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Statistically Impossible! · David Pollack Primetime

0:10
Speaker 1: They say you can't vote your way out of socialism.
0:15
Speaker 1: And last night, against all odds, Lula da Silva, the
0:21
Speaker 1: socialist ruler of Brazil, miraculously won his fourth term as
0:28
Speaker 1: president of Brazil. And of course, with a little help
0:31
Speaker 1: from his friends, We've been talking to this audience about
0:36
Speaker 1: Brazil for months. For good reason. Brazil is the largest
0:40
Speaker 1: economy in South America. It's sitting on the second largest
0:44
Speaker 1: rare earth reserves on the planet behind only China. It
0:47
Speaker 1: pumped a record 3.8 million barrels of oil a day
0:51
Speaker 1: last year. And its biggest customer? Communist China. In 2025,
0:59
Speaker 1: Brazil did $ 171 billion in trade with Beijing, more than
1:04
Speaker 1: double what it did with us. And Brazil is the
1:08
Speaker 1: B in BRICS. That's Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa,
1:13
Speaker 1: and now Iran, too. It's the club built to take
1:17
Speaker 1: on the West, and Lula wants it to stop trading
1:21
Speaker 1: in American dollars. Standing in Shanghai, he said, every night
1:26
Speaker 1: I ask myself why all countries have to base their
1:30
Speaker 1: trade on the dollar. Meanwhile, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia,
1:35
Speaker 1: they've all turned right. Brazil was the biggest piece of
1:40
Speaker 1: the puzzle left, and it was socialism's last stand in
1:45
Speaker 1: South America. We've also been warning that Lula wouldn't go
1:50
Speaker 1: down quietly and what happened last night as the entire
1:54
Speaker 1: world raised their eyebrows, except, of course, for sympathetic socialists
1:59
Speaker 1: around the United States and the rest of the world
2:02
Speaker 1: who have already rushed to congratulate him. More on that later.
2:07
Speaker 1: And here are the impossible odds Lula had to overcome
2:12
Speaker 1: in order to beat Flavio Bolsonaro. If you recall, Flavio
2:16
Speaker 1: came out of the first round more than 2 million
2:19
Speaker 1: votes ahead of the incumbent socialist president. Political scientist Gero
2:25
Speaker 1: Nicolaou ran the math and found Lula would need to
2:30
Speaker 1: flip about 1.2 million Flavio voters. He called it almost impossible.
2:37
Speaker 1: And the morning of the election... Potter 360's calculators found
2:41
Speaker 1: that even with the turnout way up and Lula winning
2:44
Speaker 1: most of the leftover votes, Flavio still came out ahead
2:47
Speaker 1: by 222,000 votes. So what happened? Well, according to the
2:54
Speaker 1: official count, Lula picked up more than 10 million new
2:58
Speaker 1: votes in three weeks. That's more than every eliminated candidate
3:02
Speaker 1: got combined. And most of those candidates were on the right.
3:07
Speaker 1: Flavio's brother, Eduardo, calls it statistically impossible, and it is.
3:12
Speaker 1: Congressman Nicolas Ferreira put it this way. Every vote from
3:16
Speaker 1: the other candidates would have to have gone to Lula.
3:18
Speaker 1: What are the odds? And three weeks earlier, on the
3:21
Speaker 1: same ballot, those same voters handed Flavio's party the biggest
3:25
Speaker 1: block in Brazil's Congress, 19 of the 44 Senate seats.
3:29
Speaker 1: Lula's party won six. Then they turned around and gave
3:34
Speaker 1: the socialists a comeback nobody has ever pulled off. Think
3:38
Speaker 1: about how impossible that is. Then there's Election Day. Lula's
3:44
Speaker 1: coalition ran to the Supreme Court for more time. The
3:47
Speaker 1: justice who got the case was Christiano Zanon, Lula's former
3:52
Speaker 1: personal lawyer. What luck. Whom Lula put on that court.
3:57
Speaker 1: At one minute after 5, 5.01 p.m., one minute after
4:02
Speaker 1: the polls legally closed, Zanin extended voting two hours nationwide.
4:09
Speaker 1: In Sao Paulo, 80% of polling places were already shut,
4:14
Speaker 1: and the regional election chief found out from the news
4:17
Speaker 1: that it even happened. The national count froze for two hours,
4:21
Speaker 1: and more than 35,000 votes came in after the legal
4:25
Speaker 1: closing time. Now, yes, Flavio's campaign wanted extra time, too,
4:30
Speaker 1: in a handful of towns hit by storms. What the
4:34
Speaker 1: country got was what Lula's coalition asked for, two hours everywhere,
4:40
Speaker 1: signed by Lula's former lawyer, and it came after most
4:43
Speaker 1: of the other polling stations closed. And this isn't the
4:46
Speaker 1: first Lula win that raised questions. In 2022, he beat
4:50
Speaker 1: Jair Bolsonaro by less than two points. Brazil's own military
4:54
Speaker 1: audited the system and said it couldn't rule out malicious code.
4:58
Speaker 1: When Bolsonaro's party challenged votes from older machines, election court
5:01
Speaker 1: chief Alexandre de Moraes threw it out, fined the party
5:04
Speaker 1: about $ 4 million for bringing it, and then Jair Bolsonaro
5:09
Speaker 1: was charged with plotting a coup. In a case run
5:12
Speaker 1: by Moraes himself, he was sentenced to 27 years, thrown
5:15
Speaker 1: in jail. Today, he's under house arrest. Rightfully, Flavio Bolsonaro
5:20
Speaker 1: refuses to concede, says the result is impossible to recognize,
5:24
Speaker 1: and he wants it annulled. The rules, he says, were
5:28
Speaker 1: changed in the middle of the game by Lula's friends
5:31
Speaker 1: on the Supreme Court. And despite the irregularities, socialists from
5:35
Speaker 1: around the world have already rushed in to congratulate Lula.
5:39
Speaker 1: Folks like Bernie Sanders, who called this an extraordinary re-election victory.
5:44
Speaker 1: Ro Khanna said the world just beat extremism. And we
5:49
Speaker 1: vote in eight days. New York socialist mayor Zoran Mondami
5:53
Speaker 1: posted the people united will never be defeated. Tim Walz
5:57
Speaker 1: called it a worldwide win. Gavin Newsom says he and
6:03
Speaker 1: all of California are proud to stand with Brazil. And
6:08
Speaker 1: Canada's Mark Carney says the relationship between Canada and Brazil
6:13
Speaker 1: has flourished under their partnership. That's what socialism does. Once
6:19
Speaker 1: it gets its hands on power, it does not let
6:23
Speaker 1: go easily. You only get to vote for socialism once.
6:30
Speaker 1: Then you have to fight your way out. And this
6:35
Speaker 1: fight is far from over. Joining me now, the son
6:41
Speaker 1: of Brazilian immigrants and former congressman from New York's 3rd District, Mr.
6:45
Speaker 1: George Santos. Welcome back, David Pollak, PRIMETIME. What happened in
6:50
Speaker 1: Brazil last night should concern every American, and especially the
6:53
Speaker 1: coalition of socialists that are jumping to congratulate what we
6:57
Speaker 1: just saw in Brazil. George, what are your thoughts on this?
7:01
Speaker 2: David, thank you for having me. I know for your audience,
7:03
Speaker 2: that's a very powerful intro there. I do want to
7:05
Speaker 2: say it's unfathomable. And I want to point out something
7:08
Speaker 2: very clear, show everybody understands.
7:10
Speaker 3: Brazil is a very different political system than ours.
7:13
Speaker 2: And a lot of people, even here in the States,
7:15
Speaker 2: thinking that alignment with Lula is a Democrat value, it
7:19
Speaker 2: is not. For those who call themselves blue-dog moderates and
7:23
Speaker 2: they're congratulating Lula, sir, you have just congratulated the equivalent
7:28
Speaker 2: of a DSA member, but a little bit more to
7:30
Speaker 2: the left. Brazil has no true right. It doesn't have
7:33
Speaker 2: a Republican Party, per se, like we are. The left
7:37
Speaker 2: in Brazil are the communists, who are registered under the
7:40
Speaker 2: Lone Star Red Star in the PT party.
7:43
Speaker 3: And the right is literally— John Fetterman.
7:48
Speaker 2: So this is what's alarming is that people are trying
7:51
Speaker 2: to Americanize Brazilian politics when it's really a fight against communism,
7:55
Speaker 2: not left versus right. But most importantly, this is a
7:58
Speaker 2: man who has ruled Brazil directly or indirectly now for
8:02
Speaker 2: 20 years, him and his party.
8:04
Speaker 3: And all Brazil has seen is famine.
8:07
Speaker 2: All Brazil has seen is starvation, hunger, disparity in economic,
8:12
Speaker 2: social economic classes. And they keep voting for him because
8:16
Speaker 2: he's allegedly going to fix it. But they've had 20 years.
8:20
Speaker 2: And the only time they had a reprieve was the
8:22
Speaker 2: four years of Bolsonaro. And obviously, what happened during those
8:26
Speaker 2: four years? Well, three of them were marred by a pandemic.
8:29
Speaker 2: And that pandemic is what they use often to say, oh,
8:33
Speaker 2: he was a disaster. Yeah, him and every other world leader,
8:35
Speaker 2: including Trump, had bad numbers across the board because we
8:38
Speaker 2: had the China virus.
8:40
Speaker 3: The same China virus from the same biggest.
8:42
Speaker 2: Ally that Brazil has essentially vacated Americans from being their
8:48
Speaker 2: 80 percent trade partner in the early 2000s to now
8:51
Speaker 2: lopsiding that and making China their 80% trade partner. So look,
8:56
Speaker 2: it's a problem. Americans that are watching this are wondering,
8:59
Speaker 2: why do we care about Brazil? It is the fifth
9:01
Speaker 2: largest economy. It's the fifth largest nation with a very
9:04
Speaker 2: large ground troop army. And it sits from its furthest
9:08
Speaker 2: northern tip point just five hours away from America. And
9:14
Speaker 2: let me tell you something, China is having a very
9:17
Speaker 2: strong foothold there. And if you thought the Cuban Missile
9:21
Speaker 2: Crisis with Russia was a problem, I have a bigger
9:24
Speaker 2: problem to sell you, and it's pretty big in Brazil.
9:27
Speaker 3: So we should all be concerned. We should all be alarmed.
9:30
Speaker 2: And this is a great opportunity to look at it
9:34
Speaker 2: and say, why should we take the U.S.
9:37
Speaker 3: Midterms election so seriously? Why should we be very laser-focused?
9:41
Speaker 2: And this is a great example of why, because once
9:43
Speaker 2: you vote in communism, you only vote it once.
9:46
Speaker 3: You can't vote yourself out of it.
9:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's exactly right. And look— I think what
9:52
Speaker 1: happened with the election yesterday, I mean, there are so
9:54
Speaker 1: many questions, and hopefully there'll be an investigation. I know
9:57
Speaker 1: Flavia won't concede, but so many world leaders have already
10:00
Speaker 1: rushed to congratulate Lula and suggest that Lula won this legitimately.
10:04
Speaker 1: I haven't seen whether or not President Trump made a
10:06
Speaker 1: statement on this or not yet, but if this is
10:08
Speaker 1: allowed to stand, and all of these socialist and communist
10:11
Speaker 1: leaders from around the world are like, yeah, this was great!
10:13
Speaker 1: This is a serious problem because, like you said, we
10:16
Speaker 1: have our own election coming up. And if what happened
10:18
Speaker 1: in Brazil is allowed to stand, it's a blueprint. It's
10:20
Speaker 1: a roadmap for every election forward. We are fighting something
10:26
Speaker 1: that is so much more serious than just, like you mentioned,
10:29
Speaker 1: it's not left versus right. We are fighting the rise
10:32
Speaker 1: of communism. And if these elections are allowed to take
10:35
Speaker 1: place the way they did, how do we have a
10:37
Speaker 1: hope of beating them anywhere?
10:39
Speaker 2: Well— Hope is, in Brazil, they say this, hope is
10:47
Speaker 2: the last to die, right? I think that's very important.
10:49
Speaker 2: But I'll say this for Americans. We don't need to
10:53
Speaker 2: We don't need to rely on hope. We can rely
10:55
Speaker 2: on action. Look at what people like Scott Pressler are
10:58
Speaker 2: doing out there every single day out in the fray
11:00
Speaker 2: trying to get people out to vote. I think it's
11:03
Speaker 2: important that we just become engaged. Apathy leads to this.
11:07
Speaker 2: Complacency leads to this. And there's a lot of that
11:10
Speaker 2: to be said about what happened in Brazil, that there's, what,
11:13
Speaker 2: somewhat 30 million Brazilians abstained from voting.
11:16
Speaker 1: That's apathy.
11:16
Speaker 3: That's complacency. That's a defeatist mentality that leads to.
11:22
Speaker 2: Exactly what we saw last night. So I think we
11:24
Speaker 2: can avoid that. I think Michigan, you have a shot.
11:27
Speaker 2: I think Ohio needs to fight like hell to keep
11:29
Speaker 2: it red. I think people in Maine need to fight
11:32
Speaker 2: like hell to keep Susan Collins. And we have a
11:34
Speaker 2: lot of battleground states that shouldn't be battleground states.
11:37
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I don't think Texas is going to.
11:38
Speaker 2: Turn blue, but for the love of God, do not
11:42
Speaker 2: let complacency or your little rift within the GOP right
11:46
Speaker 2: now deter you from doing what you need to do.
11:51
Speaker 2: Don't cut your nose to spite your face. I'm telling you,
11:54
Speaker 2: Brazil is.
11:55
Speaker 3: A giant of a nation.
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Speaker 2: And just south of us, by five hours from its
11:59
Speaker 2: most northern tip to our most southern.
12:02
Speaker 3: Tip, that's the distance. It's not too far. They're not
12:06
Speaker 3: very different. They're very diverse.
12:07
Speaker 2: We're a very diverse nation in ethnicity as they are.
12:10
Speaker 3: We can look at that and see how bad it
12:13
Speaker 3: can get. And just look to Brazil. Look to how
12:15
Speaker 3: bad it's there and how worse it's going to get
12:17
Speaker 3: in the next four years. And you can make a
12:20
Speaker 3: decision for yourself. Yeah.
12:21
Speaker 1: Well, all eyes are in the United States now. All
12:23
Speaker 1: eyes continue to be on Brazil. We'll see what happens here.
12:26
Speaker 1: Congressman George Santos, my good friend, thank you so much
12:29
Speaker 1: for being here as always.
12:30
Speaker 3: Thank you, David. Always a pleasure.
12:31
Speaker 1: Thank you. Still ahead tonight, Letitia James called what happened
12:37
Speaker 1: to the Cornell Sevens accuser horrific. Three days later, she
12:41
Speaker 1: was put in charge of deciding whether to charge them
12:44
Speaker 1: or not. Now she won't step aside when people are
12:47
Speaker 1: concerned about bias. Then two former senior FBI officials under
12:51
Speaker 1: arrest charged with lying to Congress about Hunter Biden. One
12:54
Speaker 1: told Congress he learned about the laptop case from Wikipedia.
12:58
Speaker 4: Really?
12:59
Speaker 1: And later tonight, Enough Iranian uranium for nine bombs? And
13:04
Speaker 1: nobody knows where it is. The threat from Iran might
13:06
Speaker 1: be realer than a lot of people would like to assume.
13:09
Speaker 1: Stick around.
13:16
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13:53
Speaker 1: It's been a few weeks since we've spoken about the
13:56
Speaker 1: Cornell 7. The story kind of went quiet after text
14:01
Speaker 1: messages revealed shocking new details about that evening, including drug
14:05
Speaker 1: and alcohol use, inconsistent statements and allegations that one of
14:09
Speaker 1: the men could have been actually sexually assaulted by the
14:14
Speaker 1: alleged victim. But just because the news went quiet doesn't
14:18
Speaker 1: mean the case went away. And good old Letitia James,
14:21
Speaker 1: a prosecutor appointed by Governor Hochul, is fighting to stay
14:25
Speaker 1: on the case, even though she's already told the whole
14:28
Speaker 1: world what she thinks happened. Recall, a former Cornell student
14:33
Speaker 1: says she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven young
14:36
Speaker 1: men at a fraternity house in 2024. She filed a
14:40
Speaker 1: lawsuit in September, timed conveniently. to craft an election narrative,
14:45
Speaker 1: but whatever. All the men deny the allegations. Not one
14:50
Speaker 1: has been charged with anything. And despite all of that,
14:53
Speaker 1: on September 28th, Letitia James posted that what this young woman, quote,
14:58
Speaker 1: has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. And
15:02
Speaker 1: to the accuser, quote, we stand with you, end quote.
15:07
Speaker 1: Three days later, Governor Hochul made her the special prosecutor. Now,
15:11
Speaker 1: the local district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, actually looked at
15:15
Speaker 1: the evidence. He says the accuser gave his office a
15:17
Speaker 1: six-page sworn statement describing what happened as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.
15:25
Speaker 1: And that every time she asked to stop, it stopped.
15:28
Speaker 1: He says multiple prosecutors concluded it wasn't a crime under
15:31
Speaker 1: New York law. And he was clear her credibility was
15:34
Speaker 1: never the question. The law was. He still reopened the
15:37
Speaker 1: case so a grand jury could hear it. That's how
15:40
Speaker 1: it's supposed to work until Albany stepped in. So the
15:45
Speaker 1: young men she's investigating went to court. One says James
15:49
Speaker 1: has unequivocally demonstrated a bias and presumption of guilt. A
15:54
Speaker 1: judge ordered her to answer, and the hearing is Thursday,
15:58
Speaker 1: another once her kept away from the grand jury entirely.
16:02
Speaker 1: So what's her answer? Well, her lawyers told the court,
16:06
Speaker 1: the claims are not justiciable. Let's lawyer speak for, you
16:10
Speaker 1: can't do anything about it. Asked about her post, she said,
16:14
Speaker 1: I won't comment on a Facebook post. You already commented
16:17
Speaker 1: with your Facebook post. And now she's reportedly hiring outside
16:22
Speaker 1: counsel to hang on to the case when a prosecutor
16:25
Speaker 1: announces whose side she's on before she ever opens a file.
16:30
Speaker 1: She seems to have already decided. I'm not the only
16:33
Speaker 1: one who sees it that way. Norman Siegel, the former
16:36
Speaker 1: head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said some
16:39
Speaker 1: people have convicted the men in this case. President Trump
16:43
Speaker 1: wants her off of it. SHOULD A PROSECUTOR WHO STANDS
16:47
Speaker 1: WITH ONE SIDE DECIDE WHETHER TO And if Letitia James
16:52
Speaker 1: can't see the conflict, why can't Governor Hochul? This whole
16:56
Speaker 1: thing's a mess. Joining me now, journalist and Miami-Dade Republican
16:59
Speaker 1: Committee woman, Ms. Angie Wong, who's becoming our Cornell 7
17:03
Speaker 1: correspondent here, it seems. Angie, welcome back to David Pollak
17:07
Speaker 1: Prime Time. Letitia James has always been sort of a,
17:12
Speaker 1: let's call it, she likes to pick her target and
17:15
Speaker 1: then do everything she can to go after that target, right?
17:18
Speaker 1: It seems she's doing it again.
17:20
Speaker 6: Yeah, look, we all know there are holes all over
17:23
Speaker 6: this case. It's probably one of the messiest casework.
17:26
Speaker 3: That I've ever seen.
17:28
Speaker 6: Even the lawyer who filed it, currently today, one of
17:32
Speaker 6: the accused, one of the sevens, has filed a motion
17:35
Speaker 6: to dismiss his side of the case because in the
17:39
Speaker 6: case filings, he was never alleged to have even raped her.
17:42
Speaker 6: All it says in Jane Doe's testimony was that they kissed.
17:46
Speaker 6: That's not rape, but yet he was thrown into the mix. Clearly,
17:50
Speaker 6: Letitia James, Kathy Hopel, they're looking to spin this narrative
17:54
Speaker 6: for something. So, David, I got to tell you, over
17:56
Speaker 6: the weekend, I taped my eyelids open to watch this
18:00
Speaker 6: ABC News documentary called The Cornell 7, and it reminded
18:05
Speaker 6: me so much of the ABC News-produced documentary, January 7th.
18:11
Speaker 6: It was so overproduced, the dramatic music, the weird editing.
18:16
Speaker 6: It basically built a case that these accused seven men are,
18:20
Speaker 6: in fact, guilty. They were the villains, along with New
18:23
Speaker 6: York state consent laws.
18:25
Speaker 1: Those were the boogeymen.
18:27
Speaker 6: Where the heroes were Letitia James and Kathy Hochul and,
18:32
Speaker 6: of course, Jane Doe, because everyone says, I am Jane Doe.
18:36
Speaker 6: And that's been the whole campaign all around. But what
18:39
Speaker 6: worries me about this documentary is that it's already built
18:42
Speaker 6: the case in people's minds. It's already built the case
18:45
Speaker 6: in the public's court. So this case may or may
18:48
Speaker 6: not ever see the light of day in a real
18:50
Speaker 6: court because, as you said in your opener, it's messy.
18:54
Speaker 6: The legal work is really sloppy here. The DA didn't
18:58
Speaker 6: want to take it on. No lawyer wants to really
19:00
Speaker 6: take this on unless it's for political theater.
19:04
Speaker 1: Well, and that's exactly what this is. Anytime Letitia James'
19:07
Speaker 1: name is attached to anything, it becomes political theater. You know,
19:10
Speaker 1: here we are, two and a half years into the
19:11
Speaker 1: Trump administration, and these ghosts of Biden's past keep showing
19:15
Speaker 1: up and doing what they do. You know, nobody's going
19:17
Speaker 1: to have confidence in our judicial system if people like
19:21
Speaker 1: Letitia James are able to just decide an outcome before
19:24
Speaker 1: it's even been decided. INVESTIGATED BEFORE A GRAND JURY'S EVEN
19:27
Speaker 1: LOOKED AT IT. AND THIS, BY THE WAY, IS ALL
19:29
Speaker 1: HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME WHERE THESE VERY SAME PEOPLE
19:32
Speaker 1: THAT JUST PICK THEIR POLITICAL TARGETS AND GO AFTER THEM
19:34
Speaker 1: FROM A PROSECUTOR'S STANDPOINT ARE CALLING IT LAWFARE THAT ELON
19:38
Speaker 1: OMAR IS BEING INVESTIGATED FOR POTENTIALLY COMMITTING IMMIGRATION FRAUD HERSELF.
19:44
Speaker 1: BUT HOW CAN IT BE THAT LATISHA JAMES CAN DECIDE
19:47
Speaker 1: WHO GUILTY PEOPLE ARE AHEAD OF TIME? HOW CAN IT
19:49
Speaker 1: BE THAT PEOPLE LIKE FANNY WILLIS, WHO BY THE WAY,
19:52
Speaker 1: I THINK SOMEBODY JUST STOLE HER VOTER REGISTRATION OR SOMETHING
19:56
Speaker 1: CRAZY ABOUT HER. BUT HOW CAN ALL THESE BROKE PROSECUTORS
19:59
Speaker 1: WHO DECIDE THE OUTCOME AHEAD OF TIME? NOT BE LAWFARE.
20:02
Speaker 1: BUT THEN SOMEBODY POTENTIALLY BREAKS THE LAW AND THEN YOU
20:05
Speaker 1: INVESTIGATE IT, THAT'S LAWFARE. SO LAWFARE BASICALLY IS ONLY WHEN
20:08
Speaker 1: YOU HOLD DEMOCRATS ACCOUNTABLE. DEMOCRATS ARE ABOVE THE LAW.
20:12
Speaker 6: Democrats, the judges really need to kind of pay attention
20:16
Speaker 6: to what's going on here.
20:17
Speaker 1: They know this is lawfare.
20:19
Speaker 6: Even the lawyers know it's lawfare.
20:20
Speaker 1: Everyone knows it's lawfare.
20:22
Speaker 6: But you've got to run it all the way through
20:24
Speaker 6: the courts for years sometimes and sometimes millions of dollars
20:28
Speaker 6: before you can prove that all of this was just
20:31
Speaker 6: for a political narrative. And that's what really sucks about
20:34
Speaker 6: the way our judicial system works right now, is that
20:36
Speaker 6: you have to prove your innocence. But, you know, and
20:39
Speaker 6: that's why shows like this is so important, because you're
20:42
Speaker 6: killing their narrative. David, you said in your opener, this
20:45
Speaker 6: story went away for a while. It's because of shows
20:48
Speaker 6: like yours and TMZ that it really exposed the real
20:51
Speaker 6: truth behind what's going on here early on.
20:54
Speaker 3: So that it gave it no political air.
20:56
Speaker 6: Kathy Hochul and Letitia James, they wanted to use the
20:59
Speaker 6: story to help boost up their donorship and also to
21:03
Speaker 6: win their races in New York. That's coming up in
21:06
Speaker 6: a week.
21:06
Speaker 1: So that's why they.
21:07
Speaker 6: Were really counting on this to really kind of elevate
21:10
Speaker 6: their names.
21:10
Speaker 1: Like, they're the good guys. They're the heroes.
21:12
Speaker 6: They're protecting every single female on college campuses. They wanted
21:16
Speaker 6: that sticker.
21:18
Speaker 1: But we took it away. Yeah, and you know, there's
21:20
Speaker 1: a real victim here, too. And again, I'm not prejudging
21:24
Speaker 1: the outcome. I don't know what happened. I'm not a
21:27
Speaker 1: fact finder in this case. I'm not the grand jury.
21:29
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the rulings of any juries of peers
21:31
Speaker 1: or any of that stuff. All I know is what
21:33
Speaker 1: the allegations are. She's alleging something. The men in this
21:37
Speaker 1: case are alleging something else. I'm not ready to call
21:39
Speaker 1: anybody a victim or a non-victim here because both sides
21:43
Speaker 1: are claiming that things happened that shouldn't have happened. But
21:46
Speaker 1: do you know who the real victim is? The real
21:49
Speaker 1: victim in this case is other women or other men
21:53
Speaker 1: who are sexually assaulted, who aren't using drugs and alcohol,
21:57
Speaker 1: who aren't consenting to certain behavior that later maybe they
22:00
Speaker 1: wish they didn't do. I mean, the real victims in
22:03
Speaker 1: this country are the people now that are going to
22:05
Speaker 1: be either ignored or their cases weakened because of political
22:10
Speaker 1: shenanigans like this.
22:12
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I hope that every victim, male or female,
22:16
Speaker 6: who have actually gone through real sexual assault, do report,
22:20
Speaker 6: do not let this case scare them off. Yeah, there's
22:23
Speaker 6: always going to be some cases like this, and you're right,
22:25
Speaker 6: it hasn't been proven yet. So far, this is only
22:27
Speaker 6: a civil case, by the way. There's no criminal charges yet, nothing.
22:31
Speaker 6: This is just plain and simple, civil case. If the
22:34
Speaker 6: outcome has an outcome, it will be a monetary outcome.
22:38
Speaker 6: So that could be also in play here. I just
22:41
Speaker 6: do hope that this does not deter people from actually
22:44
Speaker 6: reporting real crimes committed to them. And I don't—I think
22:47
Speaker 6: that people are smart enough. But I also think the
22:50
Speaker 6: other victim here are college students who have to bear
22:54
Speaker 6: with this kind of political kabuki theater. and have their
22:58
Speaker 6: heartstrings pulled, all for what, for voting? This is terrible.
23:02
Speaker 6: This is not politics. This is demonic.
23:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this thing is you don't need reasonable doubt
23:09
Speaker 1: to create a narrative, and that's what these civil courts
23:11
Speaker 1: have routinely been used for. I mean, we've seen that
23:13
Speaker 1: with the Donald Trump verdict in New York, and they
23:16
Speaker 1: call him a rapist. There's absolutely no convictions, no allegations,
23:20
Speaker 1: nothing that Donald Trump raped anybody. There's a civil lawsuit,
23:22
Speaker 1: and yet the left uses that narrative just like they're
23:24
Speaker 1: going to use it here in this Cornell 7 case.
23:26
Speaker 1: This is what they do. They use the civil courts
23:29
Speaker 1: because the standard is much lower to set a narrative
23:31
Speaker 1: that they campaign on going into the perpetual future. Angie Wong,
23:35
Speaker 1: thank you for being here, as always, our Cornell 7 correspondent.
23:39
Speaker 1: And I'm sure we'll be talking about this again soon, unfortunately.
23:42
Speaker 1: But it's important that we keep, you know, like you said,
23:45
Speaker 1: shedding light on this so the narrative can't run away
23:47
Speaker 1: from the facts.
23:49
Speaker 5: Thanks, David.
23:49
Speaker 1: Thank you. When we come back, two former senior FBI
23:56
Speaker 1: officials surrendered Friday, charged with lying to Congress about the
24:01
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden investigation. Prosecutors say one told Congress he learned
24:06
Speaker 1: about the laptop case from Wikipedia. Retired FBI Supervisory Special
24:12
Speaker 1: Agent Chris Hinkle joins me right after this.
24:21
Speaker 5: For all of our viewers out there asking where to
24:23
Speaker 5: watch One America News, we'd like to introduce you to
24:26
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24:33
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24:38
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24:44
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24:47
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24:57
Speaker 1: Accountability at the FBI. You've been demanding it since day one.
25:01
Speaker 1: And I told you, be patient. Accountability is coming in
25:05
Speaker 1: on Friday. Two of its former top officials have been charged.
25:09
Speaker 1: Nikki Flores and Bradley Benavides surrendered on arrest warrants in Washington.
25:15
Speaker 1: Each is charged with lying to Congress about the FBI's
25:19
Speaker 1: investigations into Hunter Biden. Recall, three weeks before the 2020 election,
25:24
Speaker 1: the New York Post broke the story of Hunter Biden's laptop.
25:30
Speaker 1: Twitter blocked it. Facebook throttled it. 51 former intelligence officials
25:34
Speaker 1: signed a letter saying it had all the classic earmarks
25:38
Speaker 1: of a Russian disinformation operation. Mark Zuckerberg later admitted the
25:44
Speaker 1: FBI had warned Facebook to watch out for a Russian
25:48
Speaker 1: propaganda dump. Flores and Benavides helped run the FBI's Foreign
25:53
Speaker 1: Influence Task Force, the unit in charge of protecting that
25:56
Speaker 1: election from foreign interference. In 2023, the House Judiciary Committee
26:01
Speaker 1: asked them what that task force had to do with
26:04
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden. Prosecutors say both were warned that lying to
26:08
Speaker 1: Congress is a crime. FLORES WAS ASKED, DID YOU HAVE
26:12
Speaker 1: ANY INVOLVEMENT IN THE HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATION? HER ANSWER, I
26:15
Speaker 1: DID NOT. BENEVITAS WAS ASKED, WHEN HE LEARNED THERE WAS
26:19
Speaker 1: A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION TIED TO THE LAPTOP, HIS ANSWER, THE
26:23
Speaker 1: WIKIPEDIA PAGE. THAT'S RIGHT, THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE. A SENIOR FBI
26:27
Speaker 1: COUNTERINTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL PROSECUTOR SAY, THE DOCUMENTS, THE COMMUNICATIONS AND THE
26:31
Speaker 1: WITNESSES They all tell a different story, not Wikipedia. According
26:35
Speaker 1: to the charging papers, Flores was in frequent contact with
26:39
Speaker 1: the Hunter Biden case team for more than a year,
26:41
Speaker 1: and an FBI employee told investigators he personally talked with
26:45
Speaker 1: Benavides about the laptop. FBI Director Kash Patel says one
26:50
Speaker 1: of them was on record privately claiming to be running
26:54
Speaker 1: a shadow government during the 2020 election. Their lawyers called
26:57
Speaker 1: the charges nonsense. and says it is no coincidence that
27:02
Speaker 1: they came on the eve of an election, which is
27:05
Speaker 1: funny because nobody at the FBI seemed too worried about
27:09
Speaker 1: the eve of an election in October of 2020. Now,
27:13
Speaker 1: why does this matter to you? Because this was the
27:16
Speaker 1: unit that was supposed to be guarding your vote. If
27:19
Speaker 1: the people protecting an election can tell Congress they learned
27:22
Speaker 1: about the biggest story of that election from Wikipedia, And
27:26
Speaker 1: nothing happens. Well, then the rules only apply to you.
27:30
Speaker 1: We vote again in just eight days. Tomorrow morning, a
27:34
Speaker 1: federal judge in Washington hears whether prosecutors have enough evidence
27:37
Speaker 1: to move forward. For years, the FBI told us the
27:40
Speaker 1: laptop was a lie. Now, two of its former leaders.
27:45
Speaker 1: are charged with telling one. Joining me now, a 20-year
27:48
Speaker 1: FBI veteran retired supervisory special agent and host of Blunt Force,
27:53
Speaker 1: Chris Hankel. Welcome to David Pollak Prime Time. Look, this
27:57
Speaker 1: has serious implications because, yes, accountability needs to come, and
28:00
Speaker 1: I'm glad there's finally some accountability. But these folks were
28:04
Speaker 1: directly involved with basically calling the Hunter Biden laptop a hoax.
28:10
Speaker 1: But in response to calling it a hoax, people were investigated.
28:14
Speaker 1: They were spied on. This network itself was labeled a
28:17
Speaker 1: conduit of Russian disinformation for reporting on the laptop, listing
28:22
Speaker 1: Biden and Obama as victims, the Clintons as victims. And
28:25
Speaker 1: these people knew what was happening and then lied to
28:28
Speaker 1: Congress about it. If they can lie then, what else
28:30
Speaker 1: were they lying about?
28:33
Speaker 7: Not sure what all they were lying about. Right now,
28:35
Speaker 7: we just know that two senior officials, Nikki Flores and
28:38
Speaker 7: Bradley Benavides, have been charged with lying before Congress. And
28:42
Speaker 7: this is from a long-term investigation, it appears, that the
28:46
Speaker 7: FBI was conducting. Looking at the affidavit, it shows that emails, approvals, meetings,
28:52
Speaker 7: and witness accounts contradict those denials. Those in these senior
28:56
Speaker 7: executive positions, they're supposed to have some type of briefing
28:59
Speaker 7: before they go before Congress. so that they have all
29:03
Speaker 7: of the available information right in front of them. And
29:05
Speaker 7: it appears that they either didn't have this information or
29:10
Speaker 7: they just chose not to bring the information. My concern
29:14
Speaker 7: is more along the lines of, was the foreign intelligence
29:19
Speaker 7: aspect of this being used to conceal criminal activity that
29:24
Speaker 7: may be occurring by Hunter Biden? There's nothing in the
29:28
Speaker 7: affidavit that that specifically alleges that the use of counterintelligence
29:33
Speaker 7: information and classifying it at the highest level to keep
29:38
Speaker 7: people from being able to readily look at that information
29:41
Speaker 7: was being done. But we've got criminal activity that appears
29:45
Speaker 7: to have been occurring in the form of money laundering
29:47
Speaker 7: involving Hunter Biden. Of course, he has gotten a blanket
29:54
Speaker 7: you know, pardon from his father going out of office.
29:56
Speaker 7: So that case right there, it doesn't mean that the
29:59
Speaker 7: case goes away. They just won't be able to charge
30:01
Speaker 7: Hunter Biden, but they could charge the individuals around it.
30:04
Speaker 4: Yeah.
30:05
Speaker 1: And honestly, it needs to happen. And I say this
30:07
Speaker 1: a lot. I argue I'm in debates with people who
30:10
Speaker 1: want more accountability. FBI, they say it's not happening fast enough.
30:14
Speaker 1: You know, I've worked in government. You've spent a long
30:16
Speaker 1: time in government. Not all FBI agents are bad. The
30:19
Speaker 1: agency does a lot of good work and they continue
30:22
Speaker 1: to do a lot of good and important work. Now,
30:24
Speaker 1: there are a few bad apples. I think so. But
30:27
Speaker 1: you have to fix it from the top down and
30:28
Speaker 1: hold the people accountable. You can hold accountable. I think
30:31
Speaker 1: this is a really good first strike. And I think
30:34
Speaker 1: it's taken time. But we are holding people accountable. And
30:37
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that we have the facts
30:39
Speaker 1: and the evidence to support any arrests, or else what
30:42
Speaker 1: good does it do? And then also, it's not going
30:44
Speaker 1: to do anything to improve the morale or improve the
30:47
Speaker 1: loyalty of the FBI if you keep charging people without evidence.
30:50
Speaker 1: So I think President Trump, I think Kash Patel, and
30:54
Speaker 1: I think the DOJ is moving diligently towards rooting out
30:57
Speaker 1: anybody who might have committed crimes during the Biden administration,
31:01
Speaker 1: even during the Trump administration. But the FBI as a whole,
31:05
Speaker 1: the entire agency is broken, right? I mean, there are
31:07
Speaker 1: a few bad apples, but culturally, it needs to change
31:10
Speaker 1: culturally from the top down, right?
31:13
Speaker 6: It does.
31:13
Speaker 7: And I think that it is well on the way
31:16
Speaker 7: to having that occur. I think a lot of the
31:19
Speaker 7: individuals that were involved in shaping the narratives, not just
31:23
Speaker 7: involved with Hunter Biden, but just shaping the culture within
31:26
Speaker 7: the FBI, a lot of those people were shown the
31:30
Speaker 7: door during the first several months of the new Trump administration.
31:34
Speaker 7: I think that they're in the, you mentioned earlier about
31:39
Speaker 7: rank and file FBI agents. That used to frustrate me
31:42
Speaker 7: because I worked alongside these rank and file FBI agents
31:45
Speaker 7: and I knew that they weren't the source of the
31:47
Speaker 7: problems in the FBI. It was a very select number
31:50
Speaker 7: of individuals at the top. It was through DOJ. And
31:54
Speaker 7: you had some analysts that were brought in that didn't
31:56
Speaker 7: have the life experience necessary to come in and make decisions.
32:00
Speaker 7: but you had senior individuals in the FBI, beginning with Mueller,
32:05
Speaker 7: that were elevating these analysts and support employees into positions
32:09
Speaker 7: above the special agents actually out there conducting the investigations.
32:13
Speaker 7: So my concern right now is I hope that the
32:17
Speaker 7: FBI is looking into what was the use of the
32:20
Speaker 7: counterintelligence moniker under this investigation. Was that being used to
32:25
Speaker 7: conceal or shape narratives? And I hope that the individuals
32:28
Speaker 7: that were putting together the intelligence briefings that were being
32:32
Speaker 7: given to these senior executives.
32:33
Speaker 3: I hope they're brought in.
32:34
Speaker 7: And if they were providing information that wasn't verified and substantiated,
32:38
Speaker 7: I hope that they're held accountable as well.
32:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, it needs to happen because people need to restore
32:43
Speaker 1: their confidence in, you know, our largest law and federal
32:45
Speaker 1: law enforcement apparatus. Because again, stopping terrorism, stopping human trafficking,
32:51
Speaker 1: stopping drug trafficking. I mean, there are so many important
32:53
Speaker 1: things the FBI does. And this is such a black
32:55
Speaker 1: eye on the agency of what happened under Bob Mueller,
32:57
Speaker 1: what happened under James Comey. And, you know, the reform
33:01
Speaker 1: needs to continue to happen. And this is a good
33:04
Speaker 1: first step. Chris, thank you so much for being here
33:06
Speaker 1: as always. And thank you for your service. Thank you.
33:09
Speaker 7: And just the message out there to the people saying
33:11
Speaker 7: that nothing's happening. I keep seeing a lot of things happening.
33:14
Speaker 1: That's it. Things are happening. And thank you for sharing
33:16
Speaker 1: that as well. It's important.
33:18
Speaker 5: Thank you.
33:20
Speaker 1: Still ahead, Iran's real nuclear threat was bigger than you've
33:25
Speaker 1: been told. Enough uranium for nine nuclear bombs. Nobody knows
33:30
Speaker 1: where that uranium is. And the core of one would
33:34
Speaker 1: fit into a shoebox. Congressman Pat Harrigan joins me with
33:39
Speaker 1: more on that and later. It's Maha Monday and America's
33:43
Speaker 1: favorite $ 5 cookie is crumbling. Don't go anywhere.
33:55
Speaker 5: For all of our viewers out there asking where to
33:57
Speaker 5: watch One America News, we'd like to introduce you to
34:00
Speaker 5: OAN Live. OAN Live is the best way to stay
34:03
Speaker 5: up to date on the hardest hitting news and our
34:05
Speaker 5: talk shows.
34:06
Speaker 1: And the best part is OAN Live is.
34:08
Speaker 5: Only $ 4. 99 per month. Credible, honest, and unbiased reporting at
34:13
Speaker 5: a fraction of the cost of cable. So just click
34:15
Speaker 5: on the link at the top of our homepage, OANN.com,
34:18
Speaker 5: to easily sign up for the news and conservative talk
34:21
Speaker 5: you can't get anywhere else.
34:30
Speaker 1: NOW, OF COURSE, YOU'VE BEEN TOLD IRAN WAS NEVER REALLY
34:34
Speaker 1: THAT CLOSE TO A NUCLEAR WEAPON. THE IRANIUM WASN'T WEAPONS GRADE.
34:38
Speaker 1: THE WHOLE THING, IT'S ALL HYPE. WE'RE JUST ATTACKING IRAN
34:41
Speaker 1: FOR ISRAEL, RIGHT? was maybe a little bit bigger than
34:47
Speaker 1: anybody in Washington wants to admit. Right before the strikes
34:50
Speaker 1: in June of 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency counted
34:55
Speaker 1: 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. By the agency's
35:00
Speaker 1: own yardstick, that's enough for nine bombs, if enriched further.
35:05
Speaker 1: And the Institute for Science and International Security found Iran
35:08
Speaker 1: could turn its first bombs worth into weapons grade in
35:13
Speaker 1: less than a week. And Iran may not even need
35:17
Speaker 1: that last step. Physicist Edwin Lyman of the Union of
35:21
Speaker 1: Concerned Scientists says the idea that Iran needs 90 percent
35:25
Speaker 1: for a bomb is simply wrong. Illinois state physicist Matt
35:28
Speaker 1: Kaplan found that a crude Hiroshima-style bomb, quote, could be
35:33
Speaker 1: expected to successfully detonate without even testing it. So where
35:38
Speaker 1: is all that uranium? Well, nobody knows. Four days before
35:41
Speaker 1: the strikes— Satellite images showed a truck loaded with 18
35:44
Speaker 1: containers outside a tunnel at Isfahan. Today, the IAEA admits
35:49
Speaker 1: it can't provide any information on the current size, composition,
35:52
Speaker 1: or whereabouts of the stockpile. And Iran doesn't need a
35:56
Speaker 1: missile to use it. The uranium at the heart of
35:58
Speaker 1: a bomb could easily fit into a shoebox or even
36:02
Speaker 1: a backpack. According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation,
36:07
Speaker 1: the finished bomb is heavy, But Kaplan says it could
36:11
Speaker 1: be smuggled in a standard shipping container on a truck
36:14
Speaker 1: or by a cargo ship into a port. Now, listen
36:17
Speaker 1: to President Trump in Nebraska on October 5th. They could
36:21
Speaker 1: take out a city.
36:23
Speaker 7: Let them take out Los Angeles.
36:25
Speaker 1: Let them take out San Diego. The White House says
36:29
Speaker 1: he was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened
36:33
Speaker 1: if a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped. And he's right.
36:37
Speaker 1: Maybe he picked those two cities, you know, off the
36:39
Speaker 1: top of his head. Or maybe he knew something. Los
36:43
Speaker 1: Angeles and San Diego are port cities. The heart of
36:46
Speaker 1: a bomb fits in a shoebox. The bomb fits in
36:48
Speaker 1: a shipping container. And Iran had enough for nine. Iran
36:51
Speaker 1: swears it never wanted a bomb. Well, as Vice President
36:54
Speaker 1: Vance put it, if you don't want a nuclear weapon,
36:58
Speaker 1: then why do you need 60 percent enriched fuel? So
37:01
Speaker 1: where is that uranium tonight and who's watching our ports?
37:04
Speaker 1: How real is this threat? Joining me now, West Point
37:08
Speaker 1: trained nuclear engineer Green Beret and member of the House
37:13
Speaker 1: Armed Services Committee, Congressman Pat Harrigan, Republican of North Carolina. Congressman,
37:18
Speaker 1: welcome back. Hey, this kind of scares me a little bit.
37:22
Speaker 1: I want you to tell me, David, don't worry about it.
37:24
Speaker 1: It's not actually something you should worry about. But at
37:26
Speaker 1: the same time, we probably should worry about it, right?
37:29
Speaker 8: Well, David, hey, it's great to be with you. But yeah,
37:31
Speaker 8: I'm sure that when he said San Diego was up
37:33
Speaker 8: for grabs, that really concerned you guys out there at
37:36
Speaker 8: OAN because that's where you film.
37:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
37:39
Speaker 8: So, you know, that's not tolerable to you, I'm sure.
37:42
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, though, I saw that that night, right,
37:45
Speaker 1: when he said, ah, let him take– I knew for
37:47
Speaker 1: a minute– look, my parents are New Yorkers, and they
37:50
Speaker 1: do this sarcastic thing. Oh, yeah, let them have pizza,
37:52
Speaker 1: see how much they like it. It's an expression saying, like,
37:55
Speaker 1: look what could happen. But I don't think he picked
37:57
Speaker 1: those two cities just out of the air. I don't
37:59
Speaker 1: know if he had specific intelligence. I don't know. But
38:03
Speaker 1: from what I understand, you know, L.A. is a long beach,
38:06
Speaker 1: largest port in the nation. San Diego, our Pacific fleet
38:10
Speaker 1: is there. And if Iran had that nuclear material and
38:12
Speaker 1: if it can be somewhat compact and a simple trigger mechanism,
38:16
Speaker 1: from what I understand, could detonate something like that, that's
38:19
Speaker 1: a much bigger risk than anybody's even heard, right?
38:23
Speaker 6: Yeah.
38:24
Speaker 8: I mean, and I think that this is where Iran
38:26
Speaker 8: was a lot further along than most Americans realize. And
38:30
Speaker 8: I think before Midnight Hammer, you talked about it. Iran
38:32
Speaker 8: had more than 440 kilograms of uranium that had been
38:35
Speaker 8: enriched to 60 percent. And as we all know, that's
38:38
Speaker 8: a pretty short step from weapons grade material and enough
38:42
Speaker 8: if it's enriched further for roughly 10 nuclear weapons, like
38:45
Speaker 8: you said. So I think people need to understand just
38:48
Speaker 8: how far Iran had taken this program. Now, it's one
38:51
Speaker 8: thing to develop a nuclear weapon. It is another thing
38:53
Speaker 8: to deliver a nuclear weapon. And there's a lot of
38:55
Speaker 8: different methodologies and modalities on how to do that. All
38:59
Speaker 8: of them are very complicated. But the one that President
39:01
Speaker 8: Trump talked about, about taking something the size of a
39:04
Speaker 8: shipping container, putting it in a port, that's probably on
39:07
Speaker 8: the lower realm of sophistication out of the different delivery
39:11
Speaker 8: methods that exist. And so, yeah, we've got to take
39:13
Speaker 8: these threats very seriously.
39:15
Speaker 1: Now, with— I mean, obviously, Iran now, their ability to enrich
39:19
Speaker 1: uranium has been significantly degraded, which is important for the
39:22
Speaker 1: safety and security of Americans and the rest of the world.
39:25
Speaker 1: This supposed and missing uranium, do we have any idea
39:30
Speaker 1: where it is? Is it buried under the sand? Has
39:31
Speaker 1: it moved somewhere? Are we able to track this stuff?
39:36
Speaker 8: You know, I can't answer that question for you, David, without,
39:40
Speaker 8: you know, I've got to be careful during this entire
39:41
Speaker 8: interview not to move into classified area. But suffice to say, look,
39:46
Speaker 8: we went into and we went after Iran for a
39:49
Speaker 8: lot of different reasons. One of those reasons was to
39:51
Speaker 8: prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. I'm confident that
39:54
Speaker 8: they don't have a nuclear weapon today. And I'm also
39:57
Speaker 8: confident that they aren't going to have one anytime soon. Now,
40:00
Speaker 8: that is something that is going to take persistent overwatch
40:04
Speaker 8: to make sure that they don't move back to where
40:06
Speaker 8: they were and the trajectory that the Iranian regime was on.
40:11
Speaker 8: And we are and we do have those over the
40:13
Speaker 8: horizon capabilities to keep our thumb on that. But we
40:17
Speaker 8: are going to have to keep our thumb on that
40:19
Speaker 8: moving forward into the future.
40:21
Speaker 1: Now, of course, you've heard a lot of critics from
40:23
Speaker 1: our side even talking about this war was unnecessary, we
40:26
Speaker 1: didn't need to go to war with Iran, it was
40:28
Speaker 1: all for Israel, and just about every reason in the
40:30
Speaker 1: world not to attack Iran. But we needed to do this, right?
40:34
Speaker 1: This was the right move. And, yeah, President Trump isn't
40:37
Speaker 1: looking at the politics of it. He's trying to protect Americans.
40:39
Speaker 1: That's his number one job. This wasn't something we could
40:41
Speaker 1: put off, right?
40:44
Speaker 8: Well, look, and I've been very consistent about this from
40:46
Speaker 8: the very beginning. I do believe that the war was
40:48
Speaker 8: a war of choice with respect to timing. I'm absolutely
40:52
Speaker 8: convinced that this war would have happened one way or
40:54
Speaker 8: the other.
40:54
Speaker 3: It was inevitable.
40:55
Speaker 8: I mean, you have a regime that has spent decades
40:58
Speaker 8: funding terrorist organizations, targeting American service members developing ballistic missiles
41:03
Speaker 8: capable of threatening our allies throughout the region. And just
41:07
Speaker 8: consider what it would mean for that same regime to
41:09
Speaker 8: possess nuclear weapons, which they obviously had a reason to do.
41:13
Speaker 8: I think J.D. Vance very eloquently said, well, you wouldn't
41:17
Speaker 8: enrich uranium to 60% if you weren't willing to go
41:20
Speaker 8: all the way and didn't have the intent to do that.
41:22
Speaker 8: So the consequences of that would extend well beyond Iran
41:26
Speaker 8: and Israel. And the United States had absolute legitimate reasons
41:30
Speaker 8: to be deeply concerned.
41:31
Speaker 3: About that possibility.
41:32
Speaker 8: But what I will tell you is that there's a
41:34
Speaker 8: difference between developing a bomb and delivering a bomb. And
41:36
Speaker 8: there is decision-making space once you've gone from.
41:39
Speaker 3: One to the other.
41:40
Speaker 8: But you're taking a lot of risk in that decision space.
41:43
Speaker 8: And so I certainly don't fault the president based on
41:46
Speaker 8: his timing. What the American people care about at large
41:49
Speaker 8: is they care about outcomes. We've not delivered the outcome
41:53
Speaker 8: with the finality of with finality in Iran, and we
41:57
Speaker 8: have to do that.
41:58
Speaker 1: Well, we'll see. President Trump said, you know, nothing before
42:02
Speaker 1: the midterms, but all the reports are suggesting that we're
42:04
Speaker 1: gearing up and reloading and rearming for something big after
42:08
Speaker 1: the midterms. And it seems that oil is still flowing,
42:12
Speaker 1: probably at a higher rate than it was before the
42:13
Speaker 1: war even started. And I think it's really the refining
42:16
Speaker 1: capacity and some other things that have caused these gas
42:19
Speaker 1: prices to stay a little elevated. But, look, he says
42:21
Speaker 1: something's going to happen after the midterms. We'll see if
42:23
Speaker 1: that's enough to get Iran to the negotiation table. Americans
42:26
Speaker 1: are concerned with their bottom lines. They're concerned about gas prices.
42:28
Speaker 1: And I think the president is keenly aware of that, too.
42:31
Speaker 1: I appreciate everything you've done in North Carolina and everything
42:35
Speaker 1: you've done in Washington. It hasn't been easy. And we're
42:37
Speaker 1: going to watch this situation very closely. Thank you so
42:39
Speaker 1: much for being here, my friend.
42:41
Speaker 3: Hey, David, always great to be with you.
42:43
Speaker 1: Thank you. Coming up, it's Baja Monday and Crumbles sales
42:48
Speaker 1: were down 70% in August. Dozens of stores have closed
42:52
Speaker 1: and its rescue plan, well, they think maybe to go
42:55
Speaker 1: along with their sugar-filled cookies, maybe you just need some
42:58
Speaker 1: zero sugar soda. Heather Heather McIsaac joins me next.
43:09
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43:11
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43:26
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43:32
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43:35
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43:44
Speaker 1: MAHA MONDAY AGAIN AND TONIGHT CRUMBLE COOKIES IS CRUMBLING EVERYONE
43:51
Speaker 1: KNOWS THAT FAMOUS PINK BOX THE FIVE DOLLAR COOKIES THE
43:55
Speaker 1: SWEET SMELL THAT OVERWHELMS YOU THE MOMENT YOU WALK IN
43:57
Speaker 1: THE DOOR THE LINES OF EAGER TEENS AND THE 10
44:00
Speaker 1: MILLION TIKTOK FOLLOWERS THAT GO ALONG WITH IT AND PROBABLY
44:05
Speaker 1: MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR THE COMPANY THE TWO BILLION DOLLAR VALUATION
44:09
Speaker 1: JUST LAST YEAR BUT THIS YEAR This year, something's changing.
44:15
Speaker 1: According to the company's own numbers, August sales were down
44:20
Speaker 1: 70% from two years earlier. The median store's profit in September, $ 1, 832
44:24
Speaker 1: for the whole month. 65 stores have closed since the
44:26
Speaker 1: end of April, seven of them in California. A six-store
44:35
Speaker 1: franchisee filed for bankruptcy. Another is trying to unload stores
44:39
Speaker 1: at a substantially discounted price. And the company finished last
44:43
Speaker 1: year with $ 6 million in the bank. One franchisee put
44:47
Speaker 1: it simply, October has been miserable. blames industry headwinds. I
44:55
Speaker 1: think Americans just started reading the labels. Look at this.
44:59
Speaker 1: The ingredient list crumble used to post for its signature
45:04
Speaker 1: pink sugar cookie runs 55 entries. Sugar shows up four times,
45:10
Speaker 1: plus high-fructose corn syrup, plus red 40, yellow 5, red 3.
45:14
Speaker 1: The dye the FDA is banning from food in January
45:20
Speaker 1: is in those cookies. And this year, Crumble pulled those
45:23
Speaker 1: ingredient lists off its website. It calls them proprietary now.
45:27
Speaker 1: Then the cookie company got in a soda. It charged
45:30
Speaker 1: franchisees up to $ 50, 000 for the equipment. And it's soda week.
45:36
Speaker 1: Turned in the weakest sales in Crumble's history. One cup
45:40
Speaker 1: of its crazy cousin's dirty soda. 186 grams of sugar.
45:45
Speaker 1: 186 grams of sugar. That's more than five days of
45:50
Speaker 1: the American Heart Association's limit for a grown man. For
45:54
Speaker 1: a kid, it's more than a week. And the rescue plan.
45:58
Speaker 1: A zero sugar soda and a thin cookie for $ 1. 99.
46:04
Speaker 1: When the cookie company's big comeback is zero sugar, I
46:07
Speaker 1: would say Maha might have already won this one. Joining
46:12
Speaker 1: me now, Air Force veteran and Maha advocate, Heather, Heather McIsaac.
46:16
Speaker 1: Welcome back, David Pollak, Prime Time. You have a love-hate, actually,
46:19
Speaker 1: you have a hate-hate relationship with Crumble Cookie, right?
46:25
Speaker 4: I don't want to rejoice in something that was once
46:30
Speaker 4: a small company's demise, right? Basically, Crumble made their entire
46:37
Speaker 4: company based off viral moments and clips. And a product
46:41
Speaker 4: is not going to have longevity if it's only based
46:43
Speaker 4: on trends, especially if that company isn't willing to move
46:48
Speaker 4: where those trends are going. And right now, food is
46:51
Speaker 4: at the forefront of the Maha revolution. And unfortunately, Crumble
46:55
Speaker 4: really missed the mark by trying to figure out how
46:59
Speaker 4: they can make their cookies a little bit Most parents
47:03
Speaker 4: will take their kids to crumble. They will do it
47:06
Speaker 4: as a treat, but it's something that parents are going
47:08
Speaker 4: to continuously keep doing. It's a once in a while thing,
47:12
Speaker 4: and you can't build a brand off something that's just
47:14
Speaker 4: once in a while. So I'm hoping for their sake
47:18
Speaker 4: that they will go back and they will perhaps revisit
47:20
Speaker 4: some of their recipes and figure out how to make
47:23
Speaker 4: it more wholesome. Now, that might be an oxymoron to
47:27
Speaker 4: some wholesome maha cookie all in the same sentence, but
47:31
Speaker 4: it's possible. They could add protein to it. They could add,
47:35
Speaker 4: you know, let people know that they don't use seed oils.
47:38
Speaker 4: They're using real butter. Those are things that parents are
47:41
Speaker 4: paying attention to. They would rather see those real ingredients
47:45
Speaker 4: than see a mile-long CVS receipt-esque type ingredient list that
47:51
Speaker 4: they can't pronounce half the items in it.
47:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Heather, and I think this is really
47:56
Speaker 1: late effects of, and I don't even want to say
47:58
Speaker 1: late effects, it's positive effects of MAHA because- You know,
48:02
Speaker 1: this was an indulgent treat. I remember like at Disney
48:05
Speaker 1: Springs at Gideon Cookies, people lined up for blocks to
48:08
Speaker 1: get these giant one pound cookies with the chocolate pile up.
48:12
Speaker 1: And I remember getting one once and I was so
48:13
Speaker 1: sweet I couldn't even eat it. And then and then,
48:16
Speaker 1: of course, my kids saw the TikTok trends of crumble
48:18
Speaker 1: cookies and all the different influencers doing like, you know,
48:22
Speaker 1: the kick trying each cookie. And so we did this
48:24
Speaker 1: thing where I let's go try to take the cookies.
48:27
Speaker 1: the crumble cookies. But after a couple of weeks, it
48:29
Speaker 1: was like, not only was it the same type of
48:31
Speaker 1: cookies and they just switched off the toppings, but it just,
48:35
Speaker 1: it was so sugary, so rich. And then when Maha
48:39
Speaker 1: came to, you know, when everyone started paying attention to ingredients,
48:42
Speaker 1: It became almost like, oh, that's kind of gross. So
48:45
Speaker 1: I do think it's a late effect of Maha. I
48:46
Speaker 1: think the idea of having these indulgent desserts with mystery ingredients,
48:50
Speaker 1: people are turned off to. We talked about Dunkin' Donuts
48:53
Speaker 1: or Dunkin' a couple of Mahas ago where people are
48:55
Speaker 1: looking at the ingredients there. And you look at the
48:57
Speaker 1: success of places like Steak and Shake or In-N-Out or
49:00
Speaker 1: these other fast food restaurants that have replaced the bad
49:02
Speaker 1: ingredients with good ingredients. I think people... Honestly, Heather, from
49:06
Speaker 1: talking to you every single week, I think people feel
49:08
Speaker 1: duped by food industry, and that's a good thing.
49:10
Speaker 4: And they should.
49:11
Speaker 1: And this is what we want. Good.
49:13
Speaker 4: And that was the biggest thing that I saw with
49:15
Speaker 4: Crumble in terms of the start of their demise was
49:17
Speaker 4: when people realized that one single cookie was not a
49:20
Speaker 4: single serving. It was, I think on their website listed
49:24
Speaker 4: as two to three servings, depending on the cookie. And
49:27
Speaker 4: most people were, were outraged by that to an extent. Now, granted,
49:31
Speaker 4: you know, we need to be smart, savvy consumers that
49:34
Speaker 4: look into things, but when you're taking your child for
49:36
Speaker 4: a treat and, and items geared towards kids. These cookies
49:41
Speaker 4: are maybe geared towards the adults that are kids at heart, right?
49:45
Speaker 4: But this is a brand that was geared towards kids.
49:47
Speaker 4: It was marketed towards moms to kind of like be
49:50
Speaker 4: the cool thing to go do. But again, the trend
49:53
Speaker 4: right now is Maha. The trend right now is Whole Ingredients.
49:57
Speaker 4: being more healthy. As somebody who's an avid baker myself,
50:01
Speaker 4: you can make amazing cookies with wholesome ingredients. That's where
50:06
Speaker 4: Crumble is missing the mark. They unfortunately put their virality
50:11
Speaker 4: over investing in their product. The sad part is I
50:15
Speaker 4: knew somebody who invested in a Crumble franchise. I think
50:18
Speaker 4: that they are one of the California stores that has
50:21
Speaker 4: since gone under which is sad because all of these
50:24
Speaker 4: franchisees are people who have invested their own money to
50:28
Speaker 4: be a part of this company and the company failed them.
50:31
Speaker 7: Yeah.
50:31
Speaker 1: And look, the cookie company that comes along, because there
50:34
Speaker 1: was a lot of like, you know, dupe companies that
50:37
Speaker 1: came out that tried to be like crumble. And but
50:40
Speaker 1: I think the company that comes out and makes desserts
50:42
Speaker 1: that are easy to access, that are made with whole
50:45
Speaker 1: ingredients that people don't feel guilty about. I think really
50:47
Speaker 1: that is the future. Maha is changing America. Health consciousness
50:50
Speaker 1: is changing. And I think that is great. Get rid
50:52
Speaker 1: of that. I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican. I
50:54
Speaker 1: don't care what happens in the I do care what
50:56
Speaker 1: happens in the midterms, but it shouldn't. It doesn't make
50:58
Speaker 1: a difference. As to what happens in the midterms, people,
51:01
Speaker 1: all Americans, should be focused on not poisoning ourselves with
51:04
Speaker 1: cheap ingredients at the expense of our health. And so I'm... Again,
51:11
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I don't want to see any
51:12
Speaker 1: small businesses going out of business. A lot of these
51:13
Speaker 1: crumble places are small businesses owned by local people, and
51:16
Speaker 1: we don't want them to go out of business. And franchisees,
51:19
Speaker 1: they just apply whatever corporate model the main company tells them.
51:22
Speaker 1: It's their recipes. It's their ovens. And you saw, as
51:25
Speaker 1: I mentioned, $ 50, 000 they spent on these sodas that were
51:28
Speaker 1: terrible for you. I think crumble as a brand needs
51:31
Speaker 1: to take a step back and maybe roll out some
51:34
Speaker 1: better options or else You know, it is going to
51:37
Speaker 1: come at the expense of some of the small businesses.
51:39
Speaker 1: But we'll see what happens. The good news is, Heather,
51:42
Speaker 1: that people are paying attention to their health. And that's
51:44
Speaker 1: why I love these segments. We need to make America
51:46
Speaker 1: healthy again. And I appreciate you being here as always.
51:49
Speaker 1: Great to have you back. I'm glad you're still digging
51:51
Speaker 1: out from that hurricane. I know it's been a mess
51:52
Speaker 1: out there for you, but I'm glad to see you
51:54
Speaker 1: back on cam here.
51:55
Speaker 4: Hey, we're Florida strong. So, you know, we're all getting
51:59
Speaker 4: back on our feet. And I just want to remind everybody,
52:03
Speaker 4: the most patriotic thing that you could possibly do is
52:06
Speaker 4: to keep track of your health. Because if you are
52:08
Speaker 4: not a healthy individual, you're not really good to yourself,
52:11
Speaker 4: your family, your society, your community. So part of that
52:15
Speaker 4: is watching the ingredient labels and the companies that choose
52:19
Speaker 4: to not put their consumers' health at the forefront, as
52:22
Speaker 4: we can see, are going to lose.
52:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. And look, we want our small businesses
52:27
Speaker 1: to succeed. We just got to do it healthy. Heather, Heather,
52:31
Speaker 1: thank you for being here as always. Happy Maha Monday.
52:33
Speaker 1: See you next week.
52:35
Speaker 4: Happy Maha Monday.
52:37
Speaker 1: That is our show for tonight. Make sure you tune
52:41
Speaker 1: in tomorrow. We're going to go and break down this
52:44
Speaker 1: Brazil election even further with Paulo Figueiredo. He has inside
52:48
Speaker 1: information about exactly what's going on out there. And we're
52:51
Speaker 1: going to keep bringing it to you. This has bigger
52:53
Speaker 1: effects for our region, for our hemisphere, for the world.
52:57
Speaker 1: And we're going to keep bringing it to you. And
52:59
Speaker 1: as always, be sure to stay in touch with us
53:01
Speaker 1: on social media. I'm at David Pollak USA everywhere. Or
53:04
Speaker 1: send us an email. DavidPollakPrimetime at OANN.com. We'll see you tomorrow.
53:08
Speaker 1: Same time, same place. And until then, stay classy, America.
53:11
Speaker 1: Good night.
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53:17
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53:27
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53:32
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