Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 7/13/26: Trump Says US Will Take Over Hormuz, Freedom Fuel Stations, Lindsey Graham Dead

Transcript

7/13/26: Trump Says US Will Take Over Hormuz, Freedom Fuel Stations, Lindsey Graham Dead · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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  Speaker 1: dot com. Good morning, everybody, Happy Monday. Have an amazing
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal pe
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: We do.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Nice to be back here.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: In the Studiowords Classic than Yage.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Classic, A lot to get to you this morning. So
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: bombing continues between the US and Iran, and as of now,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: no market moving truth has been announced, which is a
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: break from previous form.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: So we'll get into all of that.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Trump is touting these freedom fuel gas stations and there's
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: a bit of a mystery of what is going on
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: with these things and who is behind it, So we
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: will dig into that. Senator Lindsay Graham is dead, but
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Mitch McConnell is apparently alive based on a photo that
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: he put out. We will take a look at Lindsay Graham,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: who's likely to replace him, the legacy that he leaves
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: behind him, and what the hell is going on with
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Mitch McConnell, who continues to be hospitalized. Rocanna was detained
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: by the IDF and some illegal settlers. He is going
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: to join us Live to talk about his experience and
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: what he learned on his trip to the occupied West Bank.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Trump's doj has subpoened some journalist at the New York
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Times and is also investigating the head of the UAW.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: So we will break those stories down you down for
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: you as well. Very consequential in terms of freedom of
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: speech and a targeted attack here on the uawhead who
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: has been very unspoken in terms of GAZA.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: There you go, all right, Thank you everybody. He's been
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  Speaker 1: of that. And of course you can also sign up
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  Speaker 1: for premium to get access to the full thing if
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  Speaker 1: you would like. As Crystal said, let's go ahead and
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: start with these latest round of strikes. Now there's actually
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: strikes that were happening as of literally just a few
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: hours ago, so we're kind of catching up to everything,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: but let's start with this. This is from Sentcom as
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: of five pm today, this was yesterday. US Central Command
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: has began launching more strikes against Iran quote to continue
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: freely transiting the Strait of more Moves. The Commander in
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Chief has directed the strikes to hold Iranian forces accountable. Noteworthy,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: these are no longer quote self defense strikes. These are
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: just strikes, and of course that means that we have
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: continued to see a breakdown here in the memorand of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: understanding and of the ceasefire. Generally, let's go to the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: next one. This is also very important. This was the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: fresh round of strikes, and these actually included images and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: video of US assets that were taking flight from carriers,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: from different missiles and other standoff munitions that are being
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: used here by the United States, presumably either a Tomahawk
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: missile or some other sort of projectile that's being launched
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: by the United States against Iranian assets all along the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz. What's noteworthy here is that this is
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: now no longer a battle of regime change. This is
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: entirely a war, both in terms of what the US
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: is striking, what Iran is striking directly at the Strait
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: of Horn Moves and its control. So here's what sent
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Kam said in this video announcement. US forces hit approximately
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: one hundred and forty Iranian military targets with precision munitions.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Launch targets included missile and drone sides, naval capabilities, ammunition storage,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: communication networks, and coastal surveillance location. So this follows tit
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: for tat strikes from the United from Iran against multiple
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: commercial ships that were transiting the Straight of horm Moves. Now,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: when we say transiting, what they were doing is they
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: were using this route which is coordinated between the United
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: States government and the government of Oman. What this comes
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: down to is a misunderstanding or a different understanding of
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: what free passage to the Straight of Hormor Moves was
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: supposed to, say Crystal in that memorandum of understanding, Iran's
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: understanding was we will, and I believe the text even
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: says make our best efforts to coordinate free passage. What
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: they meant by that was you coordinate with us. All
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: traffic now comes through the Iranian government. The United States
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: took that as for the next sixty days, ships can
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: float freely. What they're trying to do is set up
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: an alternative route that bypasses any Iranian control, any Iranian communication,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to bypass any future ability of Iran to say that
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: they can charge tolls, environmental fees, whatever you want to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: call it, and their ability to control the Strait. So
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: this is now a war for the Strait. There's no
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: longer regime change, not even Israel, which is involved here.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: It is a war for the control of the Strait itself,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: which of course was free and open on February twenty
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: eighth before the war was.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: That's right, and in a sense it makes sense that
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: the straight Ofform moves would be almost a more difficult
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: issue than even the nuclear issues, because the straight Ofform
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: moves now is Iran's key to power and Iran's key
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: to deterrence. It is de facto acting like the development
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: of a nuclear weapon would. And so I think the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: MoU it would not surprise me if that language that
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: is now being interpreted in different ways by both sides
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: was kept intentionally vague because there is such a difference
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: of view on what needs to happen in the straight
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: of Horm moves.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: I don't think that there.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Is any specific, clearcut language that could potentially satisfy both sides.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: So that's where we are at this point. Iran is
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: saying absolutely none. I think the US going into with
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Trump going into the MoU is like, well, we'll keep
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: it vague and then we'll see what we can get
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: away with. And the Iranians are basically saying we're not
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: letting you get away with anything.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: So until this is resolved.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: You are going to continue to have this escalation trap.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Robert Paipe vindicated once again here.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Until basically the US accepts that they have lost control
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Destrait Hormus Aron is going to control it, and it
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: is going to dramatically increase both their revenue and their
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: power in the region and act as a very effective deterrent.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: So that's what this is all over. Right now.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: There are some preliminary reports that carg Island may have
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: been struck this morning and some of the oil infrastructure there.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: We don't have that confirmed at this point. That would
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: be a dramatic escalation. And I want to go ahead
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: and play because I think this is very noteworthy, Like
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: what is the US plan here? Okay, We've already done
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: the bombing campaign. We've hit this, We've hit their that,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: their bridges, their railway ways, we've hit their civilian infrastructure.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: We've bombed a girls' school, We've done all of this stuff.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: It didn't amount to a victory. So what are we
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: going to do that is going to be different. Let's
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: play eight be This is a former Sentcom commander who
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: is floating this idea of seizing carg Island with the
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: notion that, oh, well, if we do that, maybe we
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: can't hold it indefinitely, but we can use it as
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: some sort of leverage in these negotiations so we can
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: get more of what the US wants.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and take a listen to that.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: We certainly have the capability to control the straight of
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: horror moves if the President chooses to follow that course
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: of action. Look, what he's been trying to do is
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: get to a diplomatic and a political solution here, which
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: I applaud and I think we should all want to
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: see as the final instate. Nonetheless, the fact of the
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: matter is the Iranians generally only respond to military force
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: and to extreme pressure. Look, we're not talking about regime
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: change here. What we're talking about is modifying the views
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: and actions of an extreme, hard, hard line regime. That
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: is possible. We have the capability to do that. That
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: capability is resident in the US military. Should the President
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: elect to employ it. That would include opening the Straight
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: of Horror Moves, maintaining the Strait of Horror Moves open,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: and in fact seizing carg Island should we elect to
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: do that. And I would just say, as an aside,
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: that's something we should think about doing because possession of
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: Iranian soil would be a significant factor in future negotiations
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: with Iran. So all those options are on the table.
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure where we're going to go with this,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: but I do know we have these capabilities.
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: We have those capabilities where the President has made clear
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: he kind of just wants a he wants a deal here.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: How do you explain to the lay person when the
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: President says we control the Strait of War moves, but
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: then Sentcom says military forces are positioned to ensure freedom
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: of navigation, which makes it sound it isn't exactly free
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: flowing traffic here.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: No, it's not right now because we have not deployed
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: all the capabilities that we have to open the strait.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: We certainly can do that. It would require putting warships
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: up into narrow waters. Look, the US Navy doesn't love
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: to do that, but they're very good at it, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: if necessary, they can do it, and they can do
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: it well.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: So with regard Sager to the ConTroll and straight of
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: her moves, he says, well, we'd have to put our
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: warships in narrow waters. Well, why haven't we wanted to
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: do that, because they're going to get it, hit get it.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Because you're putting people then at massive risk, not to
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: mention the equipment, but the people first and foremost, and
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: that could be a potential massive disaster. That's why it
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: has not been done. And in terms of this fantasy
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: with regard to carg Island, let's say that you're able
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: to seize it, which potentially they could, then you have
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: to hold it, and once again you have an occupying
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: force that become sitting ducks. That's why Trump has not
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: wanted to go forward with any of these options.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: But I think these are ideas.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: It's not coming out of nowhere that this guy is
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: floating this on a Sunday show. I think these are
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: ideas that are being contemplated right now and that no
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: one should be shocked if they pursue.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: And in terms of where Trump's had, this is breaking
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the literally just happened. Trump is right right live right
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: now on Fox and friends. Paying homage to Lindsey Graham,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: he says, quote, we are taking over the straight afore moves.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: So that's a direct quote there from the President. Now
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: we have heard that a million times. The other quotes.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Trump was asked about Iran rebuilding, he said, Iran has
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: no chance. We will probably run the straight up Hoore moves.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Iran didn't get anything from me, and the United States
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: will be reimbursed for its control over the Straight. Now, again,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: we have no idea whether any of that will be
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: backed up by action, but we do know and this
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: we'll talk a lot about this with Lindsay Graham, is
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: that there is an entire infrastructure of very highly politically
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: effective operatives behind the scenes who are ready are willing
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: to color in the lines for what it actually means.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: When Trump is in a mindset of let's bomb, let's bomb,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: let's continue the war, and let's actually back up you
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: know these actions in these words that you're taking. Let's
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: put a three up here just to show everybody. These
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: are some images that came out from Iran Kesham Island,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: which is also in the Persian Gulf. We could see
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the smoke that was rising there that happened yesterday. Now
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: in terms of the Iranian response, let's go ahead and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: see some of those. Let's put a six for example
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: up here on the screen. This is very noteworthy. The
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Kuwaiti government put out a statement last night saying that
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: three northern land border centers in the country were subjected
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to an attack. Additionally, one of the offshore drilling platforms,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: which is affiliated with Kuwait's oil company in Kuwaiti Territorial Waters,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: was targeted by a hostile drone, resulting in material damage
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and the injury of one worker who is receiving medical care.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: So that's noteworthy because they're targeting oil infrastructure again in
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Gulf countries, which are of course allies protectorates here of
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the United States. So that kind of shows you that
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: we're right back to the exchange of hostilities. The only
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: real change here is that Israel and Iran are not
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: exchanging any missiles or drones or any of that as
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: of right now. So that does show you though that
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: the israelis behind this. What they're all doing is they're
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: pushing hard to be able to re enter the war.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: You can actually see some of that. Let's put a
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: four for example up here. On the screen. This was
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a threat that was issued by Trump over the weekend.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: He says, one thousand missiles are locked loaded aimed at
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: follow should the government act on its threat pronounced in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: many corners of the globe to assassinate or attempt to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: assassinate the sitting president of the United States. In this case,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: me orders have been given and the US military is ready,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: willing and able for one year period of time, subject
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: So this came after Israel apparently shared intelligence with the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: United States intelligence that Iran wants to assassinate Trump. So
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: we're right back. Remember this was a very important rhetorical
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: talking point for Lindsay Graham for Bibnat Yahoo in the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: original launching of the war, they claimed that Iran was
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: behind these cockamami assassination plots to target Trump, and this
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: time around they're saying again, Hey, you actually are being
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: targeted right now by the Iranians. They want to kill you.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: There's actually relevant to our later piece on subpoenas, which
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: involves air force and why Trump was forced apparently to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: change planes because the current plane that was given by
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the Nation of Katar apparently doesn't have the right defensive capabilities.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: But the point remains whether any of this is real
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: or not, which I highly doubt. There's why would they
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: do that, They're going to assassinate Trump. It's like, okay,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: it's your entire country's gonna get nuked to like, why
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: would you potentially want that? Whenever you control the straight
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: you basically run. You know, you're in a tit for tap,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: but everything is really on your side. Regardless, Israel has
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: been pushing that. That puts something in Trump's mind. This
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: enables this Fox News industrial complex and others were always
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: very upset about the deal. Jd Vance is like missing
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in action. Haven't seen them on TV in three weeks.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: We all know why? Yeah, we know why. Right, nobody's
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: talking to Geneva, so you could see where this stuff
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: starts to lead.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Can I tell you also what I know with people,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I feel the same way that it's like the same
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: back to the rodeo every single weekend, same dynamics. Okay,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: here we go bombing again. Then they're on Monday, they're talking,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: and then they're back to the beast deal. And it
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: seems like you know, Lucy with the food football, We're
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: just repeating this over and over this week.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: We have not gotten that.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Monday morning, Hey guys, it's all good, you know, put bygones,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: be bygones. We're close to a piece deal. We haven't
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: gotten that. Instead, we have Trump this morning continued to bluster.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: We have stock market you know, futures are are down,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: oil prices going up. So that is a significant break
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: in the pattern that we have been seeing. And whether
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: it was you know, Trump being convinced about this new
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: you know, Israeli lies about his potential assassination, whether it's
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Iran forcefully asserting its control over the Strait of Horn
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: moves and it becoming clear that this is an irreconcilable
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: difference that the US and Iran have at this point.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: For whatever reason, the pattern is not holding. And that's
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: why I think everyone should be more concerned this morning
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: that we could see some sort of really significant dramatic
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: escalation than we have in the past, something like an
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: attempt to seize carg Island, something like potentially bringing warships in,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: you know, closer in and making them easier targets for
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: the Iranians to hit. And then you know, if you
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: have a bunch of dead American sailors, God only knows
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: what that means for the war going for.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's very easy to just say, okay,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: we're moving. Everyone did that with Ukraine. It's been going
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: on for five years. Snooze right, oh it's happening. Well, actually,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: the war is more dangerous now than ever before, literally
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: than ever before. And that's the problem. People fall asleep
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: and then they wake up when something big really is happening,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: and all the ingredients are there. So right now, actually
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: this morning, Saudi Arabia apparently is bombing Yemen again. All right,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and so the Houthis they largely stayed out of the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: entire exchange. But now if the United States backing Saudi
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Arabia is going to start bombing the hoo Thies, that's
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: a real problem because we're talking about the bab Am
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Mandab strait, we're talking about the alternative you know, access
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: of oil. And just this morning, you know, the Hoothis
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: put out this statement in a flagrant and a brazen
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: act of aggression, the criminal Saudi enemy has targeted Sana
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: International airport, thereby ending the de escalation phase and bearing
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the consequences of its aggression. We affirm that this aggression
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: will not pass without response and without punishment. So the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Saudist feel emboldened. Golf countries were bombing Iran recently. We
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: still don't even know which one. It was all done
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: in secret. Nobody really confirmed any of that. Well here,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: if the Saudis are entering again in the war in Yemen,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: well then Yemen and the hoo these no longer have
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the incentive to stay out of it. There was an
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: assumption of money, a lot of money exchanged hands to
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: keep that straight open while the main war was going on.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Well what if that goes and gets closed. Now you
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: have a real catastrophe situation. And they of course could
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: fire against Israel, which they have previously in the past. Finally,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: let's just put a eight up here on the screen.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: From Iran's strategy. We've extensively described it. But the Financial
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Times did a very good job here and they did
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: some reporting inside the regime. What they say is Iran
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Betts Trump will blink first at the end of the day.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: As we have heard it all before, so have they.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: They have it all. You know, they've heard it all
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and they actually have the stakes. So inside of their
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: thinking they say that they're gambling. Their aim is self preservation.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: They cannot allow the even in you know, by inches
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: of their control, of their perceived control over the Strait
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: of Hormuz, and they basically think, we have to fight
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: to the teeth. In their view, they beat the United States,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the regime remains, it survives, is completely in power, and
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: as a result, to ensure not only regime survival but
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: their prosperity in the future, they have to be able
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to control the strait. They think Trump will blink. I
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: don't think that's a bad bet necessarily, but we also
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: know what the structure is here in Washington where think
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: about the amount of political capital he expended for the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: initial memorandum of understanding and the Neo kan freak out,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: which are the last people who really still love Trump. Well,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: now you know they showed and demonstrated their ability to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: exert their influence, their political power. You know, they lit
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: him up on Fox News. The entire industrial complex went
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: after him. They viciously attacked the vice president. You know,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: they set up everything for that, and now that he's
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: back potentially in their good graces, they're going to shower
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: him in the tongue bath, which he so desperately wants,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: and it could very easily work. Strategy may not be bad,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: but you know, it assumes you're dealing with the rational
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: actor and that the incentives are not equal, because with Trump,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the oil market is a serious incentive, but the neocons
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: are a real incentive too. Yeah, that's what worries me
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: more than anything.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely very difficult to predict what comes next. And
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: you know it's always been a question too of whether
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: he could handle the humiliation of having to effectively accept
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: an American defeat at the hands of Iran and accept
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: what would be required, which the big thing here is
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: allowing them to effectively control the straight or four moves
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: and have this increased power in the region, total change
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: in terms of you know, our ability to project force
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: throughout the region, you know, our basing strategy. There, all
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: of that being up and there can he actually accept that?
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Can will his his base?
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Which Zuckers right, I mean sort of ironic given the
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: way Trump positioned himself as the anti war candidate and
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: against the Iraq war. If we go back to twenty
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: sixteen that the last bastion of his strong support now
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: are the very neocons who hated him at the ging.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Lindsey Graham will talk about that in a bit, the
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: way that so many of them have shifted and their
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: orientation towards him as he's done the things.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: That they have wanted him to do.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: But in any case, can you take that ego hit
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: And the Iranians are looking at the fact that, you know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: our strategic patrol and reserve continues to dwindle. It is
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: not being refilled during this time, and that has really
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: been an important buffer for us in terms of gas prices.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Gas prices are high, they could be higher, So you know,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I think the Iranians are looking at that.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: And the last thing I'll.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Say is at the Supreme Leaders the Ietola's funeral, you
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: could visually see how much hardline sentiment there is within Iran.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: So we have to remember that it's not just Americans
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: who have domestic political considerations. The Iranians do too, and
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: they had to expend a lot of political capital in
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: order to move forward negotiations and accept this memo of
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: understanding or call. The new Supreme Leader said basically like,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: this isn't my thing, but I'm going to trust my
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: guys and we'll see where this goes. That was an
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: indication he's trying to see, Okay, which way is this
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: going to play out? And what is public sentiment going
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: to support. So both in terms of the government in
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: terms of the people, you have, you know, significant sentiment
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: in favor of going back to war and that we
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: didn't do enough and we didn't cause enough pain for
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: the Israelis and the American Empire for us to be
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: able to really secure our position and make sure that
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: we don't end up here again.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So that is also it is the height of American arrogance.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Is we always assume we're the only ones with domestic politics. Yes.
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: The Iatola literally was like, I don't know about this,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: but Gallibov tells me it's good, so I'll allow him.
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: To do it.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you're like, what do you think that means?
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: You know, you can read he doesn't take a genius
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to figure it out. If they seriously went out on
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: a limb. A lot of these you know, non hardliners,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: but even they themselves, if you look at their rhetoric,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: they have to appease the IRGC. I mean, I don't
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: think it's false that there is a power struggle inside
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: of Iran, but the actions make it clear. Every time
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: that the negotiators try to throw the IRGC under the bus,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: they're like, oh, it was just a few commanders who
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: fired into the straight they fire again. Nobody is constraining them.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: You can, by the way, thank America for that, because
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the last person who could actually restrain them was the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: previous Iatola, who's not dead, who is the actual cautious,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you know, leader of Iran who did no war nor
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: peace strategy. Now you actually have people inside the regime
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: who either can't be restrained or potentially the current Iatola,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: whose own father was murdered, who can just say okay, go,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: let's go, and he's not going to do anything to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: restrain them. So we have no idea how it's going
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to happen. And let's get, as you said, to the
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Freedom Fuel and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which remains a
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: serious problem and gas still very stubbornly high here in
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the United States.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: So Whitehouse recently put out this video touting a chain
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: of quote unquote Freedom Fuel gas stations which are offering
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: gas prices much lower than the rest of the market.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and take a look at this video.
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: I save money. I had to go back and they
• 22:57
  Speaker 7: get my change. I thought gas was more space, but
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: it's not, so thanks chump, saving me some money.
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: We're here at the first Freedom Fueled Network gas station
• 23:06
  Speaker 8: right here in Philadelphia, leading the charge to lower gas
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: prices three dollars and then forty seven cents. That's for
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: our forty seventh President, Resident Donald J.
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: Trump.
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: The price of gas here is fifty cents lower than
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: the Pennsylvania average gas price. The parts of July, gas
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: prices are coming down, which is great.
• 23:26
  Speaker 9: Tell them very happy about the cheap gas prices.
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: Apter fourth of July.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Hopefully everyone has a great holiday, super punk the gas
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: prices are lowered.
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: I'm just grateful right now. We're in a difficult time
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: in this world, but it's nice to see some stability
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: that we can enjoy.
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: Definitely appreciate the lower gas.
• 23:43
  Speaker 7: Oh yeah, and I saw it. I thought it was
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: a fake news, but I'm glad it's true. I definitely
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: couldn't leave my eyes and I just won't pass. I'm
• 23:51
  Speaker 7: actually taking a trip down the shore, so I wasn't
• 23:53
  Speaker 7: even gonna come and get the gag, but I'm glad
• 23:54
  Speaker 7: I did. Now they just saved me a lot of money.
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: Thanks a lot, chump. Let's keep going with your doing,
• 23:58
  Speaker 7: going a good job.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for helping our country.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: It's President Donald J.
• 24:03
  Speaker 8: Trump leading the charge the lower gas prices right here
• 24:06
  Speaker 8: at Freedom Fueled Network gas stations.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, so this went out from an official White House account,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: and there's a lot to be this interesting about this.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, first of all, I think soccer the politics
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: of it are very interesting. It exposes the fact they
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: see this as a major problem, like they needed to
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: do something. Put out some propaganda like we're bringing prices down, which,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: by the way, three forty seven forty seven, of course,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: an honor of our forty seventh president three pickup. Oh
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: you didn't pick up on of course, Yes, although apparently
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: some of the stations have already up their price a
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: little bit to like three fifty something according to the
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: latest reporting, but in any case, it was originally three
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: dollars forty seven cents. It's very mysterious what is going
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: on here? Put the New York Times reporting up on
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: the screen, because the White House claims they don't have
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: anything to do with this, that they're just celebrating this.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Whoever is behind this chain of like twenty five gas
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: stations that have lowered the price to such a point
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: that they are likely losing money on you know, for
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: every car that fills up there, they're actually losing money
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: at this price because of what the wholesale price for
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: oil is at this point. So they say Trump is
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: promising freedom fuel for three dollars and forty seven cents
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: a gallon. Who is behind it? These are different gas
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: stations that had a bunch of different branding that are
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: now in this Freedom Fuel Network umbrella.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: A Delaware corporation was just set.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Up for this freedom Fuel network in the past couple
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: of weeks. The funders, investors, whoever's behind this are being
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: kept secret, so no one really knows what is going
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: on here.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Now, it does appear that there is.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: An asset manager that owns at least some significant number
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: or did own potentially still does own some significant number
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: of these gas stations, and it is an asset manager
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: that Trump just happens to have millions of dollars of
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: investments in. So you have that tie in here. Potentially
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: you know, corrupt angle as well, but certainly an indication
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: that they realize this gas price thing is a major
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: major problem for them and they're despert to score any
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: kind of a propaganda win on that front.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very interesting. This put B three up here.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: So Politico also did the investigation like who is paying
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: for this? And nobody can really figure it out who's
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: footing the bill because I remember we're talking about almost
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a fifty cent cut. And you may even ask like, okay,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: so in the gas market, how come there's no race
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: to price And it's like because they run on a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: very standard margin. The way that it all works, it
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't really enable you to do this. That's why this
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: is so extraordinary. And somebody out there is got this
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: twenty five stations which are only in southeastern Pennsylvania and
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: South Jersey. I think that that is a very targeted place.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Southeastern Pa is like the definition of swing country. That's
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: exactly where you had the classic like, oh, I'm a
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Trump Biden Trump voter who exists and that's why it
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: appears to be concentrated in this region. What they say
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: is they quote, we've had members who have this is
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: like according to the New Jersey Energy Markets Group, we
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: had members who have reached out to ask what it is.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I have not been able to find any answers, the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: executive director of their own Energy Markets Group. So, as
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you said, it's a Delaware company that was formed on
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: June twenty third, that's a week before it was promoted.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: The White House won't name who it is, describing it
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: as a private company. The officials said there is no
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: defined timeline for how long these discounts will be offered.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: They will refuse to connect representatives of Freedom Fueld network
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: with Politico Freedom Fuel. They just say, is a patriotic
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: company doing a good thing for drivers. I'm sure that's
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: all it is. And as you said, this sketchy affiliate
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: something called Blue Owl, a New York based asset company.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Trump has sold millions of dollars in Blue Owl stock
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: through its subsidiaries. Blue Owl owns hundreds of gas stations
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: operated by a Georgia based gas supplier and retailer called
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Mountain Express Oil, but it declared bankruptcy in twenty twenty
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: three and declined to expand nationwide. So nobody knows anything
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: about Blue Owl. The White House claims blue Owl has
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with Freedom Fuel, but it is one
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: of those stations which did previously hold a host to
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: an American Trump White House official at an unveiling ceremony
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: last Friday. So we could start to put some of
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the pieces together here.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: And Trump still has he sold some blue Owl stock
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: last year. He still has millions of dollars of blue
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Owl holdings. They seem to be Trump friendly. It says
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: at least seven of these stations that are now in
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: the Freedom Fuel network are owned by affiliates of Blue Owl,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: so that seems to be the most likely thing here.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: My own theory, and this is just a theory, is
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: that this is some Trump aligned billionaire talk to them,
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: they hatch this idea. Whoever this person is that is
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: fronting the cash that would be required to sustain these losses,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: because that is what's going on here. They're definitely selling
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: this fuel at a loss at this point once some
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: other favor from Trump or just wants to be in
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: as good graces in general. And so this is a
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: you know, you scratch my back, I'll scratch or as
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: sort of the situation, as most things in the Trump
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: White House are at this point.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: So that's the best I can figure.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: But you know, obviously in terms of the impact on
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: gas prices nationwide, it is going to be nil. I
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: don't know how long whoever is funding this is going
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: to be willing to put up with these losses. As
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: I mentioned before, some of the gas stations have already
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: increased their prices, and one theory was, well, you know,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: sometimes if you have like at the larger gases like
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: huah Wah or Sheets, where you have a large offering,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: you know, they're selling sandwiches and all sorts of other
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: stuff inside, you can lower the gas prices and you
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: can sustain a loss because what you're really making the
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: money on is then people going inside and buying a
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: sandwich and getting their cough be in whatever. But a
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: lot of these stations are just you know, the type
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: that you would see in neighborhoods where it's they don't
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: really even have a store, and they sell like a few
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: candy bars effectively in some gatorades or some Monster Energy drinks,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: but not a large convenience station. So it wouldn't make
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: sense from an economic perspective to sell the fuel a
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: loss just to bring people into the convenience store.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: The majority of them are not operating on that model,
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: so I don't know.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: There's also theoretically in New Jersey there's actually a law
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: against selling under the market price, because then, you know what,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: you don't want a big station coming in and undercutting
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: all of the local retailers and being able to sustain
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: that long enough to push all of them out of business.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: So that could be enforced at some point. But in
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: any case, very interesting, very mysterious, very noteworthy to me
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: that Trump is pushing this, and the White House is
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: pushing this from official White House.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Imagine celebrating three fifty a gallon, like, I'm sorry, that's crazy.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: That's the other I already have it eighty a gallon,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: like it was cheap. Can we put b five up
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: here just to show people like gas is still three
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: eighty seven a gallon? Nationally still five dollars and thirty
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: eight cents a gallon in California, all of those Red states,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: it's either four or five dollars a gallon. All when
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: I say read like in terms of the graphic if
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: you're just listening, which is all on the West Coast,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: in addition to New York, and to Illinois, where gas
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: all remains above four dollars a gallon. Nationally, the cheapest,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: some of the cheapest gas in the country is in
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Texas three forty two. It still not cheap, right, So
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: they're barely selling it in Pennsylvania for slightly below what
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: are slightly around what it is sold in Texas, and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania the price person in the entire state the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: average price is three ninety six accounts, so still right
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: around four dollars. What is that four or five months
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: now of almost four dollars a gallon gasoline? That's incredibly
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: detrimental to the overall pocketbook lasting on New Jersey, have
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: you experienced this where they don't let you pump your
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: own gas? So look, I'm usually you know, on the
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: on the side of small business and all that, but
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: I can't stand that. I got to be honest, It's like,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: it's like New Jersey and Oregon the only two states
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: where they make you do it. And I'm like, this
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: is madness. I just let people pump their own pass and.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: When people do things for me that, I'm.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: I totally agree. It's weird. Yeah, it's third world behavior,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: that's what they do. In India because everybody needs a job,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: you know. It's like that's what they do, which is fine.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: They have overpopulation problem over there. But this is New Jersey, Like,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I don't need somebody to pump my own gap. I
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: haven't electric cars. It don't matter anymore. I did recently
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: stop in New Jersey and I was like walking through
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: the parking lot and there's all those you know, those
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: attendants just standing there. I'm like, what do you guys
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: do all day? Just pump gas? Like this is crazy anyway,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: my personal soap.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Last thing here, just this new amount to the broader
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: geopolitical perspective. Put before Up on the screen, you can
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: see the Strategic Petroleum Reserve still at very very low levels,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: so we have not been able to refill it to
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: the extent that would be necessary to provide a large buffer.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: This is the sort of thing that the Iranians will
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: be paying close close attention to, because that is their
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: whole bet is that you know, the gas prices are
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: a big problem, that the oil market is a major
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: pain point for the US, for the global economy, and
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: we've been able to buffer the pain for the American
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: consumer somewhat through the strategic patrol and reserve, and also
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: by the way through China just randomly deciding that they're
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: going to import a lot less oil and we don't
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: know why, and we don't know how long that will last.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: So that's a big question mark that hangs over this
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: whole thing, whether they will continue bailing us out the
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: way that they have effectively been doing. But that is
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: when the Iranians, you know, when we talk about oh,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: they think Trump will bring blink first. They think that
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: the American you know, consumer pain and the global economic
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: pain will force concessions from the American side. This is
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: what they're looking at, and so this is an indication
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: that their logic has a lot to it, that Trump
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: sees this as a major, major political issue heading into
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: the midterm.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: This is where I wonder if the Iranians made a
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: big mistake because you know, Jay kind of let the game,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: you can let the cut of the bag interview when
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: he was like, look, we're just going to take these
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: few months to you know, restock terms. Well, he's kind
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: of right. I mean, in terms of the spr we
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: haven't done it. It would be a huge bowl signal
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: for the price of oil. If the government had to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: start refilling. But I would not put it past the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Trump administration just drain the spr as far as it
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: could possibly go, like the minimum to it. I know
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: they're at minimum operating levels, but like you know, that's
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: a guidance. I think they would just keep draining it, honestly,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: because what are they going to do. They're going to
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: keep to buy oil at four dollars a gallon to refill.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It would be a disaster. I mean, there'd be billions
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and billion, hundreds of billions of dollars is but basically
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: what it would cost it would be insane, and he would.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: And it would cost gas prices to go up, of course,
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: because obviously you're adding you're adding gemantic customer to the Yeah, Tomandpool,
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, I'm no expert on.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: The Strategic Patrolling Reserve, but what I've been reading is
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: that when you get down to it, there's a theory
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: of what the minimum operating as is. But yeah, it's
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: not like it's really been tested. But you start to
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: have some of the you know, the stuff you're getting
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: at the bottom, kind of like the dregs. It's mixed
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: in with other things. The salt caverns that it's stored in.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: If you don't have sufficient pressure, they can start to collapse.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: So it becomes a real question mark the closer you
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: get to that minimum operating level, because it could be
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: that you could draw down even.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: Further than that.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: It could be that they're wrong and you actually can't
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: draw down even that much without causing the NATO.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: What scares for getting down to that, Well, scares me
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the most is not it run, It's something else? Is that.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: That's that's why it exists. That's why you don't drain it,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Like is it because you just don't know? Like full blown?
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, who knows. Look at Russia. Russia stopped exporting
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: diesel all of a sudden. It's like, oh now we
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: got diesel prices that are going to go up. So
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Ukraine hits one wrong thing and boom, you know, a
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: bunch of stuff goes offline. China time one those that's
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: the predictables to North Korea, like who, no one has
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: any idea where like wherever the rest of the oil.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: It's what if China's spr is now very low they've
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: been you know, using all their own supply. Tomorrow they're like, okay,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: we have to buy again. I mean, all of a sudden,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: you know, you go buy fifty a gallon or something.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: Saudi striking in Yemen with the hooties say, you know what,
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: we're going to close the Babo man dab straight.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: And anything can happen. It could come from anywhere around
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: the world. I mean, and it could even be a
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: natural disaster, right like some pipeline or somewhere there's an
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: earthquake and it takes a hit like this is why
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the thing exists in the first place. And that is
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: when you should panic, because then you've got no slack
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: and you're looking at seven eight dollars.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: We're here, we're in hurricane season, all of those refineries
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: on the Gulf coast, all of that is and this
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: is the thing with Trump that we've talked about many
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: times before, is all of these problems are of his
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: own making. He has been actually tremendously lucky in terms
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: of not having a lot of like major outside forces
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: that have created crises. All the crises are just things
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: that he decided himself to do.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: And all we know from history is something is going
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: to happen like Katrina happened. It just happened, right, and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: then it becomes about your management Ukraine, it happened to Biden,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Covid happened to Trump like you have no you have
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: no control. And so when you create a crisis of
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: your own making and then an external crisis hit, that's
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: where if you look at the history books and things,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: that's when things start to get into collapse territory and
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: then it becomes point fingers, whose problem is this? Already
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Trump is already a very low approval ratings, and that's
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: when you have to start doing crazy shit like export
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: bands and you know, all kinds of absolute you know,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: government takeovers of the entire industry. And if you start,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: when you start to get to that, you wreck the
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: market for all time in the future, and it becomes
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: incredibly dangerous. This is literally why we have the SPR
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: in the first place, is to make sure we don't
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: have some crazy Middle Eastern shock that ends up what
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: was it like alternative license plate? Oh, if your number
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: ends an odd, you can fill up today. This is
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a nightmare. That's why so many people were so upset
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: by it. There you go, all right, let's get to
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham. Okay, turning now to Senator Lindsey Graham. Let's
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: go ahead and start with this. Put it up here
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: on the screen, his office announced early on Sunday morning.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: A statement from the office of Senator Graham on the
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: evening of Saturday, July elevens or Lindsay Graham passed away
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: from a brief in a sudden illness. Senator Graham's family
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: appreciates prayers at this time as for privacy during this
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: incredibly difficult period. A follow up from Senator Graham's office
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: indicates that he died from an aortic dissection after struggling
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: with a cardiovascular disease. So he was seventy one years
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: old and suffered a massive heart attack, which my medical
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: friends tell me is, you know, it's not unsurvivable, but
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: it's very, very difficult to survive.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: So obviously what I saw is if you aren't in
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: a hospital, very unlikely you're going to make it.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Exactly. It's obviously, you know, bad situation, indicative aging, diet, etcetera.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Should do some you know, your own research. You know,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: just in terms of seventy one years old, it seems young,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: but if you don't take care of yourself, this is
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: the type of things that can happen. But bigger picture,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: obviously what has done is kind of thrown a wrench
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: into domestic and international politics. Lindsey Graham, in my opinion,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: was one of the most effective political operators in Washington.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I am purely describing this from a analytical level. I
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: don't really appreciate how good he was at his job,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: but you do have to acknowledge that on his departure
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: in the middle of what was his heyday, there's no
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: there's no denying that. And I think, you know, if
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: we were to look and analyze his political entrepreneurship, his opportunism,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: what exactly and how he was able to move from
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen to twenty twenty six to probably become a
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: genuine whisperer to Donald Trump, That in and of itself
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: is the story I think of his life and of
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: his entire legacy really, which ultimately I mean Senator Graham
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: was probably the most authentic Neocon in Washington. A lot
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: of people are showing he wasn't rich, He didn't really
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: have a lot of money. He was one of the
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: poorest members of the United States Senate. He did it
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: for the love of the game, and I mean I
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: guess there's some respect in that. But what you can
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: see from his political career cheering on the Iraq War
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: John McCain is he never wavered on what he wanted.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: But what he did is he would utilize the political system,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the wins, whatever happened to be convenient within the GOP.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Very often he would back them up on a few
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: domestic things to give himself some credibility, not credibility, but
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: some space maneuver here. On foreign policy, he never wavered
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: on his foreign policy views. He did a bear Hag
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: strategy with Donald Trump, and ultimately he won. He is
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: the person who moved Donald Trump to where he wanted
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to be, which is remarkable considering where things actually started.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Here's where they were. Lindsey Graham twenty sixteen or twenty fifteen,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, talking about Donald Trump. Let's take a listen.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: What is your reaction to hearing what Donald Trump says?
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: And disgusted?
• 40:42
  Speaker 10: He's a jackass, he's becoming a jackass, and he shouldn't
• 40:48
  Speaker 10: be commander in chief. We think that he's unfit for office,
• 40:51
  Speaker 10: that he would be a terrible commander in chief. He
• 40:53
  Speaker 10: doesn't have the temperament or judgment.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: What I think he's doing is being a demagogue. Here's
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: what I think.
• 40:59
  Speaker 10: I think Donald Trump as a political car wreck, and
• 41:02
  Speaker 10: people slow down and look at the wreck, but they
• 41:04
  Speaker 10: eventually move on. At the end of the day, he
• 41:06
  Speaker 10: would be the most flawed nominee in the history of
• 41:09
  Speaker 10: the Republican Party. I think he's a wrecking ball for
• 41:12
  Speaker 10: the future of the Republican Party.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I think he's a kook. So that's twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: In fact, e let's put C three up here, his
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: infamous tweet, if we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and we will deserve it. That was May third, twenty sixteen. Eventually,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: he of course becomes not only one of Trump's biggest defenders,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: but one of his greatest allies in the United States Senate.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: And my friend Sara Mamari, let's put this up here
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: on the screen he wrote, and I summarized some of
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: this already. The triumph of Lindsay Graham. What he talks about,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: as popular should learn from the late centaer is his
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: extraordinary political ability. Again, is he never compromised on Iran,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: on Iraq, on Ukraine, on anything that was near and
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: dear to his neo conservative heart. But what he did
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: is within the system, is that he would grab Donald Trump.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: He would wrap himself in the veneer of it. He would,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: let's say, like things like the Save America Act. Lindsay
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: knew it was never going to pass and he didn't care.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: But what he decided to do is become one of
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: the chief proponents for the bill in Congress because he
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: knew it would give him credibility with Trump. He was
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: a major Cavanaugh defender. For example, he would defend Donald Trump,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: let's say, on impeachment or various other things. So he
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: would back Trump on Trump on domestic political things which
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: he didn't particularly care about. He would never compromise though,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: on immigration or on a few of these other things
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: which were very near and dear to his heart. And
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: then at the same time he would constantly use his
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: rhetoric and his closeness with Trump number one to get
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Trump to endorse him. But number two is he's always
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: whispering in his ear. He was like an evil genius.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: Is he would say things. Apparently his most common line
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: to Trump was, well that's something Obama would do, mister president,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: whatever came to it, run or you know on Russia.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: He was always using that ability to channel to Trump.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: And you know, he didn't have a family. This is
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: literally all he actually cared about is he was always
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: golf with Trump. He's only mar Lago. He's always calling
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: him on the phone late at night. It seems actually
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: that Trump is the very last person who we spoke
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: to before he died, and in which he was advocating
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: for more war with Iran. Yeah, which is kind of incredible.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: So that is ultimately I mean, you know, again, it's
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: not an endorsement whatsoever. It's just that there's no there's
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: no even thinking about Lindsay Graham without acknowledging he died
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: at the peak of his powers, which is a remarkable
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: story for a person like Trump who ran against Lindsey Graham,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: who didn't want allegedly his own vice president. Others were
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: his biggest opponents, supposedly in the United States Senate. But
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: this was Lindsay's time.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: At the peak of his power, but also at a
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: time when he got what he wanted with the Iran
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: war and also got to see what a disaster that
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: policy was. Because you're right, I think he was ideologically
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: committed neo con I saw a Twitter joke that was like,
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: you know, somebody in Masada right now the leading two
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: terabytes of compromont that they have. Maybe they had it,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: but no, he was in it for he was committed.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: And you see all of everyone from Netna down to
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: Ben Gevie lamenting the loss of this great friend to Israel,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: which I think is absolutely true.
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: You know, this is a man.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: Who supported and pushed for the Iraq war, saw what
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: a disaster that was. I still don't think that he
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: would say it was the wrong thing to do. He
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: never never learned from how many how much of a
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: disaster the foreign policy that he loved and that he
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: advocated for, how consistently disastrous it was for the world,
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: first and foremost for the countries that we were attacking,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: but also for the US. And that has never been
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: more abundantly clear than right now, where we got our
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: ass kicked by a middle rate power that we'd had
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: sanctioned for decades, who now is a regional hedgemon thanks
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: to the very policy that Lindsey Graham pushed, hoping to
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: project American and power and have more say over the
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Middle East.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: So, in spite of.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: All of the facts, and all of the pain and
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: all of the destruction. He never took that in. He
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: never adjusted one iota to the reality. And so there's
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: a kind of an incredible Fox clip coming around, which
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: is there going around which they're talking about Lindsey Graham
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: and his legacy blah blah blah, and they have to
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: interrupt that to announce new bombings.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Of Irun Noah could not.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: Be more appropriate for who this man was, what his
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: ideological project was, and how even by his own conception
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: of like pursuing American exceptionalist and power in the world,
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: it was an utter and complete disaster. Let's put C
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: six up on the screen because it has some pretty
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: remarkable quotes here about the you know, the final hours
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: for Lindsay Graham. It says a person who spoke with
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Graham shortly afterwards said the Center, complaining he was feeling unwell.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: This is after he had just gotten back from this
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: trip to you where he was touring a drone factory.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: I think the last photo of him alive of of
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: him in Ukraine holding this drone. When the person urged
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: him to seek medical attention, immediately said he would do
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: it after his Sunday morning appearance on NBC's Meet the Press.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: He then joked, I can't die now. I still need
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: to do the Russia sanctions, get Iron sorted out, and
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: do Israeli Saudi normalization. And so we focused a lot,
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: obviously with Graham pushing for the Iran war and being
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: able to be, you know, part of this successful propaganda
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: effort to push Trump in that direction. All of the
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: ways that he you know, endeared himself to Trump and
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: going on golf trips with him and backing.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: Him up at key moments, etc. Paying off.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: But we don't talk enough too about how probably influentially
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: he's been on the Ukraine policy as well, where Trump
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: during the campaign very skeptical, really wanting to cut some
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: sort of deal and get out of this thing. Well,
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: we're not out of this thing, you know, continues in
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: the direction that Lindsey Graham would want it to go.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: With Trump even acknowledged that on CNN Live reacting. Let's
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: take a listen c five.
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: Well, we disagreed a little bit, but overall, you know,
• 47:08
  Speaker 6: I'm a big Israel person. He was certainly that I
• 47:15
  Speaker 6: wanted to see the war with Ukraine, and very quickly
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: I think he was more into you know, keeping it going. Frankly,
• 47:23
  Speaker 6: he was very very miliant having to do with that.
• 47:26
  Speaker 6: But I was from the standpoint of twenty five thousand
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: people dying every month. I didn't like that, and he
• 47:36
  Speaker 6: was very much He was a very strong military person,
• 47:38
  Speaker 6: so am I. But I think we used it a
• 47:41
  Speaker 6: little bit differently. We probably had a little bit of
• 47:43
  Speaker 6: a different attitude, but we got along on it. Essentially
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: we agreed, and essentially we agreed in almost everything.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: And to the point about Graham's influence, guess what, Trump
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: greenlit those Ukrainian deep strikes into Russia. That's why Lindsay
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: was over there. That was literally his dying thing. His
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: last thing that he did was go to Ukraine to
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: assure them that he was going to convince Trump to
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: allow more deep strikes into Russia. You can support that,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: not support that. You cannot say at the very least
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: that he wasn't incredibly influential in terms of the policy
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: which Trump originally said. And to your point, I mean, yeah,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: I always find it hard. You know, when somebody dies,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: especially you don't like someone, It's like, okay, how do
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: you handle this? You're not wrong, But the story of Washington.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: For my lifetime has been that the neo cons led
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: the United States into the most disastrous war in American history,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: only to then have a rising tide an election of
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: a candidate and a president who said explicitly that war
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: was a disaster, who somehow then topped that by launching
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: the United States into a war which is also as disastrous,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: potentially even more so strategically than the current war that
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: we're in right now. How did that happen? He is
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: a central character ultimately to that story. Yeah, I mean,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: it's like my entire feed after he died, Zelenski, bb Ben, givey,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: I think we have some that C nine. Let's put
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: the up him. He got you know, Ben Gavier, you
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: got Zelenski, you got a pack, you got you know,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: all of these, in my opinion, odious characters in American
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: politics and American influence. And meanwhile, it's like every European
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: leader that ever lived is like, wow, you know, the
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: chairman of Germany or whatever. It's like, Oh, we're gonna
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: miss Lindsay. I'm like, anybody from South Carolina, I'm gonna
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: miss this guy. I'm like, it's pretty obvious where his
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: entire interests and focus was. I don't think he particularly
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: cared about his own state. I really genuinely think he
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: saw his legacy as protecting whatever he saw as you know,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: as Europe or Israel or you know whatever, all these places,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: like deeply committed to this worldview, which despite Libya, despite
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: a Rock, despite Syria, despite any of these places, his
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: always his excuse was we didn't go far enough. That's
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: what it always came down to with him. And I
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: mean he got what he wanted, as you said, just
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: like we did after Iraq. If anything, his real project
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: today was continuing to push us even more so to
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: where we are. And you know, you could say, oh,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: his death is a major blow to the neo conservatives.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: I just agree. Actually, I think he will be used
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: as a martyr. In this current moment. Trump is processing
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: his death, you know, I think in the most Trumpian way.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Don't we have that thought of him going after him
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: a little bit? Yeah, let's take a listen to C
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: fifteen of Donald Trump kind of trashing him a little bit.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Actually this morning on Fox and Friends.
• 50:26
  Speaker 9: He was totally against me. I mean, he was fighting me,
• 50:29
  Speaker 9: he said. He used me as the example because I
• 50:31
  Speaker 9: was leading in the polls by a lot, and he said,
• 50:34
  Speaker 9: I'll get you in South Carolina. I'm going to get
• 50:37
  Speaker 9: you to South Carolina. That didn't work out too well.
• 50:39
  Speaker 9: I joke about it and it was like it was amazing. Actually, well,
• 50:43
  Speaker 9: the whole thing was amazing. Hey, the whole career was amazing.
• 50:47
  Speaker 9: But Lindsay was a big part of it. Because once
• 50:49
  Speaker 9: that ended, he'd left the Raise, and once that ended,
• 50:53
  Speaker 9: I became really good friends with him.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Right, So, once that ended, I became very good friends
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: with him. But again to just talk here about Trump
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: about Lindsey. You know, Trump became the Lindsay Graham president
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. He really did. And I
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: mean it's their most remarkable political story I think in
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: maybe not ever, but in modern history for sure, in
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: terms of how you get elected and then what you
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: end up doing. And actually Trump gave us a very
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: good preview. Do we have that image of Donald Trump
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: that he posted on Trump True Social this morning where
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: he said, so sad President DJT. Here is Lindsay Graham,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: either at Bedminster or at mar Lago, who is in
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: a polo shirt, wearing a Make Iran Great Again hat
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: and with a piece of cardboard that seems to be
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: from Wikipedia where it shows Trump and it says acting
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: President of Venezuela that he obviously like think about the
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: mechanics here. He had to get a custom make Iran
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: great Again hat. He had to either go or to staff,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: had to go to Kinko's and create this mohotoshop image.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: And all of this is playing at some sort of
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: luncheon or whatever he's doing here at Marlago. This is
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: an insight into how he was able to influence Donald
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Trump and he won. He used the venice, of course,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: cheered on the Venezuela thing, cheered on make it Ron
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: great again. That is how he ended up winning this
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: entire presidency.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, Rubio is a very similar figure, another opponent
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: of Trump, you know, aggressively, they were like challenging each
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: other based on their manhood, size and whatever and the
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: primary and now here he is sectuary of state and
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: got what he wanted with Venezuela, and it's very much yeah,
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: I might be very likely to get what he wants
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: with regard to Cuba. All it required was for them
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: to abandon any other principle that they ever had in
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: terms of like moral character.
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: Integrity and suck up to this.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: Guy and both of them for completely odious ends that
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: they were pursuing. You know, I want to play C eight,
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: which just a reminder of how like it's I appreciate
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Soccers and Allison, I think is true of how effective
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: he was in getting what he wanted from Trump and
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: persuading Trump to pursue this hardline neo coon path. I
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: think it's also worth, you know, judging the nature of
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: that political project. And so Blue Georgia put together a
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: compilation of some of the utterly disgusting and you know,
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: sociopathic things that Lindsey Graham has said about his own
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: ideology and the ends that he was pursuing.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: Let's take a listen to that.
• 53:22
  Speaker 10: America first is to kill people who wish us ill.
• 53:26
  Speaker 10: I feel good about the Republican Party. We're killing all
• 53:29
  Speaker 10: the right people, and we're cutting your Texas. We've run
• 53:32
  Speaker 10: out of bombs. We didn't run out of bombs in
• 53:34
  Speaker 10: World War Two. You just wait to see what comes
• 53:36
  Speaker 10: in the next two weeks. We're gonna blow the hell
• 53:39
  Speaker 10: out of these people. We're in a religious war here.
• 53:41
  Speaker 10: I am with Israel. Do whatever the hell you have
• 53:44
  Speaker 10: to do to defend yourself.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Level of the place.
• 53:46
  Speaker 10: Why is it okay for America to not to to
• 53:49
  Speaker 10: drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end
• 53:53
  Speaker 10: their existential threat war?
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Why was it okay for us to do that?
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: I thought it was okay to Israel do whatever you
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: have to do.
• 54:00
  Speaker 10: To survive as a Jewish state.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: Aron's going to have a choice in two to three weeks.
• 54:05
  Speaker 10: You either do a deal where you get out of
• 54:06
  Speaker 10: the business you're in, or We're going to blow your
• 54:10
  Speaker 10: stuff up. Our friends in Israel surrounded by people that
• 54:12
  Speaker 10: want to kill them, destroy them, a second Holocaust in
• 54:16
  Speaker 10: the making. What is the proportional response to people want
• 54:19
  Speaker 10: to kill.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: You and your family.
• 54:21
  Speaker 10: They're running out of ammunition in Israel. We have to
• 54:24
  Speaker 10: help our friends. I go back to South Carolina. I'm
• 54:27
  Speaker 10: asking them to send their sons and daughters over to
• 54:29
  Speaker 10: the Mid East to our friends in Israel.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: God bless you.
• 54:32
  Speaker 10: I'm with you in every way. To all the anti Seminites,
• 54:35
  Speaker 10: to all the isolationists, forget it. I'm not with you.
• 54:38
  Speaker 10: I'm with Israel. I will be with Israel to our
• 54:40
  Speaker 10: dying day. There's no better partner on the planet.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Than Israel. God Bless is right. We should move all
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: our stuff to Israel.
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: Oh, he didn't lie. He was with Israel till his
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: dying day.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: In this past year, he's been back and forth to
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Ukraine and Israel, probably spending more time in this country
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: than he has been in South Carolina. Wouldn't doubt that
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: contributed to the negative health outcomes. It's very hard on you,
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: certainly at a certain age, but you know, this is
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: this is what he was pursuing and what he's been
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: fairly successful at pursuing, and now he gets to see
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: the wreckage. Not that I think it caused him to
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: question for a second the policy that he would he
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: would be you know, if you live for another five years,
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: he'd be the one pushing us through war with Turkey
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: or whatever would be would be next. So I don't
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: think that it was causing him to reckon at all.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: With what a monstrous disaster this ideology has right amount.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: And this is more of a mainstream media thing because
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: like I get it, you know, one of the things
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: like what's one of the what's one of the worst
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: things Trump did recently? And I know this is like
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: might be selective that Rob Reiner post, it was like, oh,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: that's horrible, right, So, like you don't want to piss
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: on someone's grave immediately after they die. But there is
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: like a mainstream media like hay Geography. Remember when Dick
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Cheney died and they were like, oh, Dick Chene he
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: was a protector of democracy. I'm like democracy, Like, okay, look,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: we can just say the guy died. Let's leave it
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: at that. But then whenever it comes to discussion of legacy,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: if you're only going to highlight one thing, it's like, well,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: you got to highlight the rest too. And that's how
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: I feel about Lindsay Graham. Like again, I don't want
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: to disparage too much, and like I get it's distasteful,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: but yeah, you take a look at that. Lindsey Graham
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: reveled in death who he would define as America's enemies.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: I think it killed a lot of Americans and it
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: killed a lot of foreigners too. So that's ideology. And
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: you know, that really was a bedrock like belief of
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: his that that was a good. Ultimately, I dramatically disagree
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: with that. And there's no assessing him without There's no
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: assessing him period without looking at that, and you have
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: all these Democratic senators and others who were posting selfies
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: of him with him and Zelensky being like, oh, he
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: was such a champion for democracy. And that's part of why,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: you know, to assess Lindsay. He is the ultimate Washington creature.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: I met him a couple of times. Hey is the
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: nicest guy. Everybody has a story about how funny he is,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: how disarming he is. I would disagree with him, you know,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: always just agree to disagree or something like that, and
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: everybody he's got a story like that, But that doesn't
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: mean that what he was saying is good, Like he
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: used those powers for bad.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: I think when you're talking about a powerful person, you
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: have to be honest about their legacy and not pull punches.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: Because it's important that we set the record. You know,
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: this will be, you know, one of the last times
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: we think about or talk about Lindsay Gram. It's important
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: to set the record of what this man's life was
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: actually dedicated to. And you know, certainly playing him in
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: his own words with regard to the impact on Trump,
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: I just have to There was one clip of him
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: almost seeming to like get choked up talking about Lindsey Graham,
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: which is not he barely.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: Cares about his own son.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't even go to his own son's wedding.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: True, true, So I mean I think he was genuinely
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: close to him.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: But also Trump is such a.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: Narcissist, which is what you can see with him posting
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: that Lindsay Graham holding up you know, the Trump picture,
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: that Trump clearly is thinking about his own mortality a lot.
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: Lindsay is a decade younger than he is, was a
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: decade younger than he is, and part of I think
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: how he got persuaded to go to war with Iran
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: was about what is the legacy that you're going to
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: leave behind? And he's not going to be the one
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: who wants to be here to deal with the fallout
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: from it. So I think it probably feeds into that
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: sense of his own mortality as natural. Anytime someone who's
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: close to you dies that you start contemplating those things
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: more so, it wouldn't be surprised, It would not surprise
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: me if it just further fuels his sense of his
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: limited time and how much he wants to leave his
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: mark on this town and on the world.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, they're very securely a good thing.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: They're both very similar in their late seventies. Obviously Lindsay
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: was is not as obese, but he was like, you know,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: he's not like working out. Obviously, he was seventy one.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: He flew all over the world. He was totally dedicated
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: to his work, didn't sleep a lot, a total creature
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: of politics. Trump looks at that and he's like, wait,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: I could be like that. Yeah, no, serious as an
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: eighty nights and look at if you look at Lindsey Graham,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: you could actually see his degradation over the years in
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: terms of his like his face looks more haggard. That's
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: how cardiovascular disease, hard disease works. So Trump and any
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: older person, Sam Neil, we were talking about that before
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: the shit he died today. He's seventy eight. He's younger
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: than Trump. So you know, once you start out to
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: that age, a lot of people, you know, start dying,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: especially who are old, who are only obsessed with themselves,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: who are you know, totally dedicated to the work of politics.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: I mean the fact that one of the very last
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: things that Lindsay Graham ever said was I can't die
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: now because I have to go do X Y and
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: z and not you know, hang out with my wife
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: or my children or something that's I just don't want
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: to go out that way I can put it. I
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: could put it like that. And then now what you
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: also see, you know, without Trump is South Carolina. I
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: believe Lindsay Graham was running for his fifth term, which
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: is crazy, his fifth term, a long history of senators
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: from South Carolina dying from old age in office, which
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: that's your business, I guess. And now we have, like
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: the race to replace him will just be, you know,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: the grifting race for the age. So let's put C
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: ten up here on the screen. The disgraced gubernatorial former
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: congress candidate, former Congresswoman Nancy Mace says, just when I
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Scott Bessent,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: the Treasury secretary. Let's put see eleven up here on
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: the screen. Apparently as a native son of South Carolina
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: who has maintained a house there during Washington, he's been
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: fielding calls they want him to run potentially even though
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: he's a Treasury secretary. And so you had at one.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: Pointm actually did succeed strom Thurman.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: I know that was Yeah, that's my refen who died
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: of How old was strom is like one hundred and
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: two something when he died something like that. Yeah, and
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: then we found out about his black daughter after he died.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: If I'm doing my math correctly about anyway, if you
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: don't know who strom Thurman is, he was. He was
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: a segrege. He like did the filibuster against the segregation. Yeah.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: Anyways, I went to Clemson.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: There were buildings still like named after him because I
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: think grandson was at school there when I was there too. Anyway, Yes, okay,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: I digress.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: I met someone here in Washington once, the older person.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: They're like, I came to work from the Senate. I
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: was like, oh for who oh for a Southern senator.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: I was like, well, which one. I was like, oh okay,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: and then I did the math in terms of the
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: year and I was like sixty one. Huh. Interesting nice
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: start there, Yeah.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 6: Interesting.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: So anyways, zooming out the race to replace Lindsay Graham,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: it will be a Titanic one. I'm gonna call it.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: I'm calling Nikki Haley, that's my call. I think she's
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: gonna make a deal with Trump. Trump has said I
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: want to, He said I have somebody in mind. Already
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: she's been stucking up to him on Iran. She's going
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: to have more money than humanly possible. That would be
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: a natural place I think for her to end up.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: The only reason she never did it was because those
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: seats are really, really hard to get, and so I
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: could see, I could.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: See you don't think Scott Bessant, Well.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Here's the rate and reason Lindsay just died. It's gonna
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: be very hot. What's fifty to fifty right there in
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: the Senate McConnell is God knows what is up with him.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: If you replace Scott Bessant, you got to get a confirmation.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Is a single Democrat going to vote for confirmation? This
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: is part of the reason why no member of the
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: South Carolina delegation is going to get it from the
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: House of Representatives because they can't afford the margin.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they talked about.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: So what happens is the governor nominate someone and then
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: they have a special primary election to figure out who
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: the nominee is going to be because they've already had
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: the primaries Instagram obviously one there's a Democrat, a woman
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: I care remember a name right now who also one,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: So she will remain the Democratic nominee, and now you
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: have to have a special primary to figure out who
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: is going to be the Republican who will stand for
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: election in the fall. Joe Wilson, who is the like, yeah,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: who's young sprite from Chicus seventy eight, not even close
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: to the oldest person in the House of Representatives. Anyway,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: he was being contemplated, but then he seemed to say, hey,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: we shouldn't do this because we got to protect our
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: majority in the House, which is extremely slim at this point.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: This also, it does have huge repercussions for what the
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: Senate will be able to get anything. This Trump's fantasy
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: give the Save America Act not going to happen because
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: you've got Mitch McConnell maybe alive, but certainly not in
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: the Senate voting. I don't know we'll get to that.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: Like I said in a moment, Lindsey Graham now dead.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: So you have no one in that seat you have,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: And then you've got a couple of people Tom Tillis,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: Cassidy who u in uh uh uh not foon, I'm
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: at Cornyn down in Texas. Who are you know their
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: primary primary down care They don't care, so they can
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: do whatever they want. Now the on the other side,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: you do have John Fetterman, who also does whatever he wants,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: so maybe you could get him for some things. But no,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: their their majority in the Senate is sort of de
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: facto gone at.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: This it's a it's a very That's part of the
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: reason why with Besson, i mean, Treasure Secretary such an
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: important position, why would they gear up for confirmation right there?
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: You know, there was that other you remember, I think
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: I was off that whole Alito resigning thing, which might
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: have been happening. Yeah, it's not gonna happen now because
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: you can have that confirmation battle's he's got to wait
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: till the next He.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: Should have gone with the NPR announcement.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: No, I'm dead serious. If he had, let well, we
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have time.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: But now, I mean, now, if the Senate goes blue,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: you're going to see there are a lot of guys
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: like Clarence Thomas and all those people. You better hope
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: nothing happens to them.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: If you're they were talking about doing a reconciliation bill
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: for the Save America Act because it only requires a
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: majority vote. But now you don't even you can't even
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: count on that. So I don't even if they get
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: rid of the filibuster at this point that there's no
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: guarantee that you're going to be able to cobble together
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: a majority for literally anything, because some of these guys
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: that Trump went against Gornyon at all would love to
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: stick it to them and get some vengeance for being
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: for losing their political powers.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this really does have like some serious serious implications
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: here in Washington, even in terms of like funding the
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: government ICE, I mean, DHS, I mean, who knows, right,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Like there's all kinds of crazy stuff that happens. McConnell
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: proof of life. Maybe let's put see thirteen up here
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: on the screen. Here it is. Here's a photo released yesterday.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: Leave this up for a good but let's take a
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: look at.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Let's analyze the picture. So here is Senator Mitch McConnell.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: It's very nice to see his wife by his side
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: after she took from China trip to China two days
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: after he went to the hospital. I joked that it's
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: like a story out of the notebook. It's the love
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: affair that you like to see two elderly people separated
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: by continents. You can just feel the passion. What you
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: can see in this photo is bottom left very strategically
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: places that newspaper so you can see the modern day newspaper.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: So when we see Mitch, he's smiling kind of, he's
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: got his glass, his eyes are open. The what is
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: that the left hand? There a lot of bruising there
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: on the left hand, usually indicative of an ivy.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: Very trump looking very trump.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: And we'll all remember the photo of the Queen from
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: like the day before that she died, where she also
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: had a lot of the bruising there. Usually that's where
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: they place an ivy. So obviously in a hospital bed.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: I recognize that those types of chairs from my time
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: when my wife was giving birth. So okay, so that's
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: where Mitch is. He's propped up there on a pillow.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: Now let's keep in mind nothing of him talking, but
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: he disappear to be sent in semi or whatever. His
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: eyes are open, that's what we know. And his wife
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: is there by side. I mean, it's all we can
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: that's all we can assess from this photo, right, is
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: that he is alive.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, maybe I don't like Also, it's the age
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: of AI and you accept us just to accept a
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: photo at face value, like, oh, see.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: The newspaper here. I mean, it's just it's too much.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: It is too much, and then it's too much that
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: they have to do this right.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: And so if you if you actually want a proof
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: of life, all these Republicans are Oh I talked to
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: Misch McConnell for twenty minutes. He's great a problem. Okay, Well,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: then talk to someone who's not a Republican like talk
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: to in his refer call up many Democratic friends in
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: the Senate, you know, I mean, someone who might have
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: a little more credibility to vouch for what's going on here.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: And then we get this statement from him, puts up
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: on this screen.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: I'll read this.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: It's length. I'm sorry, but let me read this whole
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: thing just so. I don't, you know, don't paraphrase in
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: a way that's that doesn't fully capture all of the
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: sentiments expressed here to my fellow Kentuckians. And this was
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: put out alongside that photo when you elected me to
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: seventh term, made me our Commonwew's longest serving center. You
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: did so trusting I keep showing up to fight for
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: you every day over the past several weeks, Elaine and
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: I have appreciated both your well wishes and your honest
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: questions about what was keeping me away from the Senate.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: You all know how folks of my generation often hesitate
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older, even
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: in the public eye. I feel that same instinct. I
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: can't help it. Keep in mind, guys, he has been
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: gone for a month. A month we have heard nothing.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: This is all we've gotten is this one photo.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: In this statement.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, I've had more than my
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: share of experience with physical vulnerability. Surviving childhood polio meant
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: spending my entire life with mobility challenges. This is reminding
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: me very much of the Joe Biden stutter discourse. They
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: haven't exactly gotten easier to manage with age, and last
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: month I took a fall which landed me in the hospital.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: My doctors confirmed I didn't break any bones or suffer
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: a concussion. I did not have a heart or a stroke.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: I don't have any tumors or hamorrhages. But I was
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital or receiving
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: excellent care. Over the past several weeks, I've also had
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: Let me just pause there.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: He's claiming that a fall, a mild fall that did
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: not cause a concussion, that was not caused by a
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: heart attack or stroke, that he doesn't have any tumors
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: or hemorrhages, but somehow left him unconscious but didn't cause
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: a concussion, is what led to him being hospitalized for
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: a month. And by the way, they're still not releasing
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: him and letting him go. So what exactly happened with
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: this alleged fall that was so severe that all you
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: can do is put out this photo and.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: Have to be in the hospital for a month.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: Allow me to continue, he says, I can assure you
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: that I've been a good patient and my age.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 3: I tend to do what my doctors told me to do.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: I've submitted to every test they can think of to
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: help figure out what caused this incident. I'm continuing to
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: do everything that asked to speed my recovery. In fact,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: with signs of continued progress, I've been able to move
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: from hospital care to a rehabilitation center where I'll keep
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: regaining my strength. As much as it frustrates me, this
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: process takes time, and on the advice of my doctors,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: I will not be able to return to the Senate
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: floor to vote quite yet.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: Rest assured.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: In the meantime, I'm not taking a break from the
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: Senate business that matters to you. I've been working closely
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: with my legislative staff on current issues, with my Kentucky team,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: who helped me provide timely constituent services across our commonwealth.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: Blah blah blah.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: Your right to expect your representatives to work hard for you,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. I'll keep working hard to get
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: back on the Senate floor as soon as possible. Keep
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: you posted on the progress of my recovery. N til then,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: So grateful for your prayers and well wishes. This still
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: makes absolutely no sense, Occer. So if you no concussion
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: and no stroke, no problem, everything's good. Why are you
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: still in the hospital. Yes, Why don't we have a video?
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: Why can't you talk to reporters? Like, what is going
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: on here? Why do we just get this one photo well,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: which the newspaper.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: What is also weird is remember the EMS call had
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: set cardiac arrest. That's part of the reason a lot
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: of people are like oh my god, it might be dead.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: Because Ryan had looked up the status like if you
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: have cardiac arrest and again CPR and they're coming to
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: get you. You're eighty four years old at your home,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: you have like a two percent survival rate. So this
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: it does make a little bit more sense now that
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: he didn't suffer a heart attack, at least according to him,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: he suffered a fall. Now that said fall is one
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: of the leading causes of death for people who are
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: his age, so it's not uncommon a lot of hip breaking.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: It leads to rapid deterioration. But he's pairing it here
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: with the mild pneumonia. I mean, I feel insane even
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: talking about this. You're eighty four years old. This is bonkers. Like,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: you're eighty four, you're falling. You've had multiple incidents where
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: you can't speak on cameraide he literally freeze up completely.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: You're spending weeks in the if you have to spend
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: weeks in the hospital, weeks in the hospital because of
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: your old age, How can you be a public servant?
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: How could you run again? You know? And he say, oh,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: I retired, Why didn't Sorry, I'm retiring at the end
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: of chance leave now like you can't, you're not doing
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: your job. Allegedly, you're talking your staff. You've been multiple
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: weeks here in the hospital. I mean, it's just did
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: you hear end up hearing by the remember that missing
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: congressman we found out what happened? Oh yeah, he had depression.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: Depression yeah mm hmm and again month, you know, yeah, months.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: And by the way, he is not telling the truth either,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: because you're not hospitalized for months with depression without something very.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: Severe, maybe had a schizophrenic break line, which in either case,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. You got to go, dude. You can't be
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: taken three and a half months off work.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: You are usually kept if you are hospitalized with mental
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: illness for months at a time, it means you are
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: risk to yourself or others. Right, So yeah, I mean
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: we're definitely not getting the straight story there, and we're
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: definitely not.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 3: Getting the straight story here.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: And the reason why people were and still are very
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: much speculating that he, you know, maybe not there at
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: all at this point, is that they would want to
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: drag out the process past I think it's August third,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: because if he's you know, out of the Senate or
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: dead before August third, then they have to call a
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: special election. Oh and then Tom's Massy might run and
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: that could cause some problems for them because if he
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: runs as a Republican, he could win the nomination and
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: then that's another senator that Trump can't control. Or if
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: he runs as an independent, then he could serve as
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: a spoiler. So that was the reason why there would
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: be some motivation to cover up the reality of what
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: is going on here. But look, I mean, it's yeah,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: we're being lied to. It's in your face. They're not
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: giving the whole story. What he's saying doesn't make sense.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: And I don't think anyone should be convinced of anything
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: from this photo that they're putting, the single singular photo
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: that they are putting out at this point, the.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: Fact that they have to put the photo out in
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: and of itself. We're in crazy town, you know when
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: you're I'm eighty four. I just fell. Don't worry about it.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: I'm totally fine. But I've spent here weeks in the hospital.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: I need to spend an unspecified amount of time more
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: in the hospital, but more how cleared too? And this
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: was something did you see Lauren Bobert reacting to that?
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: Tom Keane guy.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: She was kissed. She was like, oh, she was disgusted.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: She was absolutely discussed, and she was like, you had
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 2: to be out for months because you're a little sad.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: She went.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: But she made a point and she was like, this
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: job is not that hard, Like we can roll you
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: in the back.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 3: Doors over vote.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: And you leave right. You can make it a lot,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: you can do a lot more with it. But if
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: you're just doing the bare minimum, it takes you like
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: ten minutes a day, it's really not that big a deal.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: You can't do that. You can't do that. That tells
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: you how dire the situation is. That you can't even
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: roll his wheelchair in the back door to cast a
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: vote and roll.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 3: Him back out. He is not in a condition even
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: to do that.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember reading some book where they used to
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: do that. There was some senator who was basically on
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: his deathbed and they forced him to come vote, and
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: they never he never forgave the whipper snapper who forced
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: him to come vote, like from his deathbed. Yeah, where
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: they had to, but literally they wheeled him in from
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: his hospital bed or from his hotel room or something
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: where he was hold up. He voted and then he
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: went back. But that and that's apparently the norm.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: Remember Feinstein like voted and then hours later died, didn't
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: she crazy?
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah? And what did Amy Klovich was like just fot, yes, okay,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: I can't live like this.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 10: H