Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 2/20/26: Epstein Billionaire Wexner Drops BOMBSHELLS, Iran War LOOMS, Dem Tea Party Gains Steam

Transcript

2/20/26: Epstein Billionaire Wexner Drops BOMBSHELLS, Iran War LOOMS, Dem Tea Party Gains Steam · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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0:30
Speaker 2: Good morning, everybody, Happy Friday. How goes it?
0:33
Speaker 3: It goes excellent, it goes Yes, we got a really
0:37
Speaker 3: busy show today, don't we.
0:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think Emily's going to be joining us.
0:41
Speaker 2: She just was having like some boomer computer issues, so
0:44
Speaker 2: we'll let her work that out.
0:45
Speaker 5: She can.
0:46
Speaker 4: She can jump on whenever she gets that figured out.
0:48
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, we're all watching to see whether
0:50
Speaker 2: we're going to be at war with Ron over the
0:53
Speaker 2: weekend or next week, or what exactly is going on there.
0:56
Speaker 2: Ryan's got some new reporting about how Democrats are approaching
0:59
Speaker 2: all of this. And you know, I would say you'll
1:02
Speaker 2: be disappointed, but I think actually people probably expect the
1:05
Speaker 2: way that Democrats are by and large elected official democrats
1:08
Speaker 2: or buy and large approaching the possibility of a major
1:11
Speaker 2: war with Iran.
1:12
Speaker 6: Yeah, nobody can be disappointed anymore. Yeah, you have to
1:16
Speaker 6: have hopes and expectations to be disappointed.
1:19
Speaker 4: Yes, good point, excellent, high hopes. We take a look
1:24
Speaker 4: at that.
1:24
Speaker 3: We got a Wall Street Journal article on that right here,
1:27
Speaker 3: and I was breaking this morning. Trump weighs initial limited
1:30
Speaker 3: strike to force Iran into nuclear deal. President Trump is
1:35
Speaker 3: way an initial strike to force it to Me's demands,
1:37
Speaker 3: a first step that would be designed to pressure Tehran
1:39
Speaker 3: into an agreement, but fall short of a full scale
1:42
Speaker 3: attack that inspire a major retaliation. The opening assault, if authorized,
1:47
Speaker 3: could come within days, would target a few military or
1:50
Speaker 3: government sites. People familiar with the matter said, if Iran
1:53
Speaker 3: still refuse to comply with Trump's directive to end its
1:56
Speaker 3: nuclear enrichment, the US would respond with a broad campaign
1:59
Speaker 3: against regime facilities. So what do we make of this,
2:03
Speaker 3: this deal making, you know, strike first, deal later?
2:07
Speaker 2: Well, the and what's different about this reporting is prior
2:11
Speaker 2: to this, we'd been Obviously, we can see all of
2:13
Speaker 2: the military equipment that is being amassed in the region,
2:17
Speaker 2: you know, the largest amount since the Iraq War, So
2:20
Speaker 2: everyone can see that. A bunch of the leaks to
2:23
Speaker 2: Barack Ravied and others were saying, hey, they're actually preparing
2:26
Speaker 2: for this to be much larger than the Twelve Days War,
2:28
Speaker 2: potentially weeks long engagement. Iran also is in a place
2:32
Speaker 2: where they've kind of realized like, hey, we did the
2:34
Speaker 2: kind of choreographed like we're going to hit you back,
2:37
Speaker 2: but not really that obviously didn't work because we're still
2:40
Speaker 2: being threatened. So they're in a very different place in
2:43
Speaker 2: terms of how they're tactically and strategically thinking about this.
2:46
Speaker 2: And you know the problem with this, I mean outside
2:48
Speaker 2: of obviously like any act of war is illegal both
2:51
Speaker 2: by our own laws and by international law, et cetera.
2:54
Speaker 2: But the problem with this tactically too is if you
2:57
Speaker 2: think that some sort of tactical strike on Iran is
3:00
Speaker 2: going to help coerce them at the negotiating table, the
3:03
Speaker 2: reality is the exact opposite. They're going to walk away
3:06
Speaker 2: from the negotiating table, which this report lays out by
3:09
Speaker 2: the way, if you hit them in any way, they're
3:12
Speaker 2: hoping that attacks from the US are going to create
3:15
Speaker 2: some sort of rally on the flag, like nationalistic fervor
3:18
Speaker 2: to help reglue a country that has in some ways
3:22
Speaker 2: come apart over the past two months, and that they'll
3:25
Speaker 2: be in a stronger position in terms of like the
3:27
Speaker 2: government's solidity. So this plan, like in my opinion, all
3:31
Speaker 2: of the other plans, makes no sense, especially when I
3:35
Speaker 2: still don't even know what Trump is really actually trying
3:39
Speaker 2: to accomplish here.
3:41
Speaker 6: Yes, exactly, And it's a miscalculation probably in the sense
3:45
Speaker 6: that the previous moderates who had urged the kind of
3:50
Speaker 6: little tiffer tat that you talked about them carrying out
3:55
Speaker 6: in both the Twelve Day War and also in back
3:57
Speaker 6: in January when they first struck all the people who
4:00
Speaker 6: who advocated that have either been pushed out or killed
4:03
Speaker 6: by the by the by the actual attacks, and so
4:06
Speaker 6: they've been replaced by people who were warning at the
4:08
Speaker 6: time that if we don't hit hard, we're just inviting
4:12
Speaker 6: further and endless attacks. So if Trump comes in with
4:17
Speaker 6: what he thinks is like a little gentle tap to
4:21
Speaker 6: like nudge them to some to nudge them at the
4:24
Speaker 6: negotiating table, which is like just an absurd concept to
4:27
Speaker 6: begin with. But let's let's say that Trump tries that
4:30
Speaker 6: they don't know that this is just a love tap.
4:33
Speaker 5: You know.
4:33
Speaker 6: They expect this to be the you know, emptying of
4:38
Speaker 6: the barrel from this massive, unprecedented, unprecedented since the Iraq
4:42
Speaker 6: War armada that's hanging out in the Middle East. They
4:45
Speaker 6: think this might be the end. The hardliners who have
4:47
Speaker 6: who have come to power by the fact that we
4:50
Speaker 6: have brought them there would then be arguing to just
4:54
Speaker 6: you know, fire everything, like we're probably going down at
4:56
Speaker 6: this point, just you know, empty the cabinet, fire everything.
5:01
Speaker 2: See if we can raise to a nuke, I mean,
5:03
Speaker 2: And that's the thing too, is think of it from
5:06
Speaker 2: our perspective, like if someone attacked us, would that make
5:10
Speaker 2: us more likely to have a diplomatic solution with them
5:13
Speaker 2: to come to the negotiating table. No, of course not,
5:16
Speaker 2: And especially when what they've already seen is that any
5:20
Speaker 2: sort of trying to take a reasonable or moderate approach, etc.
5:25
Speaker 2: Just encourages more escalation and more aggressive, more aggressiveness on
5:30
Speaker 2: the part of us and on the part of Israel,
5:33
Speaker 2: so they'll look at them and say, okay, well, if
5:35
Speaker 2: they hit us and then we bend to their demands,
5:39
Speaker 2: what is that going to teach them? I mean Ryan
5:41
Speaker 2: and I being parents, like this is very basic sort
5:43
Speaker 2: of toddler logic. If they throw a temper tantrum and
5:46
Speaker 2: you give them the piece of candy, guess what they're
5:48
Speaker 2: going to do the next time they want the piece
5:49
Speaker 2: of candy. The same logic applies here if the US
5:52
Speaker 2: throws a temper tantrum and strikes them, and Iran rewards
5:56
Speaker 2: that behavior by capitulating to what are in demands in
6:00
Speaker 2: terms of you know, the full like, not only are
6:03
Speaker 2: you giving up the nuclear program, which Iron has long
6:05
Speaker 2: been willing to do, just see the you know, Obama
6:07
Speaker 2: era accords and you know their continued willingness to come
6:11
Speaker 2: to the table on that. But in addition, we want
6:13
Speaker 2: you to give up all of your ballistic missiles. We
6:15
Speaker 2: want you to stop supporting any of the you know,
6:17
Speaker 2: resistance groups in the region. None of this is really
6:21
Speaker 2: you know, feasible if you want to maintain any sort
6:24
Speaker 2: of production of power, if you want to maintain if
6:26
Speaker 2: you want to be a sovereign nation, whatsoever. Otherwise you're
6:29
Speaker 2: just a complete sitting duck. So in any case, if
6:31
Speaker 2: you reward this war like behavior and give into any
6:37
Speaker 2: of those demands, then guess what that is going to
6:39
Speaker 2: encourage more attacks from the US and from Israel. So
6:44
Speaker 2: I think that's how they're thinking about it. There's also
6:46
Speaker 2: a piece in this I camera if it's in, I
6:48
Speaker 2: don't think it's in this article. I think it's in
6:49
Speaker 2: a Financial time support about the way that Aroan is
6:53
Speaker 2: thinking about this. And they said that there were a
6:55
Speaker 2: bunch of IERGC commanders who did not want to agree
6:59
Speaker 2: to the cease fere from the Twelve Day War. And
7:02
Speaker 2: whereas the Western press has painted the Twelve Day War
7:05
Speaker 2: as just a stunning victory for the US and for Israel,
7:08
Speaker 2: it's not seen that way internally and Iran. From their perspective,
7:11
Speaker 2: they're like, yeah, you hit us hard. You know, were
7:15
Speaker 2: able to take down a lot of people, infrastructure, etc.
7:18
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, y'all.
7:19
Speaker 2: Were the ones who came to us wanting a ceasefire.
7:23
Speaker 2: And again to Ryan's points about you know, the moderates
7:25
Speaker 2: versus the more hard line approach, the hardliner said we
7:28
Speaker 2: shouldn't agree to the ceasefire. We should continue hitting them,
7:31
Speaker 2: We should extract some more pain and assert ourselves more
7:34
Speaker 2: because otherwise they're just going to come back and attack
7:37
Speaker 2: us again. And guess what, They've been completely vindicated. The
7:40
Speaker 2: hardliners have been completely vindicated by the approach and by
7:43
Speaker 2: the continued threats that we're making now right.
7:45
Speaker 6: Because they could argue right now, and I'm sure that
7:47
Speaker 6: they are arguing internally. If you had listened to us
7:51
Speaker 6: and you had hit Israel for another week, or another
7:54
Speaker 6: two weeks or another three weeks, yeah, we would have
7:57
Speaker 6: taken on more damage. But they were depleted, did they
8:00
Speaker 6: were on their back foot, we would we would have
8:02
Speaker 6: caused them the kind of damage that they're not used to,
8:06
Speaker 6: which would then give them, you know, second thoughts about
8:08
Speaker 6: doing this next time. Now they're doing it with you know,
8:13
Speaker 6: many times more American resources in the region, and so
8:17
Speaker 6: it may be possible now you know, we'll see, but
8:20
Speaker 6: it may be possible that Iran just doesn't have the
8:22
Speaker 6: capacity to push through all of those resources. But if
8:26
Speaker 6: they aim at you know, closer areas, you know, you know,
8:30
Speaker 6: American linked bases in Iraq or you know, Cutter or
8:33
Speaker 6: Dubai or Abu Dhabi like it's it's a little more
8:36
Speaker 6: difficult for the US to intercept and play defense around there.
8:40
Speaker 6: You know, you have to go further to get to Israel,
8:42
Speaker 6: so that just gives us more opportunity to knock stuff
8:45
Speaker 6: out of the air. But yeah, you're you're exactly right there,
8:48
Speaker 6: they are saying, right now, we told you so, We
8:52
Speaker 6: told you that the only language that the US and
8:55
Speaker 6: Israel understand is violence. Anything else begets, you know, shows
9:00
Speaker 6: weakness to them.
9:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ryan, you want to talk about what you guys
9:06
Speaker 2: are reporting out today about the democratic side of this equation.
9:09
Speaker 4: Tell us about our opposition party. How are they doing?
9:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, opposition party quotes. You may have noticed that other
9:16
Speaker 6: than a handful of members of Congress, including Rocana, who
9:20
Speaker 6: was teamed up with Thomas Massey to push for a
9:22
Speaker 6: War Powers resolution vote, which should come to the floor
9:25
Speaker 6: next week, there's been very little said publicly by Democrats
9:30
Speaker 6: against this. Even during the Iraq War, you had Democrats
9:33
Speaker 6: that were for it, but you had a lot of
9:34
Speaker 6: Democrats that were, you know, outspokenly against the Iraq War.
9:40
Speaker 6: You're not seeing much of that this time. So back
9:43
Speaker 6: in June, and this is what we'll be reporting later
9:45
Speaker 6: day over at dropsite. If you remember, Trump was kind
9:49
Speaker 6: of fainting that there had been progress in the negotiations
9:53
Speaker 6: and actually, you know what, we might not go ahead,
9:56
Speaker 6: you know, and strike Iran. And Schumer came out with
10:01
Speaker 6: his video mocking him as Taco Trump, and this coalition
10:06
Speaker 6: of more than two dozen anti war groups sent a
10:10
Speaker 6: letter saying, Schumer, what are you doing, Like are you
10:13
Speaker 6: trying to taunt Trump into going to war? Like, don't
10:17
Speaker 6: do this is not a game. Don't do Taco Trump
10:20
Speaker 6: stuff right here, Like, give him a political off ramp,
10:23
Speaker 6: give him the space that if he wants to do it,
10:26
Speaker 6: diplomatic solution. Eat the taco, Enjoy the taco, Like this
10:31
Speaker 6: is much better than killing like a thousand plus or
10:34
Speaker 6: who knows how many you're going to end up killing.
10:36
Speaker 6: It ends up being about twelve hundred people, but who knows,
10:39
Speaker 6: it could have been a lot more. And so after
10:41
Speaker 6: that letter was sent, there was then a call with
10:44
Speaker 6: a top foreign policy aid, who, by the way, as
10:47
Speaker 6: a report in the story, has taken two recent trips
10:51
Speaker 6: to Israel paid for by APAK. So this aid calls
10:55
Speaker 6: one of the lead organizers and they have a conversation,
10:59
Speaker 6: and and she says to him, Listen, what you need
11:03
Speaker 6: to understand is that there are many Senate Democrats who
11:08
Speaker 6: believe that Iran needs to be dealt with militarily, but
11:13
Speaker 6: they also understand that this would be catastrophic politically for Democrats.
11:19
Speaker 6: Another war in the Middle East is not something that
11:21
Speaker 6: the Democratic base wants, It's not something that the American
11:24
Speaker 6: public more generally wants, and so they would like Trump
11:28
Speaker 6: to carry it out for them. And for these two reasons. One,
11:31
Speaker 6: it accomplishes the goal, the policy goal that they have
11:35
Speaker 6: of attacking Iran. But also they think it would be
11:37
Speaker 6: bad for Trump, so his domestic politics would suffer, his
11:40
Speaker 6: base would be split, the issue of Israel would become
11:44
Speaker 6: an Israeli kind of leverage over Trump, would deepen the
11:48
Speaker 6: fissures that already exist within the MAGA coalition. So from
11:52
Speaker 6: the perspective of these Democrats, it is a win win. Now,
11:54
Speaker 6: she added, Schumer doesn't believe that. Schumer himself, of course,
11:59
Speaker 6: is opposed to these strikes, doesn't want them to happen,
12:02
Speaker 6: But that is the political logic that exists in the
12:05
Speaker 6: caucus that is kind of pushing some of the momentum
12:10
Speaker 6: around how this is messaged publicly. So that is.
12:15
Speaker 4: The way they're basically just not saying anything.
12:18
Speaker 6: Right because there's a there's a cold logic to it,
12:20
Speaker 6: like that logic in a completely cynical way doesn't really
12:25
Speaker 6: have any holes in it other than that it's evil
12:29
Speaker 6: and it's going to lead to you know, you know,
12:31
Speaker 6: could lead to untold lives being lost and tens of
12:35
Speaker 6: millions of people living in a country that's completely destroyed.
12:39
Speaker 6: But that doesn't factor into the cost benefit you know,
12:42
Speaker 6: political calculations like would it would it be better for
12:45
Speaker 6: the mid terms if this happens for Democrats? Probably, and
12:50
Speaker 6: also a lot of Democrats want it to happen anyway,
12:53
Speaker 6: they just can't. They just know that they don't have
12:56
Speaker 6: the kind of political will or the political support to
12:58
Speaker 6: carry it out.
13:01
Speaker 2: Wow, And how deep does this support for this approach
13:06
Speaker 2: go in Democratic caucus? Are we talking about like a
13:09
Speaker 2: handful of the most HAWKUS members or is this kind
13:11
Speaker 2: of the conventional wisdom.
13:13
Speaker 6: It's it's hard to say, but if you look at yeah,
13:16
Speaker 6: I think if you look at a vote on uh,
13:20
Speaker 6: you know, sending offensive weapons to Israel, for instance, and
13:23
Speaker 6: you get like a pretty sizable majority of Democrats supporting
13:28
Speaker 6: it still, Like, I think that that's a pretty useful
13:31
Speaker 6: kind of proxy for how much support that remains for
13:36
Speaker 6: something like this.
13:38
Speaker 7: Which is interesting, right, because that's different, Hi, everyone, That's
13:41
Speaker 7: different than Venezuela, right, like the.
13:47
Speaker 6: Not exactly, like a lot of these Democrats are happy
13:51
Speaker 6: to go to war with Venezuela two like this, but they.
13:55
Speaker 8: Made process complaints.
13:58
Speaker 6: And they'll make process. Yeah, they'll make process complaints again,
14:02
Speaker 6: and they'll pin it on Trump publicly, but privately, are
14:06
Speaker 6: they actually that upset? I don't think so not. I mean,
14:10
Speaker 6: obviously there's a serious, like anti war base, and they
14:15
Speaker 6: have their representatives in the Senate in the House. But
14:19
Speaker 6: outside of that, you know, there's not a whole lot
14:21
Speaker 6: of squeamishness when it comes to using American power violently
14:25
Speaker 6: around the world.
14:27
Speaker 3: And the timings a little ironic after all of the
14:29
Speaker 3: Democrats just came to Munich for their foreign policy debuts,
14:33
Speaker 3: to all of a sudden be radio silent on foreign
14:36
Speaker 3: policy is very interesting now, right. I know you're talking
14:39
Speaker 3: about more of a moderate, sort of centrist wing of
14:42
Speaker 3: the party who thinks about this, But where are people
14:45
Speaker 3: like AOC and others who are considered the progressive left
14:49
Speaker 3: of the party. It also seems like a little bit
14:51
Speaker 3: of radio silence from them.
14:52
Speaker 6: Is that true? So like we can assume that AOC,
15:00
Speaker 6: of course is against war with Iran. I haven't heard.
15:03
Speaker 4: I think she did say something about it in Munich.
15:05
Speaker 6: Maybe, I mean she's certainly against Yeah, like you can
15:08
Speaker 6: you can you count her as like in the no
15:11
Speaker 6: column on this, But I certainly haven't seen her out
15:14
Speaker 6: there as a vocal opponent somebody making this like a
15:19
Speaker 6: significant issue. Now I should say, we're in the sources
15:23
Speaker 6: in the Schumer's office that this is this is not
15:25
Speaker 6: an accurate characterization that this person had of this conversation
15:30
Speaker 6: with the staffer. He this. This person recounted it to
15:35
Speaker 6: a number of other people at the time. So I
15:37
Speaker 6: find it. I find the characterization of it credible. But
15:40
Speaker 6: just to say that there's some there's some dispute about
15:43
Speaker 6: how this conversation went. But no, they're like, you haven't
15:47
Speaker 6: you haven't seen much noise from somebody like ao, see
15:51
Speaker 6: maybe she's preparing something. I don't know, but had I
15:54
Speaker 6: haven't seen like a kind of Bernie. I obviously against it,
16:01
Speaker 6: Like there's no question that they like Bernie and AOCI
16:03
Speaker 6: were against us, but like, have we heard the pushing
16:06
Speaker 6: it hard? Yeah?
16:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we haven't seen them leading the charge.
16:09
Speaker 3: And Emily on your side now. I also feel a
16:12
Speaker 3: little bit of radio silence in the lead up to
16:15
Speaker 3: this one that feels different than the Conservative America first noise.
16:21
Speaker 3: Before the Twelve Day War, it seemed like there was
16:23
Speaker 3: a lot more pushback, consternation, and anxiety from the right
16:29
Speaker 3: leading up to the strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, whereas
16:33
Speaker 3: now it kind of feels like people are perhaps just
16:35
Speaker 3: kind of giving up or they're just kind of going
16:39
Speaker 3: with the flow. Is Venezuela part of that equation that
16:43
Speaker 3: people felt like Venezuela was such a win that you
16:46
Speaker 3: now look kind of like like a loser or a wimp,
16:50
Speaker 3: and that you should just trust the plan. What's the
16:53
Speaker 3: perspective on that side.
16:55
Speaker 7: I think that's right, and I think there are two
16:56
Speaker 7: things behind it. First is that actually what the government
17:00
Speaker 7: calls Operation Midnight Hammer didn't cause nuclear escalation. And the
17:06
Speaker 7: second point would be that those were strikes on nuclear sites,
17:09
Speaker 7: and what's likely to happen now is strikes on According
17:12
Speaker 7: to the Journal Government Buildings, Military facilities, that sort of thing,
17:17
Speaker 7: not a nuclear strike in particular. I think when you're
17:20
Speaker 7: listening to Tucker Carlson ahead of Operation Midnight Hammer, that
17:25
Speaker 7: was a lot of the concern was specifically about striking
17:28
Speaker 7: nuclear sites.
17:30
Speaker 8: So there's that. But also I think.
17:33
Speaker 7: Because Midnight Hammer and then Maduro were quick and targeted,
17:41
Speaker 7: as people say, there's just a little bit more like
17:47
Speaker 7: people feel like they have maybe some egg on their face.
17:50
Speaker 7: Probably privately, they'll probably still say, listen, if this what happens,
17:58
Speaker 7: if there are strikes in the next couple of weeks,
18:01
Speaker 7: then how successful really was quote unquote Operation Midnight Hammer.
18:06
Speaker 8: That's an obvious question.
18:08
Speaker 6: Yeah, I thought we got rid of the nukes.
18:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, the goalposts just keep getting shifted. So yes, but
18:13
Speaker 7: I think people are wary of coming out so hard
18:16
Speaker 7: and saying this will lead to nuclear war. This is
18:19
Speaker 7: almost certain to lead to nuclear escalation, and I think
18:23
Speaker 7: that's a lot of what was happening earlier in June.
18:25
Speaker 7: Still think that was correct, by the way, it didn't
18:27
Speaker 7: turn out that way. But the argument is that the
18:29
Speaker 7: possibility was intolerably high, and just because nobody said it
18:35
Speaker 7: was one hundred percent possibility, well maybe somebody did, but
18:37
Speaker 7: most people weren't saying it was one hundred percent possibility.
18:39
Speaker 7: So just because you have ten percent or twenty percent
18:42
Speaker 7: that it won't lead to the end of the world, that's,
18:45
Speaker 7: you know, not sure I'm taking those odds.
18:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you guys listened
18:51
Speaker 2: to Sagar with Andrew Schultz on this, but he was saying, Look, basically,
18:55
Speaker 2: the anti war faction or the you know, more restraintist
18:58
Speaker 2: faction within the administration has been completely cowed, like they've been.
19:02
Speaker 2: You know, they're they've either given up or they're just
19:06
Speaker 2: on board at this point. And the fact that the
19:10
Speaker 2: Twelve Day War and the Venezuela strikes were seen as
19:13
Speaker 2: these like grand successes has basically led to them keeping
19:16
Speaker 2: their mouths shut. And then the other piece I think is,
19:18
Speaker 2: you know, one of the voices and I you know,
19:21
Speaker 2: it's not someone I give a lot of credit to,
19:23
Speaker 2: but one of the voices leading up to the Roan
19:25
Speaker 2: War who was opposed to it was Charlie Kirk. And
19:28
Speaker 2: you know, he's been he's been killed, he's taken taken
19:31
Speaker 2: off of the the chess board in terms of someone
19:34
Speaker 2: who had access who could be pushing some of those
19:38
Speaker 2: messages and was you know, was rot asen at least
19:41
Speaker 2: in the build up to Iran. So so yeah, I
19:44
Speaker 2: think they've been effectively cowed. You hear very little from
19:49
Speaker 2: the you know, the America Firsters who were previously opposed
19:53
Speaker 2: and you know, loved to tell Trump as the anti
19:56
Speaker 2: war president, blah blah blah, like those voices are gone
19:59
Speaker 2: and so which you couple that with what Ryan was
20:02
Speaker 2: reporting about the radio silence from much of the quote
20:06
Speaker 2: unquote opposition party, including some of the progressive leaders. You know,
20:10
Speaker 2: you basically got Rocanna and Thomas Massey once again out
20:13
Speaker 2: there's the dynamic duo like, hey, guys, you know you're
20:15
Speaker 2: supposed to come to Congress like we're not really, we're
20:17
Speaker 2: not down with this what's going on. But other than that,
20:21
Speaker 2: we sit on the precipice of a potentially major war.
20:25
Speaker 2: If you just look at the assets in the region
20:28
Speaker 2: once again, more than we've seen since the Iraq war
20:31
Speaker 2: build up. We sit on the precipice of this major war,
20:35
Speaker 2: and it feels like everyone's just like, huh, yeah, whatever,
20:38
Speaker 2: we'll see what are you guys up to this weekend.
20:40
Speaker 2: It's kind of crazy, making you know and go ahead them.
20:44
Speaker 7: Well, just speaking of the chess board, who else was
20:47
Speaker 7: head of the Twelve Day War? It was Marjorie Taylor
20:49
Speaker 7: Green Steve Bannon. Bannon has been somewhat neutralized by the
20:52
Speaker 7: Epstein stuff, and Marjorie Taylor Green is no longer in
20:56
Speaker 7: Congress and does not have a good relationship with Donald
20:58
Speaker 7: Trump because she was pushing the administration. She started doing
21:01
Speaker 7: it publicly to focus more on domestic policies and less
21:05
Speaker 7: on foreign policies. And so she's now just back in Georgia.
21:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ryan, one last question I have for you, and
21:13
Speaker 2: then we can move on to as good segue to
21:15
Speaker 2: the Steine class and the latest things that we're learning
21:18
Speaker 2: there is the Isola put out this tweet that was like, hey,
21:23
Speaker 2: you know this island y'all are talking about. That's just
21:25
Speaker 2: the tip of the iceberg. We got a lot more
21:28
Speaker 2: that we can let you know about. If you know,
21:30
Speaker 2: your crazy president does attack us, how much credence do
21:34
Speaker 2: you put in that? Is that just bluster or do
21:37
Speaker 2: you think there could be some substance behind it?
21:40
Speaker 6: So the I tol So Handala is the hacking group
21:45
Speaker 6: that originally got access to AHUD Barack's inbox, and it
21:52
Speaker 6: ended up getting leaked to this nonprofit distributed Denial of secrets,
21:57
Speaker 6: which made it available to news organizations including us SO,
22:01
Speaker 6: and we were able to do you know, significant amount
22:03
Speaker 6: of our early reporting based on that hack. It is
22:06
Speaker 6: it is often said that Hondala is linked to the
22:09
Speaker 6: Iranian government or it's never been proven, but it's like
22:13
Speaker 6: one of those things where like all of these there's
22:16
Speaker 6: like the hacker groups that's associated with the US. There's
22:18
Speaker 6: a hacker group that associated with Russia. There's a hacker
22:20
Speaker 6: group that's associated with the Israelis. This is the one
22:23
Speaker 6: that people think of as like associated with the Iranians.
22:26
Speaker 6: So the Iyatola like may have been briefed that like
22:31
Speaker 6: they did, if that's true, that they played a role
22:34
Speaker 6: in like getting some of this information out. We also
22:37
Speaker 6: know according to the warrant that was used to search
22:40
Speaker 6: John Bolton's house, according to that warrant, Iran hacked his
22:45
Speaker 6: AOL account like three times. And one of the things
22:51
Speaker 6: and the reason that they were searching him is that
22:53
Speaker 6: he was keeping, according to this warrant, classified intelligence on
22:56
Speaker 6: his AOL account.
23:00
Speaker 8: Many such cases.
23:01
Speaker 6: He said, it's very very easy to hack an AOL account, like.
23:05
Speaker 2: I mean, having an Aol account to begin with is embarrassing,
23:08
Speaker 2: like forgot.
23:08
Speaker 6: Path, like forgot password, you know done like you basically
23:13
Speaker 6: you're in, You're in. And so the Iranians, according to
23:18
Speaker 6: our own you know d o J, are sitting on
23:22
Speaker 6: at least John Bolton's in box. God only knows. This
23:26
Speaker 6: guy's been involved in every you know, piece of American
23:30
Speaker 6: shenanigan for decades, like God only knows what's in there?
23:33
Speaker 6: So and what else have they hacked, like like what
23:36
Speaker 6: other they have claimed to have, you know, all manner
23:40
Speaker 6: of like uh, information about the Israeli government, Israeli politicians,
23:46
Speaker 6: Amerrick like so that that that's what they're alluding to.
23:51
Speaker 6: They are also like a staggeringly kind of conservative country
23:57
Speaker 6: when it comes to their what they do, Like if
23:59
Speaker 6: you look at their kind of conservative responses that they've
24:03
Speaker 6: had to the attacks every time that they had, they
24:05
Speaker 6: seem to have had that Barack inbox for a very
24:08
Speaker 6: long time before it was leaked if it was them
24:10
Speaker 6: that had it. Interesting because like the time that it stops,
24:15
Speaker 6: there's many years before then between the like last email
24:18
Speaker 6: and when it finally gets you know, made public. So
24:22
Speaker 6: why like, why don't we have another Like according to
24:25
Speaker 6: the FBI, they have Bolton's inbox, Like, why have they
24:28
Speaker 6: not released that? I don't know? Uh So, you know, well,
24:32
Speaker 6: that's that seems to be what he's he's referring to there.
24:38
Speaker 2: Imagine being Trump, being the president of the United States,
24:42
Speaker 2: being in the Epstein files like a million times and
24:46
Speaker 2: that we know of, and then knowing that Israel has
24:50
Speaker 2: all of that information. And now Aron's like, let me
24:53
Speaker 2: just level the playing field here and tell you that
24:55
Speaker 2: we also have all of that information. So your move, boss.
24:59
Speaker 2: Right when you started the.
25:03
Speaker 7: Sentence with imagine being Trump, I was like, oh my gosh,
25:06
Speaker 7: where is this going.
25:08
Speaker 4: To really really for this?
25:10
Speaker 8: Imagine being Trump.
25:13
Speaker 2: Open up all night on True Social Run is on
25:19
Speaker 2: his way to you.
25:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why Emily was late. She was putting makeup
25:26
Speaker 3: on her hands.
25:29
Speaker 8: But I take a lot of hybiprofen. I take a
25:31
Speaker 8: lot of.
25:33
Speaker 5: The big ones.
25:33
Speaker 2: I think it's isn't it tail and all? She wants
25:36
Speaker 2: her blood nice and thin.
25:39
Speaker 3: Well, if Iran or the IATLA have have any info,
25:44
Speaker 3: Ryan at drop site news dot.
25:46
Speaker 6: Com, I'm not soliciting. I am not soliciting any information
25:50
Speaker 6: from any designated terrorist organizations whatsoever. To be very clear, that's.
25:57
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe all start. Apparently I'm studying a new Aol
26:01
Speaker 3: account and everyone can access it from there. On that note,
26:08
Speaker 3: we do have more Epstein stuff happening. Les Wexner, the
26:12
Speaker 3: Epstein associate billionaire, came in to testify. We've got a
26:17
Speaker 3: few clips from that right here, including one Ryan wanted
26:21
Speaker 3: to start with about a Roman embassy and an exchange
26:25
Speaker 3: with his lawyer.
26:27
Speaker 6: Let's take a listen.
26:29
Speaker 8: What about pleasure vest.
26:31
Speaker 9: I could be walking out with forks. See, that's a
26:34
Speaker 9: good idea. We got to have an inventory, and there
26:37
Speaker 9: was I hired a lady to be like the house
26:41
Speaker 9: manager who would run the US embassy in Rome and said, yeah,
26:46
Speaker 9: I know how to do this. And I said, I said, well,
26:48
Speaker 9: why don't we keep inventories of stuff?
26:51
Speaker 6: And she said, yeah, I could do that. So she
26:53
Speaker 6: did that.
26:54
Speaker 9: As that's kind of a puny example that I wouldn't
26:57
Speaker 9: have had the idea. Then the things were inventory. That
27:01
Speaker 9: wasn't work for me or Jeffrey. It was just regularly done.
27:14
Speaker 3: And uh, for those just listening on the podcast, uh,
27:17
Speaker 3: les Wexner's lawyer leans in and whispers in his ear,
27:21
Speaker 3: I will fucking kill you if you answer another question
27:25
Speaker 3: with more than five words.
27:28
Speaker 4: I sort of appreciate.
27:30
Speaker 2: Wexner's response to that too, was just to laugh, Yeah, yeah,
27:35
Speaker 2: you're probably right.
27:37
Speaker 6: Yeah, let this but let this man cook, so that
27:40
Speaker 6: that part of it went viral. What a lot of
27:43
Speaker 6: people didn't notice was what led into it. Let's let's
27:47
Speaker 6: let's unpack that for a second. If you are somebody
27:50
Speaker 6: who has even dipped your toes in the history of
27:56
Speaker 6: the US post World War Two, or even ever seen
27:59
Speaker 6: a Jason Bourne movie, like what does what happens when
28:04
Speaker 6: you hear the words embassy in Rome? Like that is
28:08
Speaker 6: the locusts of the CIA's operations when it comes to
28:13
Speaker 6: working with organized crimes, all of its, all of US espionage.
28:18
Speaker 6: That's that's where it projects power to the Middle East.
28:20
Speaker 6: It's it's worked with terrorist organizations, it's worked with drug trafficking,
28:24
Speaker 6: arms trafficking, like that embassy in Rome, that is the
28:28
Speaker 6: hub of like all of it. That is like to
28:32
Speaker 6: hear like alarm bells are going off in everybody's mind.
28:35
Speaker 6: Who's like, here's the embassy of Rome? So Jeffrey, According
28:39
Speaker 6: to Wexner, Jeffrey Epstein had the woman who ran the
28:45
Speaker 6: logistics for the US Embassy in Rome, which is also
28:49
Speaker 6: like this is the CIA's hub of its operations in
28:51
Speaker 6: this entire region, and moved her to Wexner's mansion to
28:58
Speaker 6: count his forks in nineves, to do an inventory of
29:02
Speaker 6: his forks and knives.
29:05
Speaker 8: I see nothing wrong with this.
29:07
Speaker 2: I mean, you're not going to get anybody feels like
29:10
Speaker 2: the anti Italian bias to me, to be honest with you,
29:12
Speaker 2: Ryan the sole approach.
29:14
Speaker 6: It's so like, try to think of who is doing
29:19
Speaker 6: logistics and operations for the US Embassy in Rome, Like
29:25
Speaker 6: this is somebody who is read in on the deepest
29:30
Speaker 6: secrets of US espionage like that that's the person that
29:35
Speaker 6: that Epstein suggested to Wexner run his operation. Yeah, as
29:41
Speaker 6: he don't. As he's also as we reported, like moving
29:44
Speaker 6: the CIA's southern transport planes, you know, to his operation
29:49
Speaker 6: to transport his apparel around the world. Like they are.
29:54
Speaker 6: It's like they're they're taunting us.
29:57
Speaker 4: To be honest with you.
29:58
Speaker 2: The fact that wex just sort of like naively lays
30:04
Speaker 2: out this piece of information and has to have his
30:08
Speaker 2: life threatened by his lawyer. It does give some credence
30:10
Speaker 2: to his claims, like I'm just kind of an idiot
30:13
Speaker 2: and a rube and very naive and I had no
30:15
Speaker 2: idea what's what was going on here? Fully at least, either.
30:18
Speaker 6: Either that or he's saying, if you keep pushing me,
30:23
Speaker 6: you keep prosecuting me, I might accidentally reveal a lot more.
30:29
Speaker 2: So you see it more as a potential, sort of
30:32
Speaker 2: like an easter egg for people who are in the
30:34
Speaker 2: know of Like these are the type of connections that
30:37
Speaker 2: I have, just so you know, so I'm not just
30:39
Speaker 2: this like it is a bumbling old man.
30:42
Speaker 6: It was a woman who ran the embassy in Rome.
30:44
Speaker 6: That's who. That's who we're working with. Yeah, that is
30:48
Speaker 6: like very like only lightly veiled reference too.
30:54
Speaker 3: I don't think it's that intellectual. I think this gives
30:57
Speaker 3: like old man at the retirement home and the kids
30:59
Speaker 3: are I mean to visit and he's telling them old stories,
31:02
Speaker 3: Like I don't think he's that calculator anymore.
31:04
Speaker 6: I mean, maybe maybe he is. Maybe I don't know.
31:07
Speaker 6: I don't know, but I wish she'd keep cooking. Why
31:10
Speaker 6: we don't.
31:13
Speaker 8: Yeah, I was going to.
31:13
Speaker 7: Say, yeah, it would just some of it might explain
31:17
Speaker 7: why we never ever hear from Les Wexner and that,
31:20
Speaker 7: like they're utterly terrified.
31:21
Speaker 8: That he lacks discipline in legal settings.
31:25
Speaker 6: He's a blabber.
31:26
Speaker 4: I mean, how old is he at this point?
31:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean he's clearly in there with
31:31
Speaker 2: his leather vest, like, let me tell you about the
31:34
Speaker 2: old days with my buddy Jeff.
31:35
Speaker 4: They're like, don't do that.
31:37
Speaker 8: I just love the concept.
31:39
Speaker 7: They're like, sir, you have to you're being deposed by Congress.
31:44
Speaker 8: What would you like us to pack?
31:46
Speaker 7: Bring me my finest pleather vest.
31:51
Speaker 2: It's interesting to me that you clopped that as pleather
31:53
Speaker 2: because I feel like that could actually be real.
31:56
Speaker 8: Other it could, it could.
31:57
Speaker 7: But I but we'll watch this one.
32:00
Speaker 3: I think he killed I think he killed many animals
32:02
Speaker 3: for that best. All right, let's take this one from
32:05
Speaker 3: the Rothschilds.
32:07
Speaker 9: Personal work for the Rothschild family in France. Well, specifically,
32:13
Speaker 9: I talked to Elie de Rothschild and so I mentioned
32:16
Speaker 9: that earlier. Uh so he represented their whole families. That
32:22
Speaker 9: have been a whole bunch of people that, I mean
32:24
Speaker 9: most of them. I never would have met a new la.
32:28
Speaker 9: He would say, like, I'm providing financial advice to the
32:31
Speaker 9: founders of Google. I'm financial providing financial advice to Jeff Bezos.
32:38
Speaker 4: This is why I'm like this guy, are leaning in again.
32:41
Speaker 7: It's like when Sager starts going off and Crystal just
32:44
Speaker 7: has to do like a saga.
32:47
Speaker 6: Crystal, you should Chrystal. We need like button that you
32:50
Speaker 6: can press that says Sager. If you answer one more,
32:53
Speaker 6: I will more than words.
32:58
Speaker 8: I'm gonna kill you.
33:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
33:04
Speaker 2: It's very The whole thing is very And again dropsite
33:08
Speaker 2: has done some of the best reporting here because Wexner claimed,
33:12
Speaker 2: you know, oh, we cut off all contact at this
33:14
Speaker 2: certain point, and then you got those you know, access
33:17
Speaker 2: to those emails and lo and behold that was not true.
33:21
Speaker 2: And by the way, the philanthropy that you know, Wexner's
33:25
Speaker 2: family like philanthropy was being run almost completely entirely by
33:29
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Epstein was one of the largest funders of Zionist causes.
33:32
Speaker 2: By the way, and long after the supposed contact is
33:35
Speaker 2: cut off, they're still saying, hey, what did what does
33:37
Speaker 2: Jeff think about this?
33:38
Speaker 4: What does Jeff want to do with X and Y
33:40
Speaker 4: and Z?
33:41
Speaker 2: And the other thing that is very revealing in terms
33:44
Speaker 2: of trying to figure out, Okay, was this just some
33:46
Speaker 2: like really stupid rub of an old man who was
33:49
Speaker 2: completely you know, bamboozled and had his money stolen by
33:52
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Epstein, which is the story he's he and his
33:54
Speaker 2: lawyers are trying to put forward. Or is this someone
33:57
Speaker 2: who knew what was going on. You also uncovered an
33:59
Speaker 2: email from him to Epstein that said, you know, after
34:04
Speaker 2: his conviction, that said, you violated your your one rule,
34:09
Speaker 2: always be careful, and Epstein replies to him, you know,
34:13
Speaker 2: still there's no excuse. So that would end, you know,
34:17
Speaker 2: I mean, that would seem to suggest that he had
34:19
Speaker 2: some knowledge of Epstein's doings, not to mention the fact that,
34:24
Speaker 2: like when you look at the birthday book, when you
34:27
Speaker 2: look at the way he converses with effectively everyone in
34:31
Speaker 2: his social circle, like they're constantly talking about his lifestyle
34:35
Speaker 2: and girls and sex and you know, guydecologists and torture and.
34:40
Speaker 4: All kinds of crazy shit.
34:42
Speaker 2: So it certainly gives the impression of if you knew
34:45
Speaker 2: this guy, you knew something of what he was all about.
34:51
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, and he knew says the eighties, like,
34:55
Speaker 6: there's what we're learning, like, you know, a much longer
34:57
Speaker 6: relationship than we understood and all. So it's another wonderful
35:03
Speaker 6: Easter egg for him to throw out saying that he
35:06
Speaker 6: was working that Epstein was working with this Swiss bank
35:09
Speaker 6: in the mid eighties, and these kinds of Swiss banks
35:15
Speaker 6: were at the nexus of the Iran contra money laundering
35:21
Speaker 6: and money movement operations. They were moving that money from
35:25
Speaker 6: one bank to another something like I don't know, Emily,
35:28
Speaker 6: you might remember from you've read Ari Ben Manascha's book
35:31
Speaker 6: more recently, but every like ninety days or something, they
35:34
Speaker 6: were moving huge amounts of money from one like from
35:37
Speaker 6: these thirty banks to another thirty banks and other thirty banks.
35:40
Speaker 6: And so the people involved with that got familiar with
35:44
Speaker 6: the shady end of European banking, which might even have
35:49
Speaker 6: been even shadier in the eighties than it is than
35:52
Speaker 6: it is now that it's with the electronic records, it
35:56
Speaker 6: is a little little bit trickier to move things around
35:59
Speaker 6: than just with paper and pencil and bags of cash.
36:02
Speaker 6: But yeah, so so connecting Epstein to this Swiss Rothschilds
36:08
Speaker 6: Bank as far back as the mid eighties gives more
36:12
Speaker 6: grist for the the the idea that he really did
36:17
Speaker 6: get his connections to both intelligence and wealth through the
36:22
Speaker 6: really epic change era changing around Contra scandal, and.
36:28
Speaker 2: Didn't Wexner am I remembering this right? Doesn't he end
36:31
Speaker 2: up with the some Iran Contra planes?
36:34
Speaker 6: Mm hmm, yep, yep. So after after the after the
36:38
Speaker 6: heat comes on to the CIA's airline that was shipping
36:43
Speaker 6: the planes and the drugs in the in the nineteen nineties,
36:48
Speaker 6: the thing files for bankruptcy and sells half of its
36:51
Speaker 6: planes to like, I think some Angola company, and then
36:56
Speaker 6: the other half get moved to Columbus, Ohio by Epstein
36:59
Speaker 6: to work for Westerners.
37:03
Speaker 7: The Victoria's secret around the country.
37:06
Speaker 6: Yeah, he already has I think maybe he only owned
37:09
Speaker 6: Abercromm and Fitch at that point, but the limited brands
37:12
Speaker 6: for sure, and which was already being managed apparently by
37:17
Speaker 6: you know, the CIA's top logician out of the Rome Embassy.
37:22
Speaker 6: Like ridiculous.
37:24
Speaker 3: And we have a little bit of sound on those
37:26
Speaker 3: fashion shows in particular, let's take a listen.
37:30
Speaker 9: I would go to some of the Victoria's Secret fashion shows.
37:32
Speaker 9: It was very important to the brand.
37:35
Speaker 6: It's some of the very important to the brand.
37:37
Speaker 9: Trump was there, and I remember because Trump would always
37:40
Speaker 9: introduce himself to me. I always thought it was kind
37:43
Speaker 9: of odd that he was a fashion show because he
37:46
Speaker 9: had definitely dig you with the fashion.
37:50
Speaker 5: Hmm.
37:52
Speaker 3: So is that another veiled threat that he's gonna that
37:55
Speaker 3: he's got more to say or or what how do we.
37:57
Speaker 6: Feel about the fashion show comments here?
38:00
Speaker 4: I mean, it could certainly be read through either lens.
38:02
Speaker 2: Just an old man remembering things that he remembers and
38:07
Speaker 2: sort of enthusiastic about having the opportunity to share them.
38:10
Speaker 2: If that's that vibe of like, you know, yes, your
38:12
Speaker 2: dad or your grandpa at the dinner table, like finally
38:14
Speaker 2: I've got a captive audience. Let me tell you about
38:16
Speaker 2: wheety three. Yeah, yeah, someone asked me a question. They're
38:21
Speaker 2: engaging with me. I've got things I want to say. Yeah,
38:23
Speaker 2: it has that energy. But then, I mean, if you
38:27
Speaker 2: view it through Ryan's theory of you know, he's mentioning
38:31
Speaker 2: these little nuggets, none of which is conclusive, but just
38:34
Speaker 2: to kind of indicate, like listen, if you take too
38:36
Speaker 2: hard align with me, there are things, you know, I
38:39
Speaker 2: have levers I can pull here. This would certainly fit
38:41
Speaker 2: into that, you know, into that theory as well well.
38:44
Speaker 7: And the Victoria's secret element is not unimportant because the
38:49
Speaker 7: Wall Street Journal has a great like TikTok of what
38:52
Speaker 7: went on was Jean Luke Burnell, and there's a lot
38:55
Speaker 7: more depth. I mean, it's it's probably like a two
38:57
Speaker 7: thousand word story or something, but there's a lot more
38:59
Speaker 7: depth on their John Luke Bernel saff Actually Crystal has
39:02
Speaker 7: been like in on that stuff for a long time,
39:05
Speaker 7: but it's the You can see how the Victoria's secret
39:09
Speaker 7: partnership or the partnership with Wexner who oversees Victoria's secret,
39:14
Speaker 7: would have been important to Epstein. You can see where
39:17
Speaker 7: that becomes interesting that Trump is at the fashion shows when,
39:22
Speaker 7: as Wester says, he didn't really have anything to do
39:24
Speaker 7: with fashion, which is just cutting, unintentional and just absolutely cutting.
39:28
Speaker 7: But what they were, what they were doing very clearly
39:33
Speaker 7: was using modeling agencies, and the Journal, I mean, I
39:37
Speaker 7: think it's it's conclusive at this point. You can see
39:39
Speaker 7: in emails, but the Journal pretty much clearly connects the
39:43
Speaker 7: dots that they were using John Ley Bernell and Epstein,
39:46
Speaker 7: we're using modeling agencies to recruit women to come to
39:50
Speaker 7: the United States. And basically work as mistresses. There's an
39:54
Speaker 7: email where one of them says, you know, she's reminiscing
39:58
Speaker 7: and Epstein. She's getting into a tussle with him, but
40:01
Speaker 7: reminiscing and says, you know, when I look back on it,
40:04
Speaker 7: mistress was the only job proposition that you were ever
40:06
Speaker 7: serious about having my pictures taken with Bill Gates and
40:09
Speaker 7: woodyel And it's nice, but it's not going to help
40:12
Speaker 7: me get a job. And so that really puts it,
40:15
Speaker 7: I think, in that's a pretty good picture of what
40:18
Speaker 7: was happening. It's one example, but that's a pretty good
40:20
Speaker 7: example of what was happening across the board. So Wexner
40:23
Speaker 7: the question then for me, and I don't know if
40:25
Speaker 7: Ryan or anyone else has thoughts on this Chicken her egg?
40:28
Speaker 7: Is Wexner CIA and then Victoria's secret or is he
40:31
Speaker 7: Victoria's secret and then CIA or another intell agency.
40:37
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's a useful You could imagine him being, you know,
40:42
Speaker 6: a useful figure in many respects. You know, he's moving
40:46
Speaker 6: vast amounts of material around the world, you know, from
40:50
Speaker 6: a you know, particularly from from Asia, but elsewhere, you know,
40:54
Speaker 6: in and out of the United States. Yeah, yeah, I don't,
40:58
Speaker 6: I don't know. He's also one of the largest funders
41:04
Speaker 6: of pro Israel nonprofits here in the US and helping
41:10
Speaker 6: to helping to organize support for Israel at a and
41:17
Speaker 6: at a very extreme level like this, like the guy
41:20
Speaker 6: that's doing you know, maybe the top three of pro
41:25
Speaker 6: Israel donors over the last like forty years.
41:29
Speaker 2: Well, it's also a lot of that seemingly directed by
41:32
Speaker 2: Epstein too, literally, And.
41:35
Speaker 7: And it's also this is Cold War right after the
41:38
Speaker 7: Cold War, and John Leck, Burnell Epstein are and it
41:42
Speaker 7: goes into the last like ten years before they died.
41:45
Speaker 7: But they're bringing a lot of Eastern European women over
41:49
Speaker 7: and so that's with Wexner having Victoria's Secret models, like
41:53
Speaker 7: you have like international group of hot women moving around
42:00
Speaker 7: the world. You can see how that also can come
42:03
Speaker 7: into potential intel capacity as well.
42:07
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, Yeah, that's true.
42:09
Speaker 2: Well, and we know Epstein used his connection with Victoria's Secret.
42:13
Speaker 2: You know, when he was personally approached, he was, oh,
42:16
Speaker 2: I'm close to Theaomi Campbell, I'm you know, I'm he
42:19
Speaker 2: would hold himself down as an actual representative of Victoria's
42:22
Speaker 2: Secret to try to you know, cultivate young women potentially
42:27
Speaker 2: girls around the world. And so Wexner that's why this
42:31
Speaker 2: guy is so important. I mean, people watch the show
42:33
Speaker 2: probably already know this. But not only does he have
42:36
Speaker 2: all of this money and hands over power of attorney
42:40
Speaker 2: to Jeffrey Epstein. You know, this is the first place
42:44
Speaker 2: where you can really, you know, sink your teeth into Okay,
42:46
Speaker 2: this is where Epstein got a lot of funds from
42:48
Speaker 2: from this Wexner character. And then he has also the
42:52
Speaker 2: you know, the modeling angle with Victoria's secret, and then
42:56
Speaker 2: there's all these you know, the Rome embassy and all
42:59
Speaker 2: and the Iran planes and all of these things that
43:01
Speaker 2: are very eyebrow raising about what other connections he may
43:04
Speaker 2: have had.
43:06
Speaker 3: All right, well, we've got a guest waiting in the
43:08
Speaker 3: lobby here. Why don't we let her in and see
43:12
Speaker 3: what's going on with her?
43:16
Speaker 2: All right, guys, so we're very excited to have another
43:18
Speaker 2: candidate joining us this morning. So this is Julie Gonzalez.
43:22
Speaker 2: She's the state senator in Colorado and she is challenging
43:25
Speaker 2: Colorado Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper in the Democratic primary.
43:29
Speaker 4: Welcome State Center. Julie Gonzale is great to have you.
43:32
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for the opportunity. Great to be
43:33
Speaker 5: here with you'all.
43:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, So just tell us why you decided
43:37
Speaker 2: to jump into this race.
43:39
Speaker 5: Look, I think, like a lot of Colorado's and a
43:42
Speaker 5: lot of Americans, that we are sick and tired of
43:44
Speaker 5: go along to get along politics. And what I mean
43:48
Speaker 5: by that is our Democrats who are telling us, oh,
43:54
Speaker 5: if only there was something that we could do in
43:57
Speaker 5: the midst of our dissentant of fascism, and then at
44:01
Speaker 5: the same time going and voting for those very Trump nominees.
44:05
Speaker 5: John Hickenlooper has always been a centrist incrementalist and has
44:12
Speaker 5: voted for not one, not two, but ten different Trump
44:16
Speaker 5: nominees in the midst of the second Trump administration, y'all,
44:19
Speaker 5: make it make sense. At the same time, in the
44:24
Speaker 5: Colorado Legislature, we have been doing the work in order
44:28
Speaker 5: to protect Colorado's whether that's defending and advancing reproductive freedom,
44:33
Speaker 5: passing the Colorado Voting Rights Act, and ensuring that when
44:38
Speaker 5: ice agents trample on our constitution that there are remedies
44:43
Speaker 5: and penalties in place. And so we have done the work,
44:46
Speaker 5: and yet those victories end at the state line. When
44:50
Speaker 5: we don't also have a fighter in Washington, DC fighting
44:55
Speaker 5: for those same values. And the real question is, yes,
45:01
Speaker 5: we do absolutely need to go and flip red seats
45:05
Speaker 5: blue to build a governing majority. And at the same time,
45:10
Speaker 5: we've got to really start asking ourselves as the Democratic Party,
45:14
Speaker 5: let's look at the caliber of leaders that we're sending
45:17
Speaker 5: to DC from the safe, safe blue states. And that's
45:20
Speaker 5: why I'm stepping up to run.
45:23
Speaker 2: Give people a little bit of a sense of your
45:25
Speaker 2: background before you were state center or the work that
45:27
Speaker 2: you probably still continue to do. What is your background,
45:30
Speaker 2: what brought you to politics to start with?
45:32
Speaker 5: Certainly my family goes back in Colorado generations. We are
45:38
Speaker 5: the types of Chicunos down in southern Colorado northern New
45:41
Speaker 5: Mexico who we didn't cross the border. The border acrossed us.
45:45
Speaker 5: And when I went to Yale, went to Yale for
45:51
Speaker 5: my undergraduate degree, I learned there about power that if
45:57
Speaker 5: you don't have institutional power, if you don't I don't
46:00
Speaker 5: have a bajillion dollar endowment or tremendous access to wealth.
46:04
Speaker 5: The wave that you earn concrete wins is by organizing people.
46:09
Speaker 5: And so I've done that work since I graduated college
46:14
Speaker 5: in two thousand and five. I've been in Colorado organizing
46:17
Speaker 5: on affordable housing, educational justice, and immigrant rights. When Donald
46:22
Speaker 5: Trump came down that golden escalator down in twenty fifteen,
46:27
Speaker 5: those of us who had been in the immigrant rights
46:29
Speaker 5: movement knew that his candidacy was viable. And even when
46:37
Speaker 5: a lot of our establishment Democrat colleagues were saying no, no, no,
46:42
Speaker 5: don't worry, there's nothing to see here, we got involved
46:45
Speaker 5: in organized and after he won in twenty sixteen, I
46:50
Speaker 5: then stepped up and was part of that blue wave
46:54
Speaker 5: during that first midterm election that achieved a Democratic trifecta
46:59
Speaker 5: here in our state legislature. I've been proud of the
47:01
Speaker 5: work that we've been able to accomplish.
47:03
Speaker 2: Since obviously you come from the immigrant rights advocacy issue
47:11
Speaker 2: near and dear to your heart. You know there's a
47:13
Speaker 2: national debate on the Democratic side about what the future
47:16
Speaker 2: of ICE should be. You know, are you in the
47:18
Speaker 2: reform camp or are you in the abolished camp?
47:21
Speaker 5: Look, I actually when my family was when I was
47:27
Speaker 5: growing up, my dad managed ranches, and when I was
47:31
Speaker 5: ten years old, my dad got a job managing a
47:34
Speaker 5: ranch in Deep Deep South Texas, and so we moved
47:38
Speaker 5: there in the summer of ninety three, and in the
47:40
Speaker 5: summer of ninety four, I'm sorry, in January of nineteen
47:44
Speaker 5: ninety four, NAFTA was enacted, and so middle school me
47:48
Speaker 5: actually witnessed the real beginnings of the militarization of the
47:54
Speaker 5: US Mexico border growing up down in deep South Texas.
47:59
Speaker 5: I've now seen I went to my very first Dream
48:03
Speaker 5: Act rally in August of two thousand and one, and
48:07
Speaker 5: the Dream Act is now old enough to get a beer,
48:10
Speaker 5: and we still haven't passed it. And ICE is younger
48:15
Speaker 5: than the Dream Act. So for those who say, oh, no,
48:18
Speaker 5: let's just go and reform ICE, let's just go and
48:22
Speaker 5: add some additional training and body camps. No, I've seen
48:26
Speaker 5: it firsthand. I've seen what border enforcement look like before
48:32
Speaker 5: the militarization and the fear mongering of the creation of
48:37
Speaker 5: immigration and Customs enforcement. And I stand firmly in the
48:41
Speaker 5: abolish ICE camp in order to replace it with a
48:46
Speaker 5: system that provides an actual legal pathway to citizenship, that
48:52
Speaker 5: restores do process, that treats everybody with dignity and respect,
49:00
Speaker 5: doesn't ask babies and three year olds to represent themselves
49:04
Speaker 5: in immigration proceedings. Let's ensure that everybody has access to
49:08
Speaker 5: legal counsel so that they can navigate this incredibly important system.
49:13
Speaker 5: Let's make sure that there's enough judges and immigration adjudicators
49:17
Speaker 5: to be able to not have people waiting around for
49:21
Speaker 5: twenty years to try to have their application reviewed. But
49:26
Speaker 5: right now, our immigration system is broken, and too many Democrats,
49:30
Speaker 5: for far too long have gone and played political football
49:34
Speaker 5: with people's lives. And that's on both the Democratic side
49:38
Speaker 5: and the Republican side.
49:40
Speaker 7: I was going to pick up on one of those
49:41
Speaker 7: points too. You mentioned due process. Colorado is one of
49:45
Speaker 7: the places for all of the nonsense that's been spewed
49:48
Speaker 7: about trendy Iragua that actually really did have a serious
49:51
Speaker 7: situation with trendy a Raga. I think it was an Aurora,
49:54
Speaker 7: and President Trump picked up on all of that. So
49:57
Speaker 7: I imagine, you know, even Democratic Coloraden's were upset with
50:02
Speaker 7: some of what was happening. So I imagine voters will want
50:05
Speaker 7: to hear you talk about what the if ICE has
50:08
Speaker 7: gone or if there's no cooperation with ICE, what does
50:11
Speaker 7: an orderly law enforcement system look like for people who
50:15
Speaker 7: are taking advantage of the country's immigration laws.
50:19
Speaker 8: How would you answer that question?
50:21
Speaker 5: Absolutely. Look, we have always wanted to ensure that in
50:28
Speaker 5: a moment of crisis that you are able anybody, whether
50:32
Speaker 5: you are I don't care where you were born or
50:35
Speaker 5: how long you've been here, that in a moment of crisis,
50:38
Speaker 5: that you can feel safe to call nine to one
50:40
Speaker 5: one and.
50:44
Speaker 6: Ask for help.
50:45
Speaker 5: But what we've seen is when local law enforcement is
50:50
Speaker 5: also doing ICE's job for them, that fear prevents entire
50:57
Speaker 5: segments of community who are either immigrants, or live in
51:01
Speaker 5: mixed status families or have mic status neighbors. They then
51:06
Speaker 5: don't have that trust in local law enforcement. And so
51:11
Speaker 5: we've seen what happens when ICE is doing it is
51:18
Speaker 5: not even following the law that local law enforcement abides by. Right,
51:23
Speaker 5: They're roving and causing panic and fear, not only for
51:27
Speaker 5: immigrants but for US citizens as well. Right. And so look,
51:31
Speaker 5: I'm proud of the work that in Colorado we have
51:34
Speaker 5: done to say ICE, go get a warrant. ICE, don't
51:39
Speaker 5: come at me with a wanna be warrant something that
51:42
Speaker 5: is signed by a supervisor. Go actually and follow the
51:46
Speaker 5: due process that every other law enforcement agency in the
51:50
Speaker 5: United States has to abide by, which is judicial review.
51:54
Speaker 5: Go talk to a lawyer, go get a warrant, and
51:57
Speaker 5: then absolutely we will comply with said judicial orders. But
52:05
Speaker 5: what we have seen take place is fear mongering and
52:10
Speaker 5: scapegoating of communities against one another. The whole trenda AWA
52:15
Speaker 5: situation that took place in Aurora was put forward as
52:23
Speaker 5: a red herring by a slum lord who actually owed
52:28
Speaker 5: a whole bunch of was involved in a whole series
52:34
Speaker 5: of legal problems in Aurora, and those fear mongering local
52:40
Speaker 5: elected city council members in Aurora were just booted out
52:45
Speaker 5: in this last November's election. You know, Donald Trump's entire
52:49
Speaker 5: mass deportation effort, he named Operation Aurora after our community
52:55
Speaker 5: here in Colorado. But those local elected officials who were
53:00
Speaker 5: a part of building that that false narrative, we're all
53:05
Speaker 5: booted out in a suite this past November, which I
53:10
Speaker 5: think really demonstrates the extent to which Colorado's are sick
53:15
Speaker 5: and tired of the fear mongering. They actually just want
53:17
Speaker 5: to be safe, and Donald Trump and his mass deportation
53:22
Speaker 5: agenda ain't achieved in safety at all.
53:26
Speaker 6: I'm also curious it's what it's like in today's media
53:29
Speaker 6: environment to try to go from the state legislature to
53:32
Speaker 6: the Senate, Like how how are you going about getting
53:36
Speaker 6: your message out? Hick and Looper obviously has huge name
53:40
Speaker 6: ID across the state, and he's got good relationships with
53:43
Speaker 6: all of the local TV stations, the I'm sure the
53:47
Speaker 6: Denver Post or whatever else, like, but where do voters,
53:50
Speaker 6: particularly ones who vote in the primary, Like where are
53:53
Speaker 6: they getting their information? And how are you how are
53:57
Speaker 6: you reaching them? And have you found how's how's the
53:59
Speaker 6: fund isn't going in order to reach them? Going?
54:03
Speaker 5: Absolutely, you know, it's been very fascinating, I would say,
54:08
Speaker 5: in this moment, the disconnect between the establishment and the base,
54:13
Speaker 5: and we have some real soul searching to do, as
54:19
Speaker 5: you know, i'd say, loosely, Team Blue. We've got to
54:22
Speaker 5: decide whether or not we are going to continue to
54:25
Speaker 5: be beholden to the corporate interests and the corporate lobbyists
54:31
Speaker 5: who say, ooh, not too much, ooh, can't do that. Hmm,
54:36
Speaker 5: if only there was something we could do. Turns out, actually,
54:39
Speaker 5: we can have nice things if we're willing to fight
54:41
Speaker 5: for them.
54:42
Speaker 8: And what we have seen in the.
54:47
Speaker 5: In the wake of Donald Trump's second election has been
54:51
Speaker 5: an incredible grassroots movement that has been energized and activated
54:58
Speaker 5: to stand up to say no Kings in this country. Dems,
55:04
Speaker 5: do your job, and let's go and build the governing
55:09
Speaker 5: majority that will defeat this MAGA extremism once and for all. Look,
55:15
Speaker 5: I'm not handpicked by Chuck Schumer. It's fine. I wasn't
55:18
Speaker 5: voluntold to step up and run for this seat. But
55:22
Speaker 5: I stepped up after seeing not only those election victories
55:27
Speaker 5: in Aurora and in school boards and city councils across
55:31
Speaker 5: the state booting out mag extremists who are trying to
55:35
Speaker 5: ban books instead of opening libraries and better funding our
55:40
Speaker 5: local schools. And there is a real energy in our
55:46
Speaker 5: state to actually elect someone who is willing to stand
55:51
Speaker 5: on the values of ensuring that we are fighting for
55:56
Speaker 5: an economy that works for everyday people and not just
55:59
Speaker 5: for the billionaire. And so, look, I'm not going to
56:01
Speaker 5: outraise John Hickenlooper. That's never been the goal. We're always
56:05
Speaker 5: going to do the work to outwork him and out
56:09
Speaker 5: organize him.
56:11
Speaker 3: So, Julie, you mentioned Chuck Schumer. We reported on a
56:15
Speaker 3: New York Times focus group this week where a lot
56:17
Speaker 3: of voters were talking about wanting a progressive instead of
56:21
Speaker 3: a moderate. They called the party weak, paralyzed, useless. Where
56:26
Speaker 3: do you fit in that dem tea party? Do you
56:29
Speaker 3: believe that Chuck Schumer and a Kim Jeffries should step
56:32
Speaker 3: down or not be in leadership of the Democratic Party.
56:36
Speaker 5: Look, Chuck Schumer would not earn my vote for Democratic
56:42
Speaker 5: leader of the US Senate Democratic Caucus. I think that also,
56:46
Speaker 5: given Senator Klobachar's shift to run for governor and Senator
56:54
Speaker 5: Durbin's retirement, that there's a real opportunity for an entire
56:58
Speaker 5: new generation of Senate Democratic leadership. And I think that
57:03
Speaker 5: it is time for us to think differently about how
57:07
Speaker 5: we go and organize our base. You don't negotiate with bullies,
57:14
Speaker 5: you don't. You don't. You don't negotiate with terrorists.
57:16
Speaker 8: You don't give into bullies.
57:17
Speaker 5: And so how we stand strong on our values in
57:21
Speaker 5: this moment absolutely matters. And so I'm a known for
57:26
Speaker 5: Chuck Schumer, and it's probably why so much of his
57:31
Speaker 5: incumbent protection program is being deployed at this moment on
57:37
Speaker 5: Senator Hickenlooper's behalf. That's fine. I'm proud of the work
57:41
Speaker 5: that we are doing to earn the endorsements of Indivisible Colorado,
57:47
Speaker 5: of SCIU, the Working Families Party, and the Sunrise Hub
57:51
Speaker 5: here in Denver. And look, that momentum is indicative of
57:57
Speaker 5: the faith and excitement that Colorado's have to actually send
58:03
Speaker 5: someone to DC who's been battle tested, who has already
58:07
Speaker 5: done the work to move policies that often were seen
58:12
Speaker 5: as impossible on immigrant rights, on reproductive freedom, on voting rights,
58:17
Speaker 5: and move those into getting signed into law and then
58:21
Speaker 5: being implemented. That's how I've shown up. And I'll just
58:24
Speaker 5: say one last thing here. Colorado is one of four
58:28
Speaker 5: states that has never elected a woman to serve either
58:33
Speaker 5: as governor or to serve in the US Senate, the
58:36
Speaker 5: other three states being Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Indiana. And with
58:41
Speaker 5: Colorado being a Democratic trifecta and a long standing champion
58:49
Speaker 5: for gender equality, I think it's.
58:51
Speaker 2: Time I have a few like lightning round, yes or
58:55
Speaker 2: no questions for you, and we want to be respectful
58:58
Speaker 2: of your time. Okay, So first one, I think you'll
59:00
Speaker 2: find all of these easy. But we'll see a pack
59:02
Speaker 2: funding yes or no, no, corporate pack funding yes or no, nope,
59:09
Speaker 2: tax the billionaires, Yes or no?
59:10
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
59:13
Speaker 2: And last one, do you support Bernie Sanders' legislation to
59:18
Speaker 2: pause data center construction for AI?
59:21
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
59:24
Speaker 2: All right, Well, anybody else got another cue? Or should
59:29
Speaker 2: we let Senator Gonzalez get back to her busy day.
59:33
Speaker 4: I'm sure. Actually it's pretty early there, is it?
59:35
Speaker 5: None?
59:36
Speaker 4: Is it not?
59:36
Speaker 6: Yeah?
59:36
Speaker 5: It's eight in the morning over here.
59:39
Speaker 2: Well. One of the things that I think is very
59:40
Speaker 2: interesting about your race is and Ryan could probably speak
59:44
Speaker 2: to this better than me, but it seems to me
59:46
Speaker 2: that Colorado, it's not that long ago Colorado was a
59:48
Speaker 2: swing state. It's obviously become a you know, a very
59:51
Speaker 2: solidly democratic state, and yet you still have quite conservative
59:56
Speaker 2: democratic leadership between Hick and Looper Bennett and then Governor Paul.
1:00:00
Speaker 2: There seems to me to be a big disconnect between
1:00:04
Speaker 2: where the base of the party in Colorado is and
1:00:06
Speaker 2: the leadership that they're representing, which is why I find
1:00:08
Speaker 2: your race, you know, a particularly interesting one to watch.
1:00:11
Speaker 2: So let people know where they can follow you and
1:00:14
Speaker 2: support you if they're so inclined.
1:00:16
Speaker 5: Absolutely, Look, what is clear in this moment is that
1:00:21
Speaker 5: no one is coming to save us but us, and
1:00:23
Speaker 5: that we are the ones that we have been waiting for.
1:00:26
Speaker 5: And so if you're sick and tired of having to
1:00:29
Speaker 5: vote for someone who doesn't align with your values, that's
1:00:33
Speaker 5: why primaries matter. And the Republican Party in this state
1:00:39
Speaker 5: is trying to right now out extreme their themselves, moving
1:00:47
Speaker 5: further and further and further to the right. And so
1:00:52
Speaker 5: the question really now in this moment is who do
1:00:57
Speaker 5: you want to control your life? Do you want this
1:01:00
Speaker 5: insurance executives, the ice thugs, do you want the corporate
1:01:06
Speaker 5: lobbyists to control your lives? Or do you want people
1:01:11
Speaker 5: to have been listening to the people who too often
1:01:15
Speaker 5: have been either taken for granted or forgotten altogether by
1:01:20
Speaker 5: people in power actually making decisions. That's how I show
1:01:24
Speaker 5: up to this work and it's why I believe that
1:01:26
Speaker 5: we will win in Colorado. In order to get involved
1:01:31
Speaker 5: with the campaign, hit us up on social media. I
1:01:33
Speaker 5: met Sandaldora Julie on all of the socials and currently
1:01:38
Speaker 5: the only Latina in the state Senate here in Colorado.
1:01:43
Speaker 5: If elected to the US Senate, I'd increase the number
1:01:46
Speaker 5: of Latinas in the US Senate by one hundred percent.
1:01:50
Speaker 5: The first and only Latina ever to serve Catherine Corticus
1:01:54
Speaker 5: Maasto Auta, Nevada. Right, and so in these times we
1:01:59
Speaker 5: can have nice if we're willing to fight for them.
1:02:01
Speaker 5: Hit me up at Julie for Colorado dot com in
1:02:05
Speaker 5: order to learn more about the campaign and get involved.
1:02:08
Speaker 3: All right, thank you, Julie, and we'll leave a link
1:02:11
Speaker 3: in the description of the video.
1:02:12
Speaker 6: Have a great day.
1:02:14
Speaker 3: Okay, that was Julie Gonzalez in Colorado. I forgot to
1:02:18
Speaker 3: add my lightning round question our aliens reel in honor
1:02:21
Speaker 3: of the Obama interview, but.
1:02:23
Speaker 4: I thought about making that joke.
1:02:24
Speaker 6: We'll leave that one alone after she has access. That's right,
1:02:30
Speaker 6: that's true. The state legislators, no, no, no, beginuse.
1:02:33
Speaker 7: But then you got to be very careful about revealing
1:02:35
Speaker 7: classified information according to prison and Trump.
1:02:38
Speaker 6: Absolutely, yeah, do we have that?
1:02:40
Speaker 4: Are we talking about that in the premium.
1:02:41
Speaker 3: We're hiding all the classified info behind the premium paywall here.
1:02:46
Speaker 3: So if you want to see that and more Breakingpoints
1:02:49
Speaker 3: dot com to see the full Friday shows, you can
1:02:51
Speaker 3: set up for a monthly or yearly subscription there and
1:02:53
Speaker 3: help support our journalism and we will see everyone else
1:02:58
Speaker 3: on the second half right now,