under Paul Bremer during the Coalition Provisional Authority, she launched
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: the US branch of Aegis, which is a UK security contractor,
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: kind of similar to DynCorp and Blackwater and all these others.
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: It was responsible for security in Afghanistan and Iraq. And
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: while he was chairman, Aegis was awarded a more than
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: $ 1 billion contract to do security work. There were also
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: other multi-hundred-million-dollar contracts that they won while he was on
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: the panel. So we reported this, went into the details
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: of this. He, afterwards, sent us a letter saying that
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: we needed to retract the article and then immediately leaked
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: his letter to Town Hall, which is kind of like.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: Conservative blog.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: It's a conservative blog.
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: They just throw anything up that gets sent their way,
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: it seems like. You can put up C3.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: This was their headline.
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: We were like, internally, we're debating, like, do we make
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: this letter public? Like, how should we respond? And they
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: just give it right to Town Hall. Their headline, a
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: drop site news served cease and desist for publishing lies
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: about Mike Rogers' wife.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: Well, that headline is itself a lie. So since Town
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: Hall has.
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: done us the service of posting the letter, I think
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: it'd be a fun media literacy kind of exercise to
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: kind of go through the letter. And we can talk
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: about the way that politicians try to use defamation law,
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: libel law, to try to suppress news coverage. Because in
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: their letter, you'll note that they say with lies statement, like,
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: but they don't actually point to any particular fact that
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: we got wrong. What they say is that they don't
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: like the facts compiled next to each other because it
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: would unfairly kind of persuade the public that maybe there
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: might be something wrong with this situation.
• 56:10
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: Rather than saying, no, look, the public deserves to have
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: all of the information. And if you think that this
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: is a good thing, that while you were chairman of
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: the Intel committee, your wife got this, company got this
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: big contract, then you should tell the public why that's
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: a good thing. And as a result, they should send
• 56:26
  Speaker 4: you back to the Senate. If their opponents think it's
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: a bad thing, they can explain why they think it's.
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: So we can put up C2 here. So we can
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: go through some of the, so they write, this firm
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: represents Mike Rogers and Christy Rogers. We write regarding the
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: article published by Dropsite News titled, Mike Rogers' Wife Raked
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: in Lucrative Government Security Contracts. while Rogers served as intel chair.
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: The article contains false statements of fact, and through the
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: selection and juxtaposition of facts, conveys false and defamatory implications
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: about Mr.
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: And Mrs. Rogers. Those statements and implications are defamatory and
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: place Mr. and Mrs.
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: Rogers in a false light. We demand that Dropside News
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: immediately correct and retract them. Notice they say the article
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: contains false statements of fact.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: That's a big claim.
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: You would expect that later in the letter, they will
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: tell you what these false statements of fact are.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: So let's go further.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Got to deliver.
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: Next one.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's see if they did it.
• 57:22
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: So I'll read there. Number one, the false statements and implications.
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: The article conveys expressly and by implication the following false assertions.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: That Aegis, under Mrs. Rogers' leadership, performed U.S.
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: Government work in Libya and was connected to the September
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: 2012 attack.
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: On the U.S. compound in Benghazi.
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: If we reported that, that would have indeed been a
• 57:52
  Speaker 4: false statement of fact. We never reported that Aegis had
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: a U.S. government contract in Libya or that they were
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: involved in the Benghazi attack. So they invent a thing
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: and then they rebut the thing.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: They say that is false.
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: Neither Mrs. Rogers nor any Aegis entity has ever entered
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: into a contract with any department of U.S. government to
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: perform work in Libya. and none was involved in the
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: Benghazi attack. Okay, never said you were, didn't think you were,
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: didn't imply you were, and certainly didn't think you were
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: involved in the Benghazi attack. What they did do is
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: they did operate heavily in Libya.
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: It wasn't the U.S. government that was paying for it.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: That's besides the point.
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: And they had sent an investigator to Benghazi the year
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: before and studied what's called The February 17th Brigade, now
• 58:45
  Speaker 4: this is way getting into Benghazi Gate stuff, the February
• 58:48
  Speaker 4: 17th Brigade, as Rogers' own Intel Committee report later indicated,
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: did a hapless job of protecting the compound. So the
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: question of why they did such a hapless job was
• 59:02
  Speaker 4: always central to the, and should have been central to
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: the investigation and to the failures there. AGIS had already
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: analyzed and assessed who this February 17th brigade was, yet
• 59:15
  Speaker 4: he never called anybody from Aegis to testify. According to
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: his press secretary at the time, there was a no
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: interaction policy between Aegis and Mike Rogers because of this
• 59:29
  Speaker 4: obvious conflict between, what I would say is an obvious
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: conflict between his wife's business and the committee.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: So they set up this no interaction, which is different
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: than recusal. Rogers could have said, well, I.
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: Recuse myself, but somebody should talk to Aegis because they
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: know about the February 17th Brigade.
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: Didn't do that.
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: And he was criticized by conservatives at the time for
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: not doing that.
• 59:51
  Speaker 5: They're also saying, and I was curious to get your
• 59:52
  Speaker 5: reaction for this too, that it was all determined by
• 59:55
  Speaker 5: the State Department and that the Intel Committee had nothing
• 59:57
  Speaker 5: to do with these contracts. It's all State Department. That
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 5: I just have a hard time believing.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: And also in his final report, if you just look
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: at the first couple pages, they get into the State
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: Department's failures to protect the compound.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: So they can't have it both ways.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Can't kick it over and then.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: You can't say, well, this is State Department, so it
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: doesn't involve us. And then if you look at your
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: own report, it's heavily about the State Department.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: It's like, get out of here.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: So anyway, we didn't put up this next one. So
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 4: the second thing they complain about, they say, quote, that Mr. Rogers,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: this is one of their allegedly false statements, that Mr.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: Rogers used his position as chairman of the House Permanent
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: Select Committee on Intelligence to obtain government contracts for Mrs.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: Rogers and Aegis. The article's headline says, and its statement
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: that Mike.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 4: Rogers was appointed chairman on January 3rd, 2011, the contract
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: was awarded to Aegis seven months later, conveyed that Mr.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 4: Rogers caused, influenced, or delivered the Kabul embassy security contract
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: award to his wife.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: That is false.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 12: Mr.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: Rogers had no role in and no oversight over the
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: award of that contract, which was made under the Obama
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: administration's State Department. As the article itself acknowledges, Aegis was
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: qualified to compete for that work in 2010 before Mr.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: Rogers became chairman.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: The Intel Committee does not award or oversee State Department
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: security contracts, and the committee maintained a strictly enforced policy
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: of no interaction with Mrs. Rogers or any AGES representative,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: a policy the article itself quotes. So their own letter
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: here is relying on information that we included in the article,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: as they write, as the article itself acknowledges, and later,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: a policy the article itself quotes. So they're complaining, and
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: they're sourcing their complaint to things that we reported.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 4: Like we already put the context in that you want.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: Like we're putting in the exact things you say are
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 4: relevant context to your defense of this arrangement. So, again,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: no statements of incorrect facts are alleged there. And then finally,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: we can put the last one third. They write that Mr.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 4: Rogers obstructed the Benghazi investigation to shield his wife's company.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 4: They say and they write by republishing accusations that Mr.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: Rogers obstructed and delayed the Benghazi investigation, quote, in order
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 4: to shield his wife, unquote. The article adopts and conveys
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 4: that false accusation as fact.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 5: Mr.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: Rogers did not obstruct the Benghazi investigation. And because Aegis
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 4: had no contract and no involvement in Libya or Benghazi,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: there was nothing to shield. And so the entire premise
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: of the accusation is false. So we quote Dick Morris,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: Lindsey Graham. We referenced John Boehner's criticisms. A lot of
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: Republicans and conservatives at the time were critical of Mike Rogers.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 4: What he is saying is that it is defamatory to
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 4: repeat their criticisms because they're incorrect and that he deserves
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: no criticism, that he did not do a bad job
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 4: on the Benghazi investigation, he didn't slow walk it, he
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 4: didn't shield anybody, that he did a great job, and
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 4: that anybody who's saying otherwise Not only is it wrong,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: but the press cannot repeat their criticisms. Otherwise, it's defamatory,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 4: which is a just patently absurd reading of defamation law.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: Like if Dick Morris makes a criticism of Mike Rogers,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 4: as journalists, we are entitled to tell the public that
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: Dick Morris said this thing and said it publicly.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: You got a problem? Go sue Dick Morris. Go sue
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: John Boehner. Sue the estate of Lindsey Graham.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: You can't tell us that we're not allowed to repeat
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: criticisms just because you don't like the criticisms.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 5: Going through this makes me less confident they're actually going
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 5: to follow through with a lawsuit.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: They're not going to sue.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: And also, so we sent an email to our readers
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 4: telling them, hey, he's threatening to sue unless we take
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: this article down.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: And we raised like $ 50, 000 in a day. So thank you,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: Mike Rogers.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 4: That's going to our legal fund in case you actually
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 4: do decide to sue, which to Emily's point, like this
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: is it.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: Like this is, you can.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: Read the full letter over at Judicial Watch, but like
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: these are the three things that they say constitute statements
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: of incorrect statements of fact. They even say that Judicial
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 4: Watch had said there is no evidence of wrongdoing by
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 4: Representative Rogers or Aegis. And then they write in their letter,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 4: this is so funny, Dropsite News quoted that conclusion.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: So we put in.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 4: The article that according to Judicial Watch quote, there's no
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 4: evidence of wrongdoing.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: So what are you doing, man?
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 4: There are also slap laws that if he sues and
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 4: the judge is like, this is completely frivolous, then there
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 4: are sanctions that come in the form of like, they
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 4: have to pay our legal costs and that sort of thing.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 5: Could be a fun campaign tactic that turns into something
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 5: a little bit more, if that's the case.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: So Mike Rogers, down the stretch, let me threaten to
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: sue this news organization so I can bring more attention
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: to how incredibly rich I got.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: As a member of Congress and as a post-member of Congress.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 5: Better things for the Rogers campaign to spend their time
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 5: on at this point because voters have... different interests than
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 5: him getting mad at Dropside.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Seriously.