Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 10/8/26: Trump Plans Imminent Iran Attack, US Presses Russia On Lab Leak, Levin Stepson Rigs Israel Intel

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10/8/26: Trump Plans Imminent Iran Attack, US Presses Russia On Lab Leak, Levin Stepson Rigs Israel Intel · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

0:00
Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show
0:03
Speaker 1: for everybody today. Extra amazing because Crystal is back.
0:06
Speaker 2: What do we have today, Crystal?
0:07
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed we do.
0:09
Speaker 4: I missed all the fish shenanigans, but we have updates
0:11
Speaker 4: for you guys about the subscription drive and whether or
0:14
Speaker 4: not Ryan made it to the show last night. So
0:16
Speaker 4: stay tuned for that. But we have lots of actual
0:18
Speaker 4: news in the show as well, including it looks like
0:21
Speaker 4: Trump is asking for plans to strike Iran potentially before
0:24
Speaker 4: midterm elections. This comes as Saudi Arabia has now been
0:28
Speaker 4: hit by the Houthis, their airports in particular, in a
0:30
Speaker 4: significant mass casualty event there. So we'll break all of
0:34
Speaker 4: those details down. We've got new details about that potential
0:37
Speaker 4: plague death in Russia this morning. So we'll update you
0:40
Speaker 4: on that. A top aide to Mike Huckabee has now
0:44
Speaker 4: been caught lying about Israeli war crimes to the president
0:47
Speaker 4: and trying to cover up some of the abuses that
0:50
Speaker 4: he thinks may go too far, even for this administration.
0:53
Speaker 4: There's a bunch of new focus groups of voters coming
0:56
Speaker 4: out of Michigan, including one of Trump voters that say
0:59
Speaker 4: they are actually going to back Abdul El-Sayed. We have
1:02
Speaker 4: some ominous signs as well about how Trump plans to
1:05
Speaker 4: mess with the upcoming midterm election. So we want to
1:08
Speaker 4: keep our eye on that. And then breaking yesterday evening,
1:12
Speaker 4: pathetic and deeply corrupt new revelations about Kimberly Guilfoyle begging
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1:20
Speaker 4: advance of her confirmation hearings. This is just the latest
1:24
Speaker 4: revelation about the way that she has conducted herself as
1:27
Speaker 4: ambassador to Greece, which has been deeply shameful, corrupt and
1:31
Speaker 4: all of the rest.
1:32
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
1:32
Speaker 1: And actually, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is in
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Speaker 1: Because of the fun little shenanigans like that we have
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1:51
Speaker 2: So so many of you came through.
1:53
Speaker 1: And included, and in fact, sending me pictures of you
1:57
Speaker 1: with Ryan at the Phish show. Many people at the
2:00
Speaker 1: Phish show actually came up to Ryan and even said
2:03
Speaker 1: that they were held responsible for getting him there. And yesterday,
2:08
Speaker 1: Neera Tanden, very late at night, was trying to troll Ryan,
2:11
Speaker 1: just said, I'm looking forward to Ryan Graham's thoughtful analysis.
2:15
Speaker 1: And he just replied, I'm busy with this panoramic shot
2:18
Speaker 1: of the Phish concert. They're calling it the very first
2:22
Speaker 1: Phish-mogging in history. And so that is entirely because of
2:27
Speaker 1: all of you. So breakingpoints.com, if you want to be
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Speaker 1: part of our shenanigans, I've got a few other concerts.
2:32
Speaker 1: Now I'm checking the Phish schedule to see where we
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2:43
Speaker 1: So with all of that, let's get to the actual
2:45
Speaker 1: news here. Let's put this up here on the screen. A9,
2:48
Speaker 1: Trump is now considering a plan to strike Iran before
2:52
Speaker 1: the midterms. Pentagon planners are weighing options, though no final
2:55
Speaker 1: decision has yet been made. After months of on-again, off-again fighting,
3:00
Speaker 1: the United States has not outstruck Iran in several weeks.
3:03
Speaker 1: That is a stretch of relative tranquility, but that may
3:05
Speaker 1: not be exactly what happens. The White House has now
3:09
Speaker 1: asked the Pentagon to develop strike options against Iranian targets,
3:12
Speaker 1: which would be exercised ahead of the midterms, according to
3:15
Speaker 1: two administration officials. The planning underscores just how much the
3:18
Speaker 1: president wants to reduce gas prices and demonstrate progress in
3:22
Speaker 1: the conflict before the vote. This also fits with another
3:26
Speaker 1: leak that came out late last night. Let's put A10
3:28
Speaker 1: up here on the screen. The United States military has
3:31
Speaker 1: now been ordered to be ready for possible Iran strikes
3:34
Speaker 1: as Trump weighs timing. I can say that I personally
3:36
Speaker 1: confirmed some of this news as well. Many of the targets,
3:40
Speaker 1: as I understand it, would focus on energy sites, nuclear sites,
3:44
Speaker 1: and kind of be a shock and awe style attack
3:46
Speaker 1: similar to the ones that were launched in the very
3:48
Speaker 1: early days of the war. Crystal, the electoral significance of
3:53
Speaker 1: this is actually very interesting because as you and I
3:56
Speaker 1: both know, there is no world where striking Iran is
3:59
Speaker 1: going to increase or to decrease oil prices. But Trump
4:02
Speaker 1: seems to still believe in this fantasy. In fact, as
4:06
Speaker 1: I understand it, and the Atlantic also alludes to this,
4:09
Speaker 1: a lot of this is being pushed by the Israeli
4:12
Speaker 1: government because Prime Minister Netanyahu is also in an election.
4:16
Speaker 1: And so he is selling Trump behind the scenes saying, hey,
4:20
Speaker 1: what we'll do is we'll go in, we'll have another
4:22
Speaker 1: shock and awe victory like we did the very first time.
4:25
Speaker 1: So Bibi Netanyahu, very similar to the February 28th attacks,
4:29
Speaker 1: has his own political motives because it's actually not a
4:32
Speaker 1: surprise that them being at war ahead of the Israeli
4:36
Speaker 1: elections would be helpful to him and is trying to
4:38
Speaker 1: delude Trump into this new plan of bringing the United
4:41
Speaker 1: States back fully into the war, reigniting the campaign again.
4:46
Speaker 1: The funniest part about all this is just the signal
4:49
Speaker 1: alone that Trump may be considering more strikes on Iran
4:52
Speaker 1: has sent Brent crude, which yesterday dropped below $ 100 per
4:56
Speaker 1: barrel at nearly $ 105 a barrel as of this morning,
5:00
Speaker 1: showing that even the signal of wanting to bomb alone
5:04
Speaker 1: is enough to increase overall gas prices. There is not
5:07
Speaker 1: a single scrap of evidence the United States can militarily
5:10
Speaker 1: lower gas prices with more bombs on Iranian energy infrastructure,
5:15
Speaker 1: the likely outcome would be retaliatory strikes on energy infrastructure
5:19
Speaker 1: in the rest of the Gulf, ballistic missile attacks, etc.
5:22
Speaker 1: Like we're seeing right now, spending gas prices even more
5:25
Speaker 1: sky high, and the October surprise would be one of
5:28
Speaker 1: Trump's own making. And yet, that is the idiocy which
5:32
Speaker 1: is currently occupying the decision-making in the White House.
5:35
Speaker 5: Yeah.
5:35
Speaker 4: I mean, the entire election surprise has been Trump's repeated self-immolation.
5:40
Speaker 4: So I guess why would we expect anything different heading
5:42
Speaker 4: here down the stretch? And it's worth noting, we literally
5:45
Speaker 4: warned about this last week because while for Trump, it
5:49
Speaker 4: is insane to think that additional strikes on Iran is
5:52
Speaker 4: going to improve his midterm prospects whatsoever, for Netanyahu, the.
5:55
Speaker 3: Calculus is quite different.
5:57
Speaker 4: The way he has held on to power for these
6:00
Speaker 4: many years is to foment some sort of crisis that
6:03
Speaker 4: he can paint himself as the savior of the Israeli
6:06
Speaker 4: people and go to war, commit war crimes. And this
6:11
Speaker 4: has also been the way that he has delayed any
6:13
Speaker 4: sort of reckoning over the allegations of corruption against him
6:16
Speaker 4: that he's also facing within the country. And we know
6:20
Speaker 4: that Netanyahu, while he is evil, he is not stupid.
6:22
Speaker 4: Trump is both evil and stupid. So he is easily
6:25
Speaker 4: manipulated by Netanyahu. At least that's the way it has
6:28
Speaker 4: appeared throughout this entire term. So on the other hand, too,
6:32
Speaker 4: you know, this is classic escalation trap. It's also classic
6:36
Speaker 4: sort of degenerate gambler behavior. where he's looking at the polls,
6:41
Speaker 4: he's having to fly to places like Texas and worry
6:44
Speaker 4: about Iowa and Kansas. He knows this thing could be
6:48
Speaker 4: a complete and total disaster. So that's the trend that
6:52
Speaker 4: he's on right now. That's the trajectory that he is
6:55
Speaker 4: on right now. So what do you do when you're
6:57
Speaker 4: already deep in the hole and you are a, you know,
7:00
Speaker 4: a gambler who has to be able to pay your
7:04
Speaker 4: mortgage and the house is on the line, you double down.
7:07
Speaker 4: And so he's, open to being convinced of this idea that, oh,
7:11
Speaker 4: if we just do one more wave of aggressive attacks,
7:14
Speaker 4: then Iran is not going to be able to hold
7:16
Speaker 4: the straight anymore. It'll be completely open. The gas prices
7:21
Speaker 4: from the market will plummet and you'll get this tremendous
7:24
Speaker 4: bump going into the midterms and we can sell it
7:26
Speaker 4: as some sort of mission accomplished moment before voters en
7:30
Speaker 4: masse head to the polls. So again, I think this
7:32
Speaker 4: is completely foolish. It's not going to work. It's only
7:35
Speaker 4: going to make the situation worse for him But it
7:37
Speaker 4: doesn't surprise me that he would be susceptible to this
7:39
Speaker 4: type of quote unquote rationale.
7:42
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
7:42
Speaker 1: And in fact, one of the things that we see
7:44
Speaker 1: inside of it is he's still desperate to declare victory.
7:47
Speaker 1: And so the thinking is that they can maybe bomb.
7:51
Speaker 1: They can have a temporary rise in gas. What will
7:54
Speaker 1: then happen is the Iranians will magically just sign another
7:57
Speaker 1: memorandum of understanding, which they had already signed previously. I mean,
8:01
Speaker 1: this is the sheer foolhardiness of it, because the reality
8:04
Speaker 1: on the ground, as we continue to cover every single
8:07
Speaker 1: day shows that things are creeping in the opposite direction.
8:10
Speaker 1: So yesterday we had the official 15th strike in the
8:14
Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz by the Iranians. This is actually a
8:17
Speaker 1: very significant strike because it was apparently it was a
8:19
Speaker 1: ship at anchor, which had not previously had happened. We've
8:22
Speaker 1: had multiple tankers actually turn around as a result of
8:25
Speaker 1: IRGC warnings. And there is more evidence this morning, including
8:29
Speaker 1: from the energy firm, which is very Trump friendly by
8:32
Speaker 1: reporting some of the data about the rising levels of
8:35
Speaker 1: oil that was coming out, one of the analysts at
8:38
Speaker 1: that company basically says, I'm not really sure I can
8:41
Speaker 1: reconcile this increase without a suspicion that many oil companies
8:46
Speaker 1: are just paying 10 to 20 percent tolls to the Iranians.
8:50
Speaker 1: So remember, that would be a surreptitious transaction, which is
8:53
Speaker 1: directly in violation of sanctions. Part of the reason Iran
8:56
Speaker 1: wants to stay quiet because they want their money, they're
8:59
Speaker 1: bleeding for it with about being able to export oil
9:01
Speaker 1: and the ship companies themselves don't want to be sanctioned
9:04
Speaker 1: by the US government. Ryan also showed in our previous
9:07
Speaker 1: show that the US government has previously already sanctioned a
9:10
Speaker 1: crypto exchange, which was trying to facilitate these transactions. So
9:14
Speaker 1: tolling itself is already part of this. This shows some
9:17
Speaker 1: of the success of the Iranian strategy. On the other
9:19
Speaker 1: side of the Middle East, you have what's happening in
9:22
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, which is completely imploding. Let's put A2B up
9:25
Speaker 1: here on the screen. Remember, the information environment out of
9:29
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia is a very, sketchy. As of this morning,
9:32
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia time, there were massive explosions that rocked the
9:37
Speaker 1: capital of Riyadh. No actual information has yet been released,
9:41
Speaker 1: but it comes in the last 48 hour period where
9:44
Speaker 1: what we know is that blasts are currently rattling Riyadh
9:48
Speaker 1: and Saudi Arabia is hit by the deadliest Houthi attacks
9:51
Speaker 1: so far. The Houthis struck two different airports that killed
9:55
Speaker 1: two people, including a worker at one of the airports
9:59
Speaker 1: and two female pilots who were actually working there. Let's
10:03
Speaker 1: put A1 up here on the screen. This is what
10:06
Speaker 1: we had yesterday, an official confirmation of targets, both two
10:10
Speaker 1: international airports in Saudi Arabia from the General Authority of
10:14
Speaker 1: Civil Aviation in the country. And you actually see a
10:16
Speaker 1: picture of one of those airports In fact, this morning,
10:20
Speaker 1: there was reporting out of many of the flights that
10:22
Speaker 1: were trying to land where they were circling, and they
10:26
Speaker 1: were not able to do so immediately after the report
10:30
Speaker 1: has happened of those blasts on the Capitol. you could
10:33
Speaker 1: see Saudi Arabia is now taking ballistic missile hits directly
10:37
Speaker 1: on its own capital, critical infrastructure. The reason why that
10:41
Speaker 1: airport attack is so significant is previously the Houthis had
10:43
Speaker 1: struck the fuel depots actually in the airport, but this
10:48
Speaker 1: time around shifted to a much more deadly strike on
10:51
Speaker 1: the infrastructure. That's another reason why oil continues to climb.
10:54
Speaker 1: And it's humiliating, obviously, for the kingdom, which has spent tens,
10:58
Speaker 1: hundreds of billions of dollars on United States military equipment,
11:01
Speaker 1: Patriot missiles, they have the military there.
11:04
Speaker 2: You have 200 U.S.
11:05
Speaker 1: Intelligence analysts which are trying to counter-program the Houthi offensive
11:10
Speaker 1: and are giving intelligence and satellite imagery to the Saudi-backed
11:13
Speaker 1: forces in Yemen. So much of it is already falling apart.
11:17
Speaker 1: Let's put A2 on the screen just to show you
11:20
Speaker 1: some of the details. DropSite compiled some of the more
11:23
Speaker 1: recent Houthi advances, not only in striking Afghanistan, the airport,
11:26
Speaker 1: but they're also now saying all airlines must stop flying
11:30
Speaker 1: through Saudi airspace, calling it a theater of our operations
11:34
Speaker 1: with the sole exception of Mecca and Medina, the holy
11:37
Speaker 1: sites of Islam. It says attacks are retaliation for 60
11:41
Speaker 1: Saudi airstrikes and a missile on Sana'a and multiple other
11:45
Speaker 1: places over the last 24-hour periods, which it says has
11:48
Speaker 1: killed civilians. It says 1,576 Saudi strikes have now hit
11:50
Speaker 1: Yemen since that escalation.
11:55
Speaker 2: Began.
11:55
Speaker 1: So again, the war is expanding. It continues to send
11:59
Speaker 1: oil upwards. And already, just Trump's suggestion or leaking that
12:04
Speaker 1: they might start bombing Iran again has erased all of
12:09
Speaker 1: the price pressure, which previously had been alleviated by the
12:12
Speaker 1: release of diesel and oil from the strategic petroleum reserves
12:17
Speaker 1: of the G7 countries. So everything is actually pointing in
12:21
Speaker 1: the opposite direction. But the Netanyahu factor is is above
12:25
Speaker 1: all of this, where he's in Trump's ear, just telling him, hey,
12:28
Speaker 1: just restart the war because it'll be good for you.
12:31
Speaker 1: When in reality, it's only good for him. He doesn't
12:34
Speaker 1: care about oil, diesel, or anybody else. He cares about
12:37
Speaker 1: himself and getting himself reelected. And I wouldn't bet against
12:41
Speaker 1: him considering his track record now so far.
12:43
Speaker 3: You'd be a fool too. You'd be an absolute fool too.
12:45
Speaker 4: It's incredible that he hung on after October 7th, especially
12:48
Speaker 4: given how much we know now about all the repeated
12:51
Speaker 4: warnings that he received and ignored. The repositioning of military
12:56
Speaker 4: assets away from Gaza and all of the rest, including
13:00
Speaker 4: the fact they literally had the October 7th plan in
13:02
Speaker 4: their hands and did absolutely nothing in order to stop it.
13:08
Speaker 4: You know, the real question now is not if we
13:12
Speaker 4: are going back to more significant strikes against Iran, it's when.
13:15
Speaker 4: because it seems very much like these plans have been
13:18
Speaker 4: drawn up. The Iranians definitely expect Trump to go back
13:21
Speaker 4: to bombing them. Their previous suspicion had been after the
13:23
Speaker 4: midterm elections, that would be when he would open up
13:27
Speaker 4: the full-scale war again. Now it appears that he's considering
13:31
Speaker 4: going forward even more quickly. So like I said, it
13:34
Speaker 4: seems like more a question of when rather than if.
13:37
Speaker 4: We can put A4 up on the screen. This is
13:39
Speaker 4: some video that was released from the Houthis just showing
13:42
Speaker 4: them showing them fighting. And, you know, they've had obviously
13:46
Speaker 4: this very successful initiative. And can you imagine, you know,
13:50
Speaker 4: I flew out of Dulles Airport to go visit my
13:52
Speaker 4: daughter in Spain. And the thought of your major international
13:57
Speaker 4: airport in your nation's capital being a target where, you know,
14:02
Speaker 4: civilians and pilots are at risk is, I think, for
14:06
Speaker 4: most Americans completely unimaginable. And yet that's exactly what Saudi
14:09
Speaker 4: Arabia is facing at this point. So they've got that problem.
14:13
Speaker 4: They've also got the problem with Iran, you know, economic issues.
14:16
Speaker 4: They've got longer term brand issues because they very much
14:19
Speaker 4: want Saudi Arabia to be seen as the sort of,
14:21
Speaker 4: you know, safe island apart from any of the turmoil
14:26
Speaker 4: in the rest of the region. That's the sort of
14:28
Speaker 4: modus operandi of all the Gulf Arab nations. So major,
14:32
Speaker 4: major problems for them. Let's go ahead and put A5
14:36
Speaker 4: up on the screen because we have some more details
14:38
Speaker 4: about what's going on with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
14:41
Speaker 4: This is from the Financial Times. There was also some
14:43
Speaker 4: reporting from Bloomberg about the situation facing the ship's captains
14:50
Speaker 4: and the crew members. These crew members are really drawn
14:53
Speaker 4: from sort of the global poor. They can make more
14:55
Speaker 4: on these ships than they could at home. At the
14:59
Speaker 4: best of times, it's a very difficult job. You're away
15:01
Speaker 4: from home. The conditions are not great. You're treated very poorly.
15:05
Speaker 3: The pay by.
15:06
Speaker 4: American standards is terrible, but again, more than they would
15:09
Speaker 4: likely be able to make at home. Now ships are
15:12
Speaker 4: having to pay quite a lot more to the captains
15:15
Speaker 4: and to the sailors, although our friend Sal put some
15:21
Speaker 4: fine print on this that probably more of what's going
15:23
Speaker 4: on here is they're being coerced. Hey, either you're going
15:25
Speaker 4: to do it or you're going to lose your job.
15:26
Speaker 4: We'll find someone else. But in any case, the transit
15:29
Speaker 4: costs have absolutely skyrocketed for what these ships have to
15:33
Speaker 4: pay in order to transit the Strait. We can put
15:35
Speaker 4: A7 up on the screen from Sal just to add
15:38
Speaker 4: a little bit of context based on his expertise about
15:42
Speaker 4: what's going on here. So he says that the minimum
15:45
Speaker 4: wage for mariners is currently $ 690 per month. Tanker masters
15:49
Speaker 4: are making about $ 12K per month. The $ 50, 000 bonus is
15:53
Speaker 4: to sign up for a three to four month tour
15:55
Speaker 4: on a tanker that's doing shuttle service between the Persian
15:57
Speaker 4: Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The danger pay is
16:00
Speaker 4: only paid while the ships are making the Hormuz transit
16:04
Speaker 4: or if the ship comes under attack. It's unlikely the
16:06
Speaker 4: ship owners are actually paying four to six times to
16:09
Speaker 4: sit in the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Oman. Most assuredly,
16:12
Speaker 4: when the ship has departed, the mercenary term, which is
16:15
Speaker 4: used in one of these articles, is derogatory. Instead, the
16:18
Speaker 4: mariners should be considered veterans. for being willing to take
16:21
Speaker 4: these chances with minimum defenses. And, you know, I think
16:25
Speaker 4: these are really important to note because, of course, the
16:28
Speaker 4: ship owners are really trying to absolutely maximize their profit.
16:32
Speaker 4: They know how to nickel and dime these mariners. But
16:35
Speaker 4: the point remains, Sagar, that they are effectively combatants at
16:38
Speaker 4: this point and taking tremendous risks because you've had dozens
16:40
Speaker 4: of these mariners who have been killed over the course
16:43
Speaker 4: of this war.
16:44
Speaker 6: Exactly.
16:45
Speaker 1: And, you know, you have ships struck at anchor. You've
16:48
Speaker 1: had people who've been killed. I mean, You've had people
16:50
Speaker 1: who've been wounded, smoke inhalation. Remember our own United States
16:53
Speaker 1: Marines who were on board one of those merchant carriers
16:57
Speaker 1: themselves suffered after a direct missile hit on the ship
17:01
Speaker 1: that they were on. You've also had many of them
17:03
Speaker 1: had to abandon ship in honestly some terrifying circumstance if
17:07
Speaker 1: you watch some of the video that's come out of
17:09
Speaker 1: the Strait of Hormuz. Let's put AA up on the
17:11
Speaker 1: screen because I want to highlight this around oil. Rory,
17:15
Speaker 1: I will just say ignore the price here because he
17:17
Speaker 1: tweeted it yesterday, but he points out that already the
17:20
Speaker 1: International Energy Agency's member countries are saying again that they
17:24
Speaker 1: stand ready to release additional oil from strategic reserves if
17:28
Speaker 1: necessary and will prioritize diesel fuel due to a tight supply,
17:32
Speaker 1: the head said on Wednesday. That had initially sent the
17:35
Speaker 1: Brent crude price under $ 100 a barrel. But as I said,
17:39
Speaker 1: many of the recent developments have already sent Brent crude
17:43
Speaker 1: back above $ 100.
17:44
Speaker 2: $ 105.
17:45
Speaker 1: The physical barrel premium and all of that puts it
17:48
Speaker 1: around $ 130, $ 140, which is what all of us are
17:51
Speaker 1: paying at the gas station. Right now, gas remains around
17:55
Speaker 1: $ 4. 36 a gallon, and diesel actually beginning to drop by
18:00
Speaker 1: about a quarter from its all-time high to $ 6.
18:03
Speaker 2: 28.
18:03
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's a titanic drop or anything, but
18:07
Speaker 1: that does reflect all of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve diesel-specific
18:11
Speaker 1: releases that have now been orchestrated across the G7. I
18:15
Speaker 1: will note that as of this morning, it does look
18:17
Speaker 1: like that hurricane is beginning to gain some steam, I think,
18:21
Speaker 1: in the Gulf of Mexico heading towards Alabama. Obviously, we'll
18:26
Speaker 1: keep people updated with respect to how much damage it
18:29
Speaker 1: is able to do because global refinery supply, we covered yesterday, Venezuela,
18:34
Speaker 1: that huge explosion that happened just two days ago.
18:38
Speaker 2: We covered what's happening in Russia.
18:40
Speaker 1: A total diesel export ban out of that country in
18:43
Speaker 1: addition to multiple attacks in the Black Sea on some
18:46
Speaker 1: of their tankers. And then our own refinery is already
18:49
Speaker 1: running near 100% of their own capacity with diesel where
18:53
Speaker 1: it's at right now. So very difficult situation. And even
18:56
Speaker 1: that comes after the president signed some crazy executive order,
19:00
Speaker 1: which it's something about dyed diesel. Again, I'm not an
19:03
Speaker 1: expert or any of that. It's all trying to keep
19:06
Speaker 1: the price down Already, I believe, farmers had had access
19:10
Speaker 1: to that, so it's not like it was going to
19:11
Speaker 1: have some sort of immediate impact more towards the trucking industry.
19:15
Speaker 1: It's going to continue to send inflation very high. But
19:17
Speaker 1: that's where things stand as of right now. It does
19:19
Speaker 1: look like some resumption of major combat operations, as they
19:23
Speaker 1: call it, could happen again with Iran. And it's almost
19:27
Speaker 1: just certain to end up right back where things started,
19:30
Speaker 1: unless Trump does what he's been unwilling to do so far,
19:34
Speaker 1: which is do some crazy big strike and then just
19:36
Speaker 1: be officially say, we're done. The reason I don't buy
19:38
Speaker 1: it is you have the third carrier group, which is
19:41
Speaker 1: on its way right now, in addition to 10,000 more U.S. troops.
19:46
Speaker 1: And that's not something you do whenever you're going to
19:49
Speaker 1: declare victory. That's something you do whenever after the midterm elections,
19:53
Speaker 1: which is the current plan, is you escalate the war
19:56
Speaker 1: even more. You might just do it early because Bibi
19:58
Speaker 1: has asked you to.
20:00
Speaker 7: Yeah.
20:00
Speaker 4: And also, it's not like he can just declare mission
20:03
Speaker 4: accomplished and walk away. The Iranians get a say in
20:06
Speaker 4: this thing, and they're very committed to getting their assets
20:09
Speaker 4: unfrozen and the sanctions lifted. And I don't think they
20:12
Speaker 4: have any intent of allowing some sort of free flow
20:15
Speaker 4: of goods through the Strait of Hormuz until those demands
20:18
Speaker 4: of theirs are met. So we're still in a torturous
20:22
Speaker 4: position where neither side has extracted enough pain from the
20:26
Speaker 4: other to force some sort of a resolution to this
20:30
Speaker 4: wholly unnecessary and completely destructive war. So that remains and
20:34
Speaker 4: Trump continues to evaluate a series of potentially catastrophic options.
20:39
Speaker 6: Wow.
20:39
Speaker 2: Big news.
20:39
Speaker 1: Just saw it actually big update from flight radar. Riyadh
20:42
Speaker 1: airport is completely closed right now. They haven't a flight
20:45
Speaker 1: taken off in over 90 minutes. Last takeoff was yeah,
20:48
Speaker 1: over 90 minutes ago. So their entire airspace basically shut
20:51
Speaker 1: down even for a one, two hour period. That's billions
20:55
Speaker 1: of dollars of damage. It's humiliating there. For the kingdom,
20:58
Speaker 1: to be honest, at this point, like you were saying earlier,
21:00
Speaker 1: I cannot even fathom booking a flight out of Riyadh
21:03
Speaker 1: or anywhere in the Gulf. I mean, why would you
21:05
Speaker 1: take the chance that some errant drone or missile is
21:09
Speaker 1: going to take you out?
21:10
Speaker 2: I don't need that.
21:11
Speaker 1: And I don't think any of you do either. So
21:12
Speaker 1: that's just my own personal advice. Either don't go or
21:16
Speaker 1: I guess pay the premium because, you know, it's not
21:19
Speaker 1: like exactly like flights are all that cheap anyways.
21:21
Speaker 2: OK, let's get to lab leak.
21:26
Speaker 1: Turning now to this lab leaf situation in Russia, some
21:29
Speaker 1: more information being released, but frankly, none of it is
21:32
Speaker 1: making us feel any better about the situation. So Trump
21:35
Speaker 1: was pressed yesterday in the Oval Office about what we
21:38
Speaker 1: know about the situation. He seemed to be trying to
21:41
Speaker 1: calm the situation down, despite the fact the U.S. government
21:44
Speaker 1: is actually protesting to Russia to try and get more information.
21:47
Speaker 1: Here's what he had to say.
21:48
Speaker 5: Is the plague in Russia a bioweapon?
21:52
Speaker 7: Well, we don't think so. We're going to find out
21:54
Speaker 7: soon enough, but we don't think so. And if you
21:58
Speaker 7: listen to them, it's under control. But, you know, people
22:01
Speaker 7: have said that before about other things. So we hope
22:04
Speaker 7: it is very sophisticated, very smart. And they're saying it's
22:09
Speaker 7: very much under control. So we hope not, Peter. We've
22:13
Speaker 7: heard this before.
22:14
Speaker 5: A couple of years ago during your first term.
22:16
Speaker 7: Are you getting the same vibe? Many times before and
22:18
Speaker 7: many different things.
22:19
Speaker 5: Are you getting the same vibe right now from Russia
22:21
Speaker 5: that you got from China at the start of COVID?
22:23
Speaker 7: Well, China didn't say much and Russia's not saying much either,
22:26
Speaker 7: but they do say they have it very much under control.
22:29
Speaker 1: Behind the scenes, here's what's actually going on. Let's put
22:31
Speaker 1: the next one up here on the screen. Trump is
22:33
Speaker 1: trying to calm things down, but it turns out that
22:36
Speaker 1: the State Department actually has sent Russia a confidential diplomatic
22:39
Speaker 1: warning saying that its silence about this death at the
22:42
Speaker 1: Plague Research Institute is running against its obligation under international
22:47
Speaker 1: health regulations, which also required prompt notice to the WHO
22:51
Speaker 1: of any potential health emergency. Behind the scenes, Russia actually
22:56
Speaker 1: called the information Moscow has shared still limited. He's urged
22:59
Speaker 1: more transparency and said agencies are watching it closely. Right now,
23:03
Speaker 1: the WHO rates the possible economic plague case as, quote,
23:07
Speaker 1: very low risk outside of Russia itself. But what you
23:10
Speaker 1: can see from this Wall Street Journal piece is that
23:13
Speaker 1: there are escalating things happening at the official level where
23:17
Speaker 1: they're basically begging them for more information in some of
23:21
Speaker 1: these confidential exchanges. And part of the thing is that
23:25
Speaker 1: there's no details that have yet been released by the Russians.
23:29
Speaker 1: What they have released is actually kind of scary. Let's
23:32
Speaker 1: go to the next part here. Russia says it has
23:34
Speaker 1: found no emergency in the plague lab. no information or
23:39
Speaker 1: new information around the lab death worker, including a statement,
23:43
Speaker 1: has now come after the US demand. So I'm gonna
23:45
Speaker 1: read you from their official health regulator, their statement as translated, obviously.
23:50
Speaker 1: They said that the researcher who died had been, quote,
23:53
Speaker 1: vaccinated against the pathogens that she worked with and that
23:57
Speaker 1: no emergency situations had occurred at the lab. Right now,
24:00
Speaker 1: they are urging Moscow, obviously from the United States, for
24:04
Speaker 1: more details. All they were really able to say was
24:07
Speaker 1: that she was vaccinated and therefore, quote, had immunity to
24:10
Speaker 1: the dangerous infection she worked with. And the statement implies
24:14
Speaker 1: that she actually had a much lower risk of contracting
24:17
Speaker 1: the natural plague, which she would have been vaccinated, though
24:21
Speaker 1: it does not definitively rule out becoming ill with the disease.
24:24
Speaker 1: It would, again, as I understand it right now, it
24:27
Speaker 1: would rule out the likelihood, not rule out, but it
24:29
Speaker 1: would diminish the risk, the likelihood of her death. Obviously,
24:33
Speaker 1: she was 28 years old, presumably healthy, and of course
24:36
Speaker 1: died in these mysterious circumstances. This is actually enhancing, Crystal,
24:41
Speaker 1: even more speculation that this might have been some sort
24:44
Speaker 1: of genetically modified or gain-of-function style strain of the bacteria,
24:52
Speaker 1: specifically because if you had a vaccination and if this
24:56
Speaker 1: was a normal laboratory accident, what would have happened would
24:59
Speaker 1: have pulled the emergency alarm and she would not have
25:02
Speaker 1: come into contact with the nearly 200 people and others
25:05
Speaker 1: in the city of Irkutsk And it definitely would not
25:08
Speaker 1: have led to the current screenings that are happening in
25:11
Speaker 1: these maternity wards and around these hospitals. So no confirmed
25:16
Speaker 1: more infections as of right now. But I do think
25:19
Speaker 1: it does highlight that they are not telling the truth. And,
25:22
Speaker 1: you know, more broadly, speaking with Annie on our show
25:26
Speaker 1: and what I've learned even more from some of the
25:28
Speaker 1: other lab experts is that nothing about the way this
25:32
Speaker 1: is being handled is consistent with a laboratory accident. You
25:35
Speaker 1: can actually rule that out, basically, in the way that
25:38
Speaker 1: the public health authorities have responded. Either she was smuggling
25:42
Speaker 1: something out, she was infected by something, like we said,
25:45
Speaker 1: that's much more genetically modified. And this is a known
25:49
Speaker 1: bioweapons facility with a long history in the Soviet bioweapons program.
25:54
Speaker 1: And their tight-lippedness around this and the total amount of
25:59
Speaker 1: control that they have imposed on Irkutsk with the information
26:02
Speaker 1: blackout makes things very reminiscent of Yeah, I think we
26:06
Speaker 1: just don't have enough information to say whether this is
26:08
Speaker 1: something that we should be afraid of or whether it
26:10
Speaker 1: is a minor blip that we'll all move past shortly because.
26:23
Speaker 4: Also, some of their actions are consistent with what they
26:26
Speaker 4: are claiming, which is that she died of some sort
26:29
Speaker 4: of pneumonia. Now, that would be very unusual for someone
26:32
Speaker 4: who is 28 years old. It would be highly unusual,
26:35
Speaker 4: but it wouldn't be impossible. And so if you had
26:37
Speaker 4: a researcher at this facility who died in a mysterious way,
26:41
Speaker 4: if you were a responsible government, what you would do
26:43
Speaker 4: is out of an abundance of caution, some of the
26:45
Speaker 4: things that they had done, you know, the lockdowns of
26:48
Speaker 4: the hospital, the quarantine, the testing, etc., Now, of course,
26:52
Speaker 4: we don't trust our own government. We shouldn't trust the
26:54
Speaker 4: Russian government, the information that they're putting forward, et cetera.
26:56
Speaker 4: I do think the piece about the notion that she
26:59
Speaker 4: was vaccinated against the strain that she was working with,
27:03
Speaker 4: that just sounds very plausible based on what your typical
27:06
Speaker 4: lab protocol would be. It is worth saying that that
27:09
Speaker 4: vaccination is not 100%. So even if she was vaccinated,
27:12
Speaker 4: if she was exposed to it, there's still a possibility
27:14
Speaker 4: that she would contract the plague and die without it
27:18
Speaker 4: having been enhanced. Although these are obviously things that, you know,
27:23
Speaker 4: we have to be concerned about and worried about given the,
27:26
Speaker 4: what we've all been through and what we know is possible.
27:28
Speaker 4: So I don't know, maybe I just have already too
27:31
Speaker 4: many existential worries on my plate. Like I can't really
27:33
Speaker 4: wrap my head around another one. So I'm looking at
27:35
Speaker 4: this and going, I need more information before I freak
27:38
Speaker 4: out about it. Because as much as we are lacking
27:42
Speaker 4: in specific information, there continue to be a lot of
27:44
Speaker 4: question marks. There's also not been, you know, confirmed sort
27:48
Speaker 4: of like Anarchy or breaks mass social breakdown in the region.
27:54
Speaker 4: You know, I'm sure that we do have quite a
27:56
Speaker 4: bit of intel resources there to know what they're doing.
28:00
Speaker 4: Our own government doesn't seem to be completely panicked or
28:02
Speaker 4: freaking out about it. So I'm going to I'm going
28:05
Speaker 4: to wait on this one before I go for like
28:07
Speaker 4: five alarm fire.
28:08
Speaker 1: To be fair, I actually am not that worried for
28:11
Speaker 1: a total international COVID-style outbreak. And the reason why is
28:16
Speaker 1: everything that we're able to understand about this disease is
28:19
Speaker 1: that it's literally so deadly and horrific that you will
28:22
Speaker 1: not make it to the gate for your flight. You
28:24
Speaker 1: will not be able to asymptomatically pass this disease. If
28:28
Speaker 1: you get it, you will come into contact with that person.
28:31
Speaker 1: You will know how sick that person is. They're not
28:33
Speaker 1: leaving their house, basically. So It's actually more about lab safety,
28:38
Speaker 1: about known bioweapons than it is necessarily like this specific one.
28:43
Speaker 2: And I think that's why it is important.
28:45
Speaker 1: It also does, again, highlight the breakdown in all of
28:48
Speaker 1: these so-called bioweapons conventions and international health regulation. Like no
28:54
Speaker 1: country has a interest in actually abiding by these things.
28:58
Speaker 1: And that's part of the issue. So that's part of
29:00
Speaker 1: the reason I wanted to focus on it. Let's put before,
29:03
Speaker 1: let's take a listen here. The CDC director said, is
29:06
Speaker 1: giving an update, asked about it yesterday at a Wall
29:08
Speaker 1: Street Journal conference.
29:09
Speaker 8: The situation in Russia right now, the U.S. has warned
29:13
Speaker 8: Moscow about its failure to disclose details of the death
29:16
Speaker 8: of a lab worker from a plague research center in Siberia.
29:20
Speaker 8: What steps are you... and the federal health apparatus taking
29:24
Speaker 8: to ensure that America is protected from this potential spread
29:28
Speaker 8: of whatever is happening there?
29:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, so the CDC certainly and the whole of government,
29:32
Speaker 6: we are hearing the same thing that the American public
29:35
Speaker 6: is hearing, that there is an unconfirmed case of what
29:39
Speaker 6: we've heard of is pneumonic plague. It's from Yersinia pestis.
29:42
Speaker 6: It's a bacterial disease, very serious bacterial disease. The one
29:47
Speaker 6: good thing, if I could say there's a good thing,
29:49
Speaker 6: is that it's a treatable, highly treatable bacterial disease with
29:53
Speaker 6: common antibiotics that most physicians within the United States can utilize.
29:59
Speaker 6: This is a disease that is spread person to person
30:02
Speaker 6: through respiratory droplets. But like I said, if we can
30:05
Speaker 6: identify cases early, they're absolutely treatable. What we're doing from
30:10
Speaker 6: a whole of government standpoint is we're making sure that
30:13
Speaker 6: we understand exactly what that threat is. We are very
30:17
Speaker 6: confident that the threat to the United States is extremely low.
30:21
Speaker 6: There are about 200 flights that come into the United
30:25
Speaker 6: States from Siberia, that region. We are working with Department
30:29
Speaker 6: of Homeland Security, working Department of State, Department of War,
30:33
Speaker 6: and other agencies within the government to make sure that
30:36
Speaker 6: we know exactly if anyone from that area comes into
30:40
Speaker 6: the United States. Like I said, there are about 200
30:41
Speaker 6: flights there.
30:43
Speaker 8: Per year.
30:43
Speaker 6: They typically come into JFK. We have a port health
30:46
Speaker 6: station set up in JFK so that we can do
30:49
Speaker 6: appropriate surveillance and screening if anyone from that area comes
30:53
Speaker 6: into the United States. So we're very well positioned to
30:55
Speaker 6: make sure that we are protected from a potential threat
30:58
Speaker 6: like that.
30:59
Speaker 8: Is Russia being adequately transparent with the U.S.
31:03
Speaker 6: So from what I understand from the Department of State
31:05
Speaker 6: and from others within the Department of Homeland Security, we
31:08
Speaker 6: are still having those conversations about what exactly happened in Siberia.
31:14
Speaker 2: Relatively reassuring, Crystal.
31:16
Speaker 1: Although I feel like every movie that's a zombie movie
31:19
Speaker 1: starts with a clip.
31:21
Speaker 2: It's just like that. So maybe I have too much Hollywood.
31:23
Speaker 2: There's nothing to worry about. There's nothing to worry about.
31:26
Speaker 1: We got everything under control. We got it all handled
31:28
Speaker 1: at JFK. And I'm like, OK, she seems like a
31:31
Speaker 1: smart lady. Sounds reasonable, Dr.
31:33
Speaker 2: Erica Schwartz.
31:34
Speaker 1: Let's put the last one element up here from the WHO.
31:38
Speaker 1: This was significant. Annie Flagg, because it was actually the
31:40
Speaker 1: first time WHO has even acknowledged the situation. The World
31:43
Speaker 1: Health Organization saying, been actively following this reported death in
31:47
Speaker 1: response to the verification requests under IHR guidelines. Health authorities
31:52
Speaker 1: reported no case of plague has been registered in the
31:55
Speaker 1: Irkutsk Oblast.
31:56
Speaker 2: They have informed the WHO.
31:58
Speaker 1: An epidemiological investigation had been conducted, preventative and control measures implemented,
32:04
Speaker 1: and identified contacts placed under medical observation tested. They reported
32:08
Speaker 1: that no high-threat pathogens have been detected among contacts. Medical
32:13
Speaker 1: observation of all identified contacts had been completed. So that's
32:17
Speaker 1: it for what we have right now. We're going to
32:18
Speaker 1: keep our eyes, obviously, on the story. And as Crystal said, look,
32:23
Speaker 1: It's not something to panic about that's gonna be happening,
32:26
Speaker 1: at least in terms of what a lot of these
32:27
Speaker 1: epidemiologists are saying right now. But it does highlight the
32:30
Speaker 1: problem around lab leaks, around safety, around the way that
32:33
Speaker 1: governments communicate about these things. And just like with COVID,
32:37
Speaker 1: I think what's important about COVID is that the people
32:40
Speaker 1: who had followed this, obviously not me, I didn't wake
32:42
Speaker 1: up one day and I was like, oh, lab leaks
32:45
Speaker 1: happen all the time, is that there were so many
32:49
Speaker 1: precipitating and precursor incidents that people like Richard Ebright and
32:53
Speaker 1: others who had all been warning about this for literally
32:56
Speaker 1: decades from anthrax and leading up to this in like
33:00
Speaker 1: a 20-year period could point back and say, hey, look,
33:04
Speaker 1: this system is not working. And eventually the big one
33:07
Speaker 1: is going to happen. And then it did, like with COVID.
33:10
Speaker 1: And so I think that's how we should look at
33:11
Speaker 1: this situation because it's a very, very deadly and horrific pathogen. However,
33:17
Speaker 1: it is so deadly, in fact, that it may not
33:19
Speaker 1: likely to be caused some sort of global epidemic, but
33:22
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that the next one or some sort
33:24
Speaker 1: of other virus or bacteria, which is being genetically modified,
33:29
Speaker 1: won't be. And in fact, the same director of this
33:32
Speaker 1: Plague Institute laboratory, as we showed everybody in one of
33:36
Speaker 1: our previous shows, had just traveled to China, not only
33:39
Speaker 1: to participate in an exercise about the outbreak of plague,
33:42
Speaker 1: but around tick-borne diseases, which we know, like Lyme disease
33:48
Speaker 1: here in the United States, has at least the potential
33:50
Speaker 1: to itself have leaked from the Plum Island Research Defense
33:53
Speaker 1: Laboratory in the 1970s. So those are exactly the type
33:56
Speaker 1: of things that apparently the United States and Russia had
33:59
Speaker 1: all been researching at the time of the Cold War.
34:01
Speaker 1: Russia itself is currently embroiled in a long ground war,
34:06
Speaker 1: which is grinding to a halt. And many of those
34:09
Speaker 1: types of diseases, bioweapons and others, are specifically studied for
34:13
Speaker 1: the implementation to unleash on the enemy in order to
34:17
Speaker 1: weaken their resolve in some sort of Spanish flu-style 1918
34:21
Speaker 1: pandemic collapse. And so always important, I think, to highlight
34:24
Speaker 1: these stories.
34:25
Speaker 4: And the other thing is now we don't just have
34:26
Speaker 4: to worry about governments. Everybody excited for the anthropic wet
34:29
Speaker 4: lab that they're setting up. I mean, and this is
34:32
Speaker 4: one of the things that is a great fear of
34:34
Speaker 4: mine with regard to AI. So it's a reminder, too,
34:37
Speaker 4: of how deadly these things can be, how quickly they
34:39
Speaker 4: can spread. Not that any of us really needed that.
34:42
Speaker 4: reminder because of what we have all lived through at
34:45
Speaker 4: this point. So it's important to take these things seriously.
34:47
Speaker 4: I don't know if you saw that some hacker who
34:49
Speaker 4: appears to have not been all that skilled using off
34:52
Speaker 4: the shelf, not even the frontier AI models was able
34:55
Speaker 4: to hack into the South Korean banking system. And again,
34:59
Speaker 4: using like pretty unsophisticated techniques based on other technical analysts
35:04
Speaker 4: who were looking at it and were like, oh, they
35:06
Speaker 4: didn't even do this basic thing you would do to
35:08
Speaker 4: hide your identity. And we're asking Claude also things like, hey,
35:13
Speaker 4: can you make a resume for me? So they got
35:15
Speaker 4: all of their contact details. So it didn't exactly seem
35:19
Speaker 4: to be the sharpest knife in the drawer and yet
35:22
Speaker 4: able to pull.
35:23
Speaker 3: Off what was a sophisticated hack.
35:24
Speaker 4: And so that's the problem is when you enable this
35:28
Speaker 4: highly technical, sophisticated technique. technology to be in the hands
35:32
Speaker 4: of anyone. Now, anyone who has a nefarious purpose or
35:36
Speaker 4: deeply ideological viewpoint who wants to unleash something terrible on
35:41
Speaker 4: the world, they are more likely to have the tools
35:44
Speaker 4: to do so. So that's part of the concern too,
35:46
Speaker 4: is that now we don't just have to worry about governments.
35:48
Speaker 4: We have to worry about pretty much anyone.
35:50
Speaker 1: Yeah.
35:51
Speaker 2: Any private laboratory, chemist sets and all. Wow. Too much.
35:55
Speaker 2: It's too much for today.
35:56
Speaker 1: Okay.
35:56
Speaker 2: Let's get to Michigan.
36:00
Speaker 4: So breaking just this morning, we have a New York
36:03
Speaker 4: Times report about how a top aide to Mike Huckabee
36:06
Speaker 4: has been actively covering up negative information about the Israeli
36:10
Speaker 4: government in an effort to protect Netanyahu. So this is
36:15
Speaker 4: a man who works for the U.S. government, and yet
36:18
Speaker 4: he is covering up negative information about the Israeli government
36:23
Speaker 4: in an effort to hide the truth from the White
36:26
Speaker 4: House and indeed from President Trump. So Let me read
36:30
Speaker 4: the TLDR they put here at the top. So they
36:33
Speaker 4: say in late March at the height of the Iran war,
36:35
Speaker 4: Israel quietly approved more settlements in the Israeli occupied West
36:39
Speaker 4: Bank than it ever had at one time. Staff members
36:43
Speaker 4: at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem saw the move as
36:45
Speaker 4: potentially flouting one of President Trump's explicit red lines for Israel.
36:49
Speaker 4: No annexation of the West Bank and drafted an urgent
36:53
Speaker 4: report intended for policymakers in Washington. That memo never reached Washington.
37:00
Speaker 4: It was quashed by David Milstein, a top aide to
37:03
Speaker 4: Ambassador Mike Huckabee. According to three U.S. officials briefed on
37:07
Speaker 4: the process, they go on to say that this was
37:10
Speaker 4: no isolated incident. He has repeatedly suppressed or significantly revised
37:14
Speaker 4: embassy reporting on Israeli activities to present the Netanyahu government
37:19
Speaker 4: in a favorable light. Here are the examples that they give.
37:23
Speaker 4: As settler violence in the West Bank surged in the spring,
37:25
Speaker 4: he stymied embassy reporting suggesting the Israeli government was failing
37:29
Speaker 4: to take action. Instead, he sent a cable to Washington
37:34
Speaker 4: praising Israel for cracking down on the attacks. So quashed
37:38
Speaker 4: the truth and actively lied to them in a cable
37:41
Speaker 4: that was sent to Washington. When members of Congress pushed
37:44
Speaker 4: for accountability over the killing of nine Palestinian Americans, okay, again,
37:48
Speaker 4: Americans killed by Israeli settlers and security forces, He suppressed
37:53
Speaker 4: a detailed report the embassy staff had written, effectively stonewalling lawmakers'
37:57
Speaker 4: efforts to gain information.
37:59
Speaker 3: Soon after arriving in Jerusalem, Mr.
38:01
Speaker 4: Milstein began insisting on approving communications from the embassy section
38:05
Speaker 4: that handles Palestinian affairs. The flow of cables plummeted from
38:09
Speaker 4: several a week to a few a month, as some
38:11
Speaker 4: staffers refrained from writing reports for fear Mr. Milstein would
38:14
Speaker 4: block or rewrite them. They go on to say his
38:17
Speaker 4: interventions go far beyond those of any recent investigation.
38:21
Speaker 3: Predecessor.
38:21
Speaker 4: I mean, in my view, Sager, this is literally treasonous.
38:26
Speaker 4: Protecting the interests of a foreign government over the interests
38:30
Speaker 4: of the government that you work for, the country that
38:34
Speaker 4: you are a citizen of, this is completely insane.
38:38
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
38:38
Speaker 1: And don't forget, Milstein is Mark Levin's stepson. Now, I
38:42
Speaker 1: don't usually care about these types of things, except for
38:45
Speaker 1: the fact that apparently in the Trump administration, nobody wants
38:47
Speaker 1: to touch him because he's Mark Levin's Now, normally, if
38:51
Speaker 1: a United States ambassador found out that their chief of
38:54
Speaker 1: staff was editing cables, manipulating intelligence that's being sent to Washington,
38:59
Speaker 1: they would be furious about it. Instead, Mike Huckabee is
39:03
Speaker 1: defending him. Don't forget that this is the same David Milstein.
39:06
Speaker 1: I don't know if we even covered this story on
39:09
Speaker 1: the show. I know I certainly mentioned it. is the
39:12
Speaker 1: same guy who, when he was getting married, solicited cash
39:16
Speaker 1: donations in dollars and shekels from his guests for his wedding. Now,
39:22
Speaker 1: I guess that's, I mean, you know, donations and all
39:25
Speaker 1: that is largely par for the course. However, this was
39:28
Speaker 1: in such a fashion where he sent out a QR code,
39:31
Speaker 1: making it easier to all of the guests, basically saying, hey,
39:35
Speaker 1: anybody can donate, you know, literal cash to this. He
39:38
Speaker 1: had claimed after it was reported in Politico that it
39:42
Speaker 1: was meant to only go to a small circle of
39:44
Speaker 1: family and friends and not to everybody. But nonetheless, the
39:48
Speaker 1: reason why it was highlighted was was for the potential
39:50
Speaker 1: of corruption because there are corruption guidelines that govern people
39:55
Speaker 1: who serve in public office, solicitation of cash donations, and yes,
39:59
Speaker 1: especially if they come from foreign citizens, and in this case, obviously,
40:05
Speaker 1: in the nation of Israel. So this is incredibly a
40:09
Speaker 1: wild story. I mean, as you said, treasonous behavior because
40:12
Speaker 1: it's not just about manipulating intelligence and cables specifically to
40:16
Speaker 1: make the Netanyahu government look better. What it really is
40:20
Speaker 1: is you have this situation where you have American citizens
40:23
Speaker 1: who have been killed in the West Bank. Your embassy
40:26
Speaker 1: is supposed to look out for your interests and especially
40:29
Speaker 1: to pressure the host government who is responsible, Israel in
40:33
Speaker 1: this case, who occupies the West Bank, into making sure
40:36
Speaker 1: that there is an investigation that has taken place. The
40:39
Speaker 1: actual embassy workers responsible are like, yep, nothing's happening. They're
40:43
Speaker 1: not doing anything about this. Clearly, this is being sidelined.
40:47
Speaker 1: There's not going to be any justice. He comes in
40:50
Speaker 1: and defends the Netanyahu government, basically saying they're doing a
40:53
Speaker 1: good job. Same whenever it comes to settler violence. And
40:56
Speaker 1: so here you have like the it comes all together
40:59
Speaker 1: like full circle. You've got Mark Levin's stepson who nobody
41:03
Speaker 1: wants to touch because he's Mark Levin's stepson. To be fair,
41:05
Speaker 1: you know, previously worked for Ron DeSantis and some of
41:08
Speaker 1: these other longtime person in American politics on the right,
41:12
Speaker 1: but always has had a massively pro-Israel bent, then becomes
41:16
Speaker 1: the chief of staff. in the United States embassy and
41:19
Speaker 1: is now doing this and basically being caught with no
41:22
Speaker 1: repercussions from Washington, from the State Department, or from the
41:27
Speaker 1: White House. And so I think that's what is the
41:30
Speaker 1: craziest part. I mean, if you were some, as we saw, actually,
41:33
Speaker 1: we interviewed one of those people, a State Department employee
41:37
Speaker 1: who was just trying to pass the facts on about,
41:40
Speaker 1: you know, restraint and some pro-Israel influence.
41:42
Speaker 2: He's totally, or he was trying to do his job.
41:45
Speaker 2: in a more.
41:45
Speaker 1: Apolitical way, this guy gets fired largely at the behest
41:48
Speaker 1: of David Milstein, whereas Milstein can basically be caught manipulating
41:53
Speaker 1: intelligence or using his position to make the Israeli government
41:57
Speaker 1: look better in official diplomatic channels. And he gets a
42:00
Speaker 1: complete free pass from the Trump White House, from Marco Rubio,
42:04
Speaker 1: and also from the embassy itself. So much so that
42:09
Speaker 1: the funny part is, is that despite what Ben Shapiro
42:11
Speaker 1: and those people would tell you, It's not like the
42:14
Speaker 1: people who work at U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, you know, the
42:17
Speaker 1: so-called career diplomats are like rabid Hamas leftists. These are
42:22
Speaker 1: almost certainly, you know, bipartisan pro-Israel mainstays who already have
42:29
Speaker 1: been screened by the Trump administration who are working in
42:32
Speaker 1: that building. Those are the people who are like, yo, man,
42:35
Speaker 1: what David Milstein is doing is crazy. So keep that
42:38
Speaker 1: in mind whenever you when you see who is sourced
42:41
Speaker 1: for a lot of this stuff is. Yeah.
42:43
Speaker 4: Even if they're like holdovers from the Biden administration. Oh,
42:46
Speaker 4: were they like pro Hamas and pro Palestine?
42:48
Speaker 3: Like, be for real. What U.S.
42:51
Speaker 4: President could you point to where it's like, oh, they're
42:53
Speaker 4: a holdover from George H.W.
42:56
Speaker 3: Bush, who actually pushed back a little bit.
42:57
Speaker 4: I mean, you have to go way back to find
43:00
Speaker 4: someone who would break from the pro Israel consensus that
43:03
Speaker 4: we've had has had a, you know, a lock grip
43:05
Speaker 4: on the country for so long. Here's another instance just
43:09
Speaker 4: to show you how far this goes because it's not
43:12
Speaker 4: just like a handful of cases. In the summer of 2025,
43:15
Speaker 4: dozens of Palestinians seeking food were killed near the distribution
43:18
Speaker 4: sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. People who watch
43:21
Speaker 4: our show will certainly remember us talking about this quite
43:24
Speaker 4: a bit. In that cable, diplomats, American diplomats, warned that
43:30
Speaker 4: the foundation's distribution process was chaotic and deadly and risked
43:33
Speaker 4: more mass casualty events. Milstein rewrote the cable saying, to
43:37
Speaker 4: declare GHF's operation a success while overlooking the mass casualties
43:42
Speaker 4: all together. So literally took what the diplomats were saying, hey,
43:47
Speaker 4: this is a disaster.
43:48
Speaker 2: It's chaotic.
43:48
Speaker 4: People are getting killed. Like, this is not good. And
43:51
Speaker 4: totally erased that and instead said, this is going great.
43:55
Speaker 4: This is amazing. Mass casualty event. What mass casualty event?
43:58
Speaker 4: This has been a tremendous success. So it is truly, look,
44:02
Speaker 4: it's not shocking. But we still have to look at
44:05
Speaker 4: this and say it is unbelievable that someone who has
44:09
Speaker 4: truly amassed, by the way, you may have never heard
44:11
Speaker 4: of him before out there, but he has amassed a
44:13
Speaker 4: lot of power within this administration and has been very
44:17
Speaker 4: influential in terms of the Israeli policy, which, of course,
44:20
Speaker 4: has governed a lot of our foreign policy. He is
44:23
Speaker 4: completely lying about the facts of what's happening in an
44:27
Speaker 4: effort to cover up and make the Netanyahu government look good.
44:31
Speaker 4: It is totally, completely unbelievable.
44:33
Speaker 3: Disgusting.
44:34
Speaker 4: And by the way, hat tip, shout out to Quincy Institute,
44:37
Speaker 4: who had some of this reporting first quite a while
44:39
Speaker 4: ago before New York Times got their hands on some
44:42
Speaker 4: of these details.
44:43
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I told Trita this privately. I said, you achieved
44:46
Speaker 2: the impossible.
44:47
Speaker 1: You did something first and got the New York Times
44:50
Speaker 1: to acknowledge it, which they never do. So that is
44:53
Speaker 1: how dead on that they actually were. I do want
44:56
Speaker 1: to just remind people, too, about Milstein. Milstein is the
44:59
Speaker 1: person who was also in that meeting with Jonathan Pollard
45:02
Speaker 1: and May have helped kind of make that happen. Remember
45:06
Speaker 1: the convicted spy, Jonathan Pollard, who set foot back on U.S.
45:10
Speaker 1: soil at the embassy in Jerusalem at the invitation of
45:14
Speaker 1: Mike Huckabee, to which he still, to this day, has
45:17
Speaker 1: no apologies for what he's done, even though Huckabee himself
45:20
Speaker 1: actually pushed for a pardon and for his own release
45:23
Speaker 1: while he was an elected official because he was so
45:26
Speaker 1: unfairly treated. In my opinion, he didn't serve nearly long
45:29
Speaker 1: enough in prison. That's exactly what we're dealing with. That's
45:32
Speaker 1: what they think.
45:33
Speaker 2: Of people.
45:34
Speaker 1: I mean, at a certain point you're like, who are
45:36
Speaker 1: you working for, man? And I think we all know
45:38
Speaker 1: the answer and you also can see why.
45:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead.
45:42
Speaker 4: And to your point, Sagar, it's not like this guy
45:44
Speaker 4: came out of nowhere. He's been an aid to a
45:46
Speaker 4: bunch of, I mean, he's totally like mainstream within Republican
45:50
Speaker 4: political circles. Also former top aid to Ted Cruz, which
45:53
Speaker 4: may not.
45:53
Speaker 6: Oh yeah.
45:53
Speaker 2: I've heard stories about the mill scene for years.
45:56
Speaker 1: Uh, some hilarious, maybe one day I'll be able to
45:58
Speaker 1: report some of the things, the shenanigans has been up
46:00
Speaker 1: to for a decade. I will say what's also important
46:04
Speaker 1: about this is people often wonder about Trump's mindset and
46:09
Speaker 1: with Bibi. But here you can see how the information,
46:13
Speaker 1: this is why systems matter so much, that information that
46:16
Speaker 1: bubbles up. Let's say when Trump asks, he goes, hey,
46:19
Speaker 1: what's going on with these Americans who have been killed?
46:21
Speaker 1: Let's say on the very off chance that he even
46:23
Speaker 1: hears about it. Well, if you ask for the info
46:26
Speaker 1: and the info is coming from U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and
46:28
Speaker 1: he's cooking the information from U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, People are like, oh,
46:32
Speaker 1: it didn't go down the way that the media is saying.
46:35
Speaker 1: That's why this stuff is so important, is that usually
46:38
Speaker 1: they're supposed to actually just give the facts or at
46:40
Speaker 1: the very least their own assessment about what's going on.
46:42
Speaker 1: You change that assessment, you can change the entire ramifications
46:46
Speaker 1: of all of this. And I haven't seen any of
46:47
Speaker 1: those families get any recognition or any Oval Office meetings
46:52
Speaker 1: for their deaths or investigate nothing. I mean, you have
46:54
Speaker 1: a few congressmen and senators who may speak up and
46:57
Speaker 1: say something, but These people, I mean, their literal family
47:01
Speaker 1: members are dead at the hands of settlers and nothing
47:04
Speaker 1: has been done for them. And the people who are
47:07
Speaker 1: supposed to represent them regardless of nationality, regardless of race
47:12
Speaker 1: or their own, which side they fall in the conflict,
47:17
Speaker 1: you usually used to have this feeling when you would
47:19
Speaker 1: travel abroad. I am an American. My embassy will do
47:23
Speaker 1: something for me if something happens. If you are in
47:25
Speaker 1: the West Bank, You already know that's not the case,
47:27
Speaker 1: but now you especially know that that's not the case.
47:30
Speaker 2: It's terrifying.
47:30
Speaker 4: No, that's absolutely right. And none of this is to
47:33
Speaker 4: let Trump off the hook, by the way. You know,
47:36
Speaker 4: if we're able to get the information, the president of
47:38
Speaker 4: the United States certainly could. He's constructed this intentional information bubble.
47:43
Speaker 4: And so, you know, he's susceptible to these sort of
47:48
Speaker 4: very simple lies and manipulations. But that is all of
47:51
Speaker 4: his own making and his own responsibility. Meanwhile, guys, I'm
47:55
Speaker 4: sure out there you're worried about gas prices. You're worried
47:58
Speaker 4: about being able to afford a home. You're worried about
48:00
Speaker 4: whether there are going to be any jobs for your
48:02
Speaker 4: kids after they go to college because of AI.
48:05
Speaker 2: Don't worry.
48:06
Speaker 4: The Trump administration is really in touch with your deep
48:09
Speaker 4: concerns about the future. That is why they are launching
48:14
Speaker 4: this task force to combat anti-Semitism.
48:17
Speaker 3: Let's take a listen.
48:18
Speaker 9: Our nation is at a pivotal moment. In recent years,
48:22
Speaker 9: we have seen a disturbing rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric and
48:25
Speaker 9: acts of hatred against fellow citizens. Let me say this.
48:30
Speaker 9: Hate has no place in America, and this Department of
48:33
Speaker 9: Justice remains committed to confronting it wherever it appears.
48:37
Speaker 5: What makes America unique is the promise embedded in our
48:40
Speaker 5: Constitution that all Americans should freely enjoy life, liberty, and
48:44
Speaker 5: the pursuit of happiness. This Department of Justice is committed
48:47
Speaker 5: to protecting those freedoms and upholding law and order to
48:50
Speaker 5: ensure that that promise endures.
48:53
Speaker 9: Under President Trump's leadership, this administration has one goal, to
48:57
Speaker 9: make sure that every American has the freedom to enjoy
49:00
Speaker 9: their rights guaranteed to them by God, the Constitution, and
49:04
Speaker 9: our laws. That is why this department has already taken
49:08
Speaker 9: decisive action to safeguard American civil rights in cities and
49:13
Speaker 9: universities across the country. We have accomplished a lot in
49:16
Speaker 9: just the past year, and we are only just beginning.
49:20
Speaker 4: I mean, you can't take these people seriously. Like this
49:23
Speaker 4: is the administration that ran against DEI and Wokeness, who
49:27
Speaker 4: under Stephen Miller is literally running a whites only immigration policy.
49:32
Speaker 4: And we're supposed to imagine that, you know, on this
49:35
Speaker 4: one issue, they actually deeply care and that this is
49:37
Speaker 4: going to do something about quote unquote anti-Semitic hate. Why
49:40
Speaker 4: is it that they only care about this one particular
49:43
Speaker 4: form of bigotry? Well, I mean, for one thing, there's,
49:47
Speaker 4: we of course know some of the structural factors influencing
49:50
Speaker 4: American politics. But the other piece here, Sagar, of course,
49:53
Speaker 4: is politics itself. The first stop on the anti-Semitism tour
49:58
Speaker 4: just so happens to be in the swing state, very
50:01
Speaker 4: important to Senate control of Michigan.
50:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, shocking.
50:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, can you imagine if Biden- took the
50:09
Speaker 1: DOJ on a, like some sort of, I'm trying to think, CRT,
50:15
Speaker 1: on like a pro-CRT critical race theory tour of Florida
50:20
Speaker 1: in 2022. I would be losing it. I'm telling you
50:23
Speaker 1: right now, I would absolutely be losing it. People should
50:26
Speaker 1: be losing it around this too, because this is the
50:29
Speaker 1: power of the federal government, and not just the power
50:32
Speaker 1: of the federal government, we're not even talking about the
50:33
Speaker 1: White House, we're talking about the Department of Justice, which
50:35
Speaker 1: has multiple times prosecuted bullshit incidents of so-called anti-Semitism, or
50:41
Speaker 1: they have brought cases or brought their, you know, threats
50:44
Speaker 1: against like civil misdemeanor style cases, which could easily be
50:49
Speaker 1: handled by the University of Florida, you know, like the
50:53
Speaker 1: University of Florida campus police or Los Angeles PD, and
50:57
Speaker 1: which would be a literal civil matter and escalating it
51:00
Speaker 1: all the way up to the top of the federal government.
51:03
Speaker 1: So this I have joked Previous, not really joke because
51:06
Speaker 1: it's true. The Department of Justice actually did Ibrahim X.
51:10
Speaker 1: Kendi's dream of the Department of Anti-Racism, but they decided
51:14
Speaker 1: to create it as the Department of Anti-Semitism. And that's
51:17
Speaker 1: effectively what we see here right now. Obviously, the politicalization
51:22
Speaker 1: of it with Michigan.
51:23
Speaker 4: And what you point out is so important. Like their
51:26
Speaker 4: definition of anti-Semitism is fake.
51:29
Speaker 3: It's Israel criticism.
51:31
Speaker 4: And that's not hyperbole. That's their literal definition of anti-Semitism
51:37
Speaker 4: is criticism of Israel. And of course, we've seen the
51:40
Speaker 4: way that they've weaponized that and applied that. If you
51:43
Speaker 4: want to talk about Mahmoud Khalil or to your point,
51:45
Speaker 4: these silly examples of some Florida student who bumped into
51:49
Speaker 4: a guy with an IDF sweatshirt and became some national,
51:51
Speaker 4: oh my God, it's such a hate crime. We have
51:53
Speaker 4: to do something about this. Just utterly, utterly ridiculous. But
51:58
Speaker 4: They think that they have a chance in Michigan because
52:02
Speaker 4: there's a pretty significant Jewish population that's been expressing some concerns,
52:06
Speaker 4: at least among some corners, about Abdul El-Sayed, that maybe
52:09
Speaker 4: they can help to peel off some of those voters.
52:11
Speaker 4: So that's part of the reason for the timing here.