Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 7/13/26: Ro Khanna Detained By Israel, Trump Freaks Over Air Force One Reporting

Transcript

7/13/26: Ro Khanna Detained By Israel, Trump Freaks Over Air Force One Reporting · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here.
0:01
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0:33
Speaker 2: Joining us now is Congressman Rokhana, who is just back
0:36
Speaker 2: from his trip to the occupied West Bank where he
0:39
Speaker 2: was detained by illegal settlers and then by the IDF.
0:42
Speaker 1: Great to see you, sir, Good to see you, sir.
0:44
Speaker 4: Thank you thanks for having.
0:45
Speaker 5: Me back on Yeah, of course. So let's just start
0:48
Speaker 5: with what happened here.
0:49
Speaker 2: I can put these images and videos that you shared
0:52
Speaker 2: on Twitter up on the screen and just tell us
0:54
Speaker 2: what we're seeing and what happened to here.
0:57
Speaker 4: We were at Zanuda Village.
1:00
Speaker 6: It's a village that was destroyed by Ynan Levy and
1:05
Speaker 6: his group extremist settlers. And we were looking at an
1:08
Speaker 6: elementary school that had been raised to the ground. Other
1:11
Speaker 6: members of Congress actually had been to that exact site.
1:16
Speaker 6: And when we were there, these violent settlers start.
1:21
Speaker 4: To yell at us, curse.
1:23
Speaker 6: Us, they tell me, and the other Americans and some
1:27
Speaker 6: of the Palestines with us get into our van. We
1:29
Speaker 6: get into our van and we see twenty one twenty
1:32
Speaker 6: two year olds brandishing m force kicking our tires, wiping
1:37
Speaker 6: our windows, taking video of us. This lasts about twenty
1:41
Speaker 6: twenty five minutes. Our interpreter goes out, speaks to them,
1:45
Speaker 6: and they say, we don't care that they're Americans, we
1:49
Speaker 6: don't care that there's a member of Congress. Now, the
1:52
Speaker 6: IDF comes about twenty minutes into it, and I said, okay,
1:55
Speaker 6: finally we're going to get through because they had blocked
1:57
Speaker 6: our van from exiting the area on the road entrance,
2:03
Speaker 6: and the IDF shockingly sides with the settlers. Now, at
2:07
Speaker 6: first this was just my account, the security guard's account,
2:10
Speaker 6: the New York Times photographer's account. It turns out this morning,
2:14
Speaker 6: to break some news, there's actually body cameras of one
2:18
Speaker 6: of the people in video one minute and fifteen minutes
2:21
Speaker 6: video that just came out on Acts, which shows that
2:25
Speaker 6: these IDF officers were siding with the settlers and further
2:29
Speaker 6: blocked us in, and we were there seventy five minutes.
2:33
Speaker 6: We had to call David Brownstein, who's the number two
2:36
Speaker 6: or three person career person at the American embassy, who
2:38
Speaker 6: reached someone senior in the Israeli government, and finally the
2:42
Speaker 6: police came, and then the settlers left and the IDF left.
2:46
Speaker 6: But it was a very tense situation. If we were
2:50
Speaker 6: a Palestinian, I believe there would have been damage herrets
2:53
Speaker 6: the Israeli papers as I got the VIP detention that
2:57
Speaker 6: if we were Palestinian, it probably would have been beaten
3:00
Speaker 6: or even killed.
3:01
Speaker 4: But it just was awful.
3:03
Speaker 6: And the fact that there is not international outrage that
3:07
Speaker 6: Americans were detained, and that there's no investigation, no consequence,
3:12
Speaker 6: it's just shocking. The Prime Minister's an ambassador were on
3:15
Speaker 6: TV yesterday is lying.
3:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
3:17
Speaker 3: But the Prime Minister of Israel, Prejident Netnyahu, was asked
3:20
Speaker 3: about this your specific situation yesterday, he defended Israeli's conduct
3:24
Speaker 3: let's take a listen.
3:25
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're a country of laws, and people who break
3:28
Speaker 7: the law, we take them to court. In the West Bank,
3:33
Speaker 7: in Judean Siberia, we've had thousands, thousands of attempted attacks
3:38
Speaker 7: and warnings against terrorist activities against innocent Israeli's families. Mother
3:45
Speaker 7: where their children driving along the road, they're stopped by
3:48
Speaker 7: terrorists and they killed them. And this has happened again
3:51
Speaker 7: and again and again. There is a vigilante effort, not
3:54
Speaker 7: by the settler community. They're ninety nine point nine percent
4:01
Speaker 7: law abiding citizens. They work, they serve in the army,
4:04
Speaker 7: and so on. There are one hundred and fifty juvenile
4:07
Speaker 7: delinquents that are not part of that community. They come
4:10
Speaker 7: from the other parts of Israel. We are I don't
4:14
Speaker 7: want vigilantes of any kind, and we are working to
4:17
Speaker 7: put them under the law. But I think if we
4:19
Speaker 7: put things in perspective, we should see that we have
4:22
Speaker 7: thousands of attacks and some few but obvious breaking of
4:28
Speaker 7: the law. Then we apply the full measure of the
4:30
Speaker 7: law against them.
4:31
Speaker 3: A few bad apples, Congressmen, But he's saying, ultimately, their
4:35
Speaker 3: nation of laws, how does it comport with your experience?
4:39
Speaker 4: It's just a total untruth.
4:40
Speaker 6: First of all, is he committed to arresting these extremest
4:44
Speaker 6: settlers because their pictures are on social media. They are
4:50
Speaker 6: affiliated with Janon Levy, who is not a delinquid youth.
4:54
Speaker 6: Janon Levy murdered a Palestinian caught on camera in actually
5:00
Speaker 6: met with Ottawa the Palestine, and he murdered his brother.
5:04
Speaker 6: Khalil I saw the spot where Janan Levy murdered his brother.
5:09
Speaker 6: I saw and heard the story of Ottawa's children, and
5:13
Speaker 6: Khalil said that he has to see Janan Levy one
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Speaker 6: hundred two hundred feet and an illegal outpost, still a
5:21
Speaker 6: free man, even though he murdered his brother. In that
5:25
Speaker 6: same group of Junan Levy are the people who are
5:29
Speaker 6: affiliated with the detaining US, detaining Americans in any other
5:34
Speaker 6: if any other nation did this, the first response would
5:37
Speaker 6: be for the American President, American investador to demand the
5:41
Speaker 6: arrest of these settlers who did this and demand an
5:45
Speaker 6: investigation for why the Israeli military four of those soldiers
5:49
Speaker 6: assided with these settlers, So you know, the Prime mister
5:52
Speaker 6: can call them juvenile delinquents.
5:54
Speaker 4: They're not.
5:55
Speaker 6: Obviously, they're connected to Janon Levey but he hasn't even
5:57
Speaker 6: arrested them. Where are the arrests, Where is the investigation
6:01
Speaker 6: into the IDF soldiers.
6:03
Speaker 2: Some people are also saying that you wanted this to
6:07
Speaker 2: happen to draw attention to yourself and to try to
6:10
Speaker 2: create some political gain. Respond to that and also talk
6:13
Speaker 2: about what was the reason that you decided to make
6:16
Speaker 2: this trip and what impact did it have on you,
6:18
Speaker 2: separate apart from this detention, which I'm sure was genuinely
6:22
Speaker 2: a terrifying situation.
6:24
Speaker 6: Well, those conspiracy theorists are as absurd as the people
6:27
Speaker 6: who say that President Trump wanted to get shot at
6:30
Speaker 6: it a butler, I mean, who wants to have people
6:33
Speaker 6: with enforced surrounding them parked outside a van, threatening them,
6:39
Speaker 6: cursing at them, and then being detained for seventy five minutes. Obviously,
6:46
Speaker 6: you know it was pales and compareson to what Palestinians
6:50
Speaker 6: go through. But it's the most unsafe I felt in
6:52
Speaker 6: my entire life, and the most powerless I felt in
6:56
Speaker 6: my entire life. And the fact of this is that
6:59
Speaker 6: what makes it inconvenient for the Israelis is that a
7:02
Speaker 6: New York Times photographer was there, and people who speak
7:05
Speaker 6: Hebrew It Israeli security guard was there, and there were
7:10
Speaker 6: both Israelis and Palestinians. So there were about ten eyewitness
7:13
Speaker 6: accounts of what took place. Now here's what bothers them.
7:17
Speaker 6: Here's what they're calling a stunt. What bothers them is
7:21
Speaker 6: that I went to Palestine to get the Palestinian perspective
7:25
Speaker 6: in a Palestinian led tour, and that I didn't do
7:28
Speaker 6: the obligatory visits to the Israeli government and to Israel.
7:33
Speaker 6: I have been to Israel three times, I've done the
7:35
Speaker 6: obligatory visits, the curated tours. I met with the two
7:39
Speaker 6: Israeli prime ministers, including Prime Minister net Nyahu.
7:43
Speaker 4: I have met heartbreaking.
7:45
Speaker 6: Stories of Israeli hostage families, including John and Rachel poland
7:51
Speaker 6: And who lost their son Hirsh and I condemned unequivocally
7:55
Speaker 6: the October seventh terrorist attacks. But what they want to
7:58
Speaker 6: say not because of me, because really they're fearful of
8:02
Speaker 6: this is no American politician should go to Palestine in
8:05
Speaker 6: the West Bank and get the Palestinian perspective. That they
8:08
Speaker 6: should all come through Israel, that they should all come
8:11
Speaker 6: through the advocacy groups and my cardinal sin while they're
8:14
Speaker 6: calling it a stunt, as.
8:15
Speaker 4: I refuse to do that.
8:17
Speaker 6: And this is why for seventy five years, the American
8:19
Speaker 6: people haven't had the facts because when our videos come out,
8:22
Speaker 6: and I appreciate that this has been about Americans and me,
8:26
Speaker 6: but the real story I want to come out is
8:28
Speaker 6: the daily life of Palestinians. And I hope the platform
8:31
Speaker 6: I have and the attention this trip has garnered will
8:34
Speaker 6: allow people to watch some of these videos. They are
8:37
Speaker 6: going to be horrified. It is clear apartheid. I used
8:41
Speaker 6: to toss that word around academically.
8:43
Speaker 4: I felt it. I saw it.
8:46
Speaker 6: I saw Palestinians who don't have enough water to flush
8:49
Speaker 6: their toilets or wash their clothes, while Israeli settlers are
8:53
Speaker 6: getting four times the water. I met the father of
8:56
Speaker 6: someone who had lost a fourteen year old son Palestinian American,
9:00
Speaker 6: who admits that the Palastine American kid was throwing rocks,
9:04
Speaker 6: but the idea of soldiers shot him twenty one times.
9:06
Speaker 6: And you know what, his bedroom is still left the
9:09
Speaker 6: same way because the parents are grieving and there's no justice.
9:12
Speaker 6: He can't get any justice for his son. I saw
9:15
Speaker 6: the school shooting. I saw the blood of a kid
9:18
Speaker 6: who was murdered, and talked to the principal that was
9:21
Speaker 6: never asked about what happened that day. Doesn't know whether
9:25
Speaker 6: the shooter is going to face justice. I saw Palestinian homes.
9:29
Speaker 6: The people were multimillionaires. You know, someone saying, oh, ro
9:31
Speaker 6: you were in a village with multimillionaires. Yeah, they're Palestinian
9:34
Speaker 6: Americans were multimillionaires who when they get to Palestine are
9:37
Speaker 6: treated as Palestinians and dirt. Whose houses are being vandalized,
9:42
Speaker 6: who are being beaten up or telling me the stories
9:44
Speaker 6: of being beaten in checkpoints. This is not politics, this
9:48
Speaker 6: is humanity.
9:50
Speaker 3: Congressman, did anybody from the US government say anything on
9:54
Speaker 3: your behalf, the ambassador, the President, the Vice print, Did
9:58
Speaker 3: anybody do anything to help you after your illegal detention?
10:03
Speaker 6: You know, I want to again recognize David Brownston, who's
10:05
Speaker 6: a career person at the embassy, and I'm not sure
10:08
Speaker 6: that we would have made it out if it were
10:09
Speaker 6: not for his courage and his follow up. I mean,
10:14
Speaker 6: he was on the phone with us and on the
10:16
Speaker 6: phone with the Israeli government pushing for the police to come,
10:20
Speaker 6: and he was gracious to check in with us afterwards.
10:23
Speaker 6: But while I've had colleagues from both sides of the
10:26
Speaker 6: isle in the House reach out to me and other
10:28
Speaker 6: elected officials, I have not heard anything from the administration.
10:32
Speaker 4: And it shouldn't be just about me.
10:33
Speaker 6: There were four Americans on that bus. Now this happens
10:38
Speaker 6: to Palestinians in a much bigger way all the time.
10:40
Speaker 6: But there are four Americans on the bus. There's an
10:43
Speaker 6: American government official. We're being illegally detained and threatened, the
10:48
Speaker 6: foreign government's militaries involved, and we're just going to stand
10:53
Speaker 6: quiet while the prime minister of that country is lying
10:57
Speaker 6: about any accountability, I mean to everyone with an American passport.
11:02
Speaker 2: Congressman, I really appreciate you highlighting the stories of the
11:05
Speaker 2: Palestinians that you met, and we look forward to seeing
11:07
Speaker 2: the videos that you put out about their experiences and
11:11
Speaker 2: the oppression they experience. You also mentioned to The New
11:15
Speaker 2: York Times how much you felt that your brown skin
11:18
Speaker 2: impacted your treatment there, and I assume when you said
11:21
Speaker 2: that you could feel the apartheid yourself, that's part of
11:23
Speaker 2: what you're referring to. Could you just elaborate on that
11:26
Speaker 2: and what that experience was like for you.
11:29
Speaker 4: I've never felt my race as acutely. You know.
11:31
Speaker 6: I was born in nineteen seventy six. I grew up
11:33
Speaker 6: in Pennsylvania. Was there a time that someone said, hey,
11:35
Speaker 6: go back to India on a basketball court? Sure, but
11:38
Speaker 6: by and large in this country, while I'm aware of,
11:41
Speaker 6: of course, our history of race, I personally haven't felt that.
11:45
Speaker 6: As soon as I got into the West Bank.
11:48
Speaker 4: I started to feel it the first.
11:50
Speaker 6: Time when I was on the Israeli occupied side of Hebron,
11:53
Speaker 6: and I was there with one of my aides, a
11:56
Speaker 6: young guy, Cam Caski, white Jewish American Ben Linder. A
12:01
Speaker 6: friend was also Jewish and in Israeli a Nadav, a
12:06
Speaker 6: white Israeli And there were the four of us and
12:09
Speaker 6: we were walking and suddenly the guards come up and
12:12
Speaker 6: they don't say anything to the other three people, but
12:15
Speaker 6: they single me out and they say, are you the
12:17
Speaker 6: son of Isaac or the son of Ishmael? Meaning am
12:20
Speaker 6: I a Christian or a Muslim? And I say I'm
12:22
Speaker 6: a Hindu. And they have no idea what that is.
12:25
Speaker 6: And I could tell that they were so troubled that
12:29
Speaker 6: this person, brown person was in this delegation, even though
12:32
Speaker 6: I was in a suit and addressed as I usually
12:36
Speaker 6: dressed as a member of Congress, and every checkpoint we
12:39
Speaker 6: were going through, suddenly the security guard would spend more
12:43
Speaker 6: time talking to me. And the look in those settler's eyes,
12:48
Speaker 6: the laughter that they had, the disdain they had, I
12:52
Speaker 6: don't think they could believe someone like me was in Congress,
12:56
Speaker 6: or perhaps even American.
12:57
Speaker 4: Look.
12:58
Speaker 6: I don't want to make this about me, because the
13:01
Speaker 6: indignities that the Palestinians face are hundreds of times worse.
13:06
Speaker 6: But what I will say is that it is apartheid,
13:09
Speaker 6: and it's apart tid through a racialized lens, and that
13:12
Speaker 6: if you are brown in Palestine you are going to
13:17
Speaker 6: face that kind of racism in their first day.
13:22
Speaker 3: There last question for you, sir, I know you have
13:24
Speaker 3: to go in a minute. We can put the quote
13:26
Speaker 3: up here. You did describe yourself here to the New
13:29
Speaker 3: York Times as a long shot presidential candidate. So do
13:34
Speaker 3: you want to make any news here with your intentions.
13:37
Speaker 3: It's not very often you hear a politician describe themselves
13:39
Speaker 3: that way.
13:40
Speaker 6: Well, I think I should have said potential, But you know,
13:43
Speaker 6: here was my point. I want everyone who aspires to
13:50
Speaker 6: run to lead this party, to lead our country to
13:53
Speaker 6: actually go and see the facts on the ground and
13:57
Speaker 6: what Israel. Why is Israel being so vehement in taking
14:01
Speaker 6: me on, Why are they having DFMI in all releasing videos?
14:05
Speaker 6: They want to discourage other politicians from doing this. And
14:09
Speaker 6: the point I was really trying to make is free
14:11
Speaker 6: advice to the Israelis. It's not going to work to
14:14
Speaker 6: be detaining American politicians, and it's not going to work
14:18
Speaker 6: if they try to tighten up their policies and prevent
14:21
Speaker 6: others from taking the trips that I did. The only
14:25
Speaker 6: reason this situation has continued for seventy five years is
14:29
Speaker 6: because Americans haven't gotten the look on the ground that
14:33
Speaker 6: I did. I feel like I didn't know what was
14:35
Speaker 6: really going on until I got there, and I feel
14:38
Speaker 6: guilty for having been to Israel a few times and
14:41
Speaker 6: not done that. And I hope in this point that
14:45
Speaker 6: my evolution on this issue should give others a sense.
14:48
Speaker 6: I did not start out as an activist on this issue.
14:52
Speaker 6: I didn't have the clarity that Crystal had on genocide
14:56
Speaker 6: right away. We've had arguments on this show where it
14:59
Speaker 6: took me a while to take get there. But when
15:01
Speaker 6: I saw this firsthand. These are stories I will never forget,
15:06
Speaker 6: and I just wish more Americans would go there on
15:09
Speaker 6: the ground and see this or listen to the voices
15:11
Speaker 6: that some of the journalists are trying to uplift. And
15:14
Speaker 6: if they did, they would see the gross injustice of
15:17
Speaker 6: what's going on.
15:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think you're right that that's exactly what
15:20
Speaker 2: they're afraid of. That's why I no international journals are
15:24
Speaker 2: allowed in Gaza. That's why there's all this social media
15:27
Speaker 2: crackdown and criminalization of descent here in the US, because
15:31
Speaker 2: when people truly absorb what is happening in the humanity
15:35
Speaker 2: of Palestinians completely changes the way that they are viewing
15:39
Speaker 2: the world. So convers from Rocannor thank you so much,
15:40
Speaker 2: first money some time with us this morning, and for
15:42
Speaker 2: taking this trip and taking the risk that was involved
15:45
Speaker 2: with it.
15:45
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir, app share your.
15:46
Speaker 4: Time, thank you, appreciate you guys.
15:51
Speaker 2: So, in a significant escalation in his war against the media,
15:55
Speaker 2: that Trump dooj has subpoenaed a number of New York
15:57
Speaker 2: Times journalists. Let's go ahead and put this tear sheet
16:00
Speaker 2: up on the screen. Times journalist subpoena as Trump escalates
16:03
Speaker 2: pressure on media. The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday
16:07
Speaker 2: to several journalists for The New York Times after the
16:09
Speaker 2: news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President
16:12
Speaker 2: Trump's new Katari donated air Force one.
16:15
Speaker 5: The subpoenas, which seek to.
16:17
Speaker 2: Force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury
16:20
Speaker 2: in Manhattan on Wednesday, were an extraordinary escalation in Trump's
16:23
Speaker 2: efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations. In some cases,
16:27
Speaker 2: those subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up
16:31
Speaker 2: at reporters' homes. The Times denounced the administration's actions, quote,
16:35
Speaker 2: the appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep
16:38
Speaker 2: of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American
16:42
Speaker 2: who believes and the Constitution and the press freedom that
16:45
Speaker 2: it protects. Our journalists report the facts in advanced American
16:48
Speaker 2: public's right to know how their government is operating and
16:50
Speaker 2: their taxpayer dollars.
16:51
Speaker 5: Are being used.
16:52
Speaker 2: This brazen actually be seen as nothing more than an
16:55
Speaker 2: attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening
16:57
Speaker 2: in their country by intimidating journalists and from doing their jobs.
17:01
Speaker 2: They go on to say that there weren't a lot
17:03
Speaker 2: of details in terms of what the subpoenas contained, but
17:08
Speaker 2: they were in regard to an alleged violation of federal
17:11
Speaker 2: criminal law. And we do know that this tracks back
17:15
Speaker 2: to this report on the fact that Trump had to
17:18
Speaker 2: depart Turkey on the old Air Force One rather than
17:22
Speaker 2: the new Katari Air Force One out of some unspecified
17:26
Speaker 2: security concerns. It appears that this may be related to
17:30
Speaker 2: the Israeli claims that Iran was planning some sort of
17:34
Speaker 2: assassination attempt on Trump. I guess the idea being that
17:37
Speaker 2: they were going to try to assassinate him while he
17:40
Speaker 2: was on route, and they had more capability to avoid
17:43
Speaker 2: that or detect that on the old Air Force One
17:45
Speaker 2: versus the new one. But needless to say, the specter
17:48
Speaker 2: of federal agents turning up at journalists homes New York
17:51
Speaker 2: Times journalists homes for reporting reality about what was going
17:55
Speaker 2: on here is a very very troubling situation.
17:58
Speaker 1: That's scary. I mean, prepared as well, lockdown mode.
18:02
Speaker 3: Everybody should use it, highly recommend But yeah, I mean,
18:05
Speaker 3: what you can what's crazy about this? It is all
18:09
Speaker 3: just about this Air Force One situation is that Trump
18:13
Speaker 3: is humiliated and embarrassed because he hyped up this Qatar
18:18
Speaker 3: what was it, the Boeing seven thirty seven, which was
18:21
Speaker 3: gifted by Katar, gifted which they then had to I apologize, Yes,
18:27
Speaker 3: seven forty seven eight, which was gifted by Katar, which
18:31
Speaker 3: then I believe we spent several billion dollars retrofitting said
18:36
Speaker 3: jet to meet Air Force one requirements. Because air Force one,
18:40
Speaker 3: I mean, some of this is like cinema, but it
18:44
Speaker 3: genuinely does have Oh it can survive a nuclear blast,
18:47
Speaker 3: it can do this, it can do that. And that's
18:48
Speaker 3: what's crazy expensive. It's all highly classified and all of that.
18:52
Speaker 3: I actually saw Air Force one a couple of times
18:54
Speaker 3: and there is like, you know, all this stuff that's
18:56
Speaker 3: around it.
18:56
Speaker 1: All right.
18:57
Speaker 3: So what it means, though, is that this had to
19:00
Speaker 3: be retrofitted because it wasn't built to specification. Well recently,
19:05
Speaker 3: what happened is that this Israeli intelligence was given to
19:10
Speaker 3: the United States, and I guess Secret Service US you
19:14
Speaker 3: have to take that all very seriously. And so what
19:17
Speaker 3: they did is they looked because Trump was abroad on
19:19
Speaker 3: the Qatari Air Force one, and he said, oh, the
19:22
Speaker 3: Secret Service apparently told him, you can't use it. You're
19:25
Speaker 3: not allowed to use this because it doesn't have whatever
19:27
Speaker 3: the anti missile defense system that you properly need in
19:30
Speaker 3: order to fly on it. So they actually had to
19:32
Speaker 3: bring the old Air Force one over to Europe and
19:36
Speaker 3: Trump had to use that to fly to his next leg.
19:39
Speaker 3: What you'll notice is, as a frequent reader of Trump's
19:42
Speaker 3: truth social is that he had justified it basically saying
19:46
Speaker 3: he was going to use it as a museum piece.
19:48
Speaker 3: He's like, well, we're bringing it so that people can
19:50
Speaker 3: see it as part of the museum. Maybe that's a
19:52
Speaker 3: whole kakamami story. But it turns out that it's all
19:55
Speaker 3: about this now. According to more recent reporting from Maggie
19:58
Speaker 3: Haberman and other that was just released after these subpoenas
20:02
Speaker 3: were released, is Trump was humiliated and embarrassed by the
20:05
Speaker 3: revelation that it's about his personal project. Air Force one
20:09
Speaker 3: was not up to snuff as Air Force one, and
20:11
Speaker 3: so he has then ordered Cash Patel, let's put E
20:14
Speaker 3: two up here on the screen. Cash Patel has now
20:18
Speaker 3: been directed by the White House to oversee this investigation,
20:22
Speaker 3: so much so that the investigation is not being led
20:26
Speaker 3: out of the FBI building, but from the white House itself.
20:30
Speaker 3: Trump Cash was mister Patel scuttled a planned trip to
20:36
Speaker 3: Chicago and spent roughly eight hours at the White House
20:39
Speaker 3: on Friday. Apparently he was on the tarmac even Cash
20:44
Speaker 3: it was actually working.
20:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I don't know.
20:47
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's working on his plane to
20:50
Speaker 3: whether it was to go see his girlfriend perform or something.
20:52
Speaker 1: I don't know.
20:54
Speaker 3: Quote running the investigation from the White House rather than
20:57
Speaker 3: FBI headquarters quote a departure from his historical practice. Patel
21:01
Speaker 3: had then briefed multiple administration officials the white House's deep
21:05
Speaker 3: involvement comes from Trump was enraged about the coverage of
21:09
Speaker 3: the Katari donated plane. Patol's role in the investigation quote
21:14
Speaker 3: reflects a further dismantling of the wall that had previously
21:16
Speaker 3: separated the White House and FBI, and the government's effort
21:20
Speaker 3: to immediately seek information from journalists when such cases are
21:23
Speaker 3: typically centered first on identifying internal wrongdoing, comes as the
21:27
Speaker 3: Trump administration has intensified pressure on news organizations.
21:31
Speaker 1: So that's what this entire stupid thing was about.
21:35
Speaker 3: We wish that we could say it was all a
21:37
Speaker 3: very about something actually important.
21:39
Speaker 1: You know, it's not so imagine all this.
21:41
Speaker 5: Is interesting the things that actually get under Trump's.
21:44
Speaker 3: Because think think about that, how much classified information has
21:47
Speaker 3: been reported by Ryan on this show, by the New
21:50
Speaker 3: York Times about Iran.
21:51
Speaker 1: They don't do anything. Nobody's knocking anybody's out.
21:54
Speaker 3: And you maybe I'm not saying you should, but you
21:56
Speaker 3: could make a call for that whenever, like for munition's inventories,
21:59
Speaker 3: whenever it would report about the amount of munition.
22:01
Speaker 1: I could see. I'm not saying you justify it.
22:03
Speaker 3: It would probably be popular in another day and age,
22:05
Speaker 3: like if the war was popular, like yeah, he's helping
22:08
Speaker 3: the enemy or something like that.
22:09
Speaker 1: They don't bust anybody's door down for that. It's some
22:11
Speaker 1: stupid shit about this Katari jet. Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry,
22:13
Speaker 1: who cares? Yeah, nobody think.
22:15
Speaker 3: By the way, if you hadn't brought attention to it,
22:16
Speaker 3: nobody would have cared at all.
22:18
Speaker 1: But now now it's the whole thing.
22:20
Speaker 3: You're going to bust a guy's doordown and try to
22:22
Speaker 3: break the First Amendment because of your jet doesn't isn't
22:25
Speaker 3: up to snuff.
22:26
Speaker 5: It's crazy, yeah, it is.
22:27
Speaker 2: And so apparently the situation with this original article is,
22:31
Speaker 2: and this is very common when you're reporting anything with
22:33
Speaker 2: regard to national security. There's this whole dance where if
22:37
Speaker 2: they can persuade a news outlet that it genuinely would
22:40
Speaker 2: compromise national security to put publish this information, then they won't.
22:45
Speaker 2: And so there's this, you know, dance that goes on
22:47
Speaker 2: where the administration tries to persuade the journals like no, no, no,
22:49
Speaker 2: you really can't put this out because here's the problem
22:51
Speaker 2: that is going to cause. And so apparently a senior
22:54
Speaker 2: official at the FBI had contacted a reporter and a
22:56
Speaker 2: senior editor at the Times. They had asked that the
22:59
Speaker 2: article be held, calling it an issue of national security.
23:02
Speaker 2: The Times was like, no, I don't think that it is,
23:05
Speaker 2: so we're going to go forward and publish. And then
23:09
Speaker 2: you know, after that, they also asked the Times to
23:11
Speaker 2: disclose their sources for the article, which obviously the Times
23:14
Speaker 2: is not going to do, and the newspaper refused to
23:17
Speaker 2: do so. So then now we have these subpoenas where
23:20
Speaker 2: you're trying to intimidate journalists. I mean, you know, you
23:23
Speaker 2: imagine a federal agent shows up at your house, starves you.
23:25
Speaker 2: A subpoena you got to go testify before this grand jury.
23:28
Speaker 2: That's the idea here. It's not the first time that
23:31
Speaker 2: they've used this tactic, by the way, They're not the
23:32
Speaker 2: only administration that has done this sort of thing either,
23:35
Speaker 2: but they have done it more frequently than past administrations
23:39
Speaker 2: have done. Earlier this year, they had tried to compel
23:42
Speaker 2: testimony from journalists at the Washington Post. You remember that
23:44
Speaker 2: one same thing, they showed up at our door. They
23:47
Speaker 2: seized I think her laptop and some other information from
23:50
Speaker 2: her house, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
23:52
Speaker 2: The Justice Department then withdrew those subpoenas after both news
23:55
Speaker 2: organizations fought back and sealed filings. So we'll see where
23:59
Speaker 2: this one goes if these journalists actually end up having
24:01
Speaker 2: to testify. But not a good situation and also very
24:05
Speaker 2: revealing about what sorts of things get under Trump's skin.
24:09
Speaker 2: I do want to quickly bring up and we should
24:11
Speaker 2: probably spend another day, some more significant time on this.
24:14
Speaker 2: But they're also targeting Sean Fain, who's the president of
24:17
Speaker 2: the United Auto Workers. You can put E five up
24:20
Speaker 2: on the screen. This is Sean Fain's statement saying you
24:25
Speaker 2: know that he's remained silent on political infighting in his
24:28
Speaker 2: union over the past two years. It only distracts from
24:31
Speaker 2: our mission, but people deserve to know the truth. He
24:33
Speaker 2: says that Rich Boyer, who is a political adversary of
24:38
Speaker 2: Sean Fain's within the Union, has fed the Federal Monitor
24:42
Speaker 2: false allegations and is now trying to weaponize these bogus
24:45
Speaker 2: allegations to steal the upcoming UAW election. He knows he
24:49
Speaker 2: can't win a fair fight because he has no real
24:52
Speaker 2: platform to run on the TLDR here because the Trump
24:56
Speaker 2: DOJ is also investigating Sean Faine, put the sixth up
25:00
Speaker 2: on the screen. This is some details from local news
25:03
Speaker 2: about the DOJ probing Sean Fain assessing legal options. Faine
25:08
Speaker 2: is assessing legal options after the DOJ investigation was launched.
25:14
Speaker 2: The TLDR here according to Sean Fain is that this
25:17
Speaker 2: other guy who is challenging him for UAW president was
25:21
Speaker 2: very unhappy about the fact that the Union came forward
25:25
Speaker 2: and took a stance against the genocide in Gaza, and
25:27
Speaker 2: Sean Fain has been the labor leader who has been
25:30
Speaker 2: most outspoken about the genocide and Gaza. In fact, I
25:33
Speaker 2: can't really think of another labor leader who's said anything
25:36
Speaker 2: about it. So he's really been quite unique in that regard.
25:39
Speaker 2: There was a process through the board to issue a statement,
25:42
Speaker 2: and so they've been quite clear cut. They've endorsed anti
25:45
Speaker 2: genocide candidates like Abdellahl Sayad in Michigan for example, and
25:49
Speaker 2: so this guy, Rich Boyer is running against him, was really.
25:52
Speaker 5: Pissed off about that. They are also outther.
25:55
Speaker 1: Why was you mad?
25:57
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, apparently it was pro Israel, and so
26:00
Speaker 2: he was upset that they had taken a stance on
26:02
Speaker 2: the issue. And so separately, UAW is under one of
26:06
Speaker 2: these consent decrees. They have to be monitored from some
26:10
Speaker 2: prior some corruption that happened before Sean Faine's tenure. So
26:15
Speaker 2: they have to always be interacting with this federal monitors
26:17
Speaker 2: always checking, you know, making sure that they are incorrupt
26:20
Speaker 2: dealings going on. So his rival within the union fed
26:23
Speaker 2: the monitor these allegations that Sean Fayne's claimed. But in
26:26
Speaker 2: any case, he's being targeted and investigated and courting to him,
26:29
Speaker 2: it's based on his you know, his outspoken advocacy for Palestine.
26:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's well, that's according to Faine. I don't know,
26:36
Speaker 3: I mean, this is all internal uada. I'm not saying
26:38
Speaker 3: it's justified or whatever. But obviously Sean Fain is going
26:41
Speaker 3: to be a target of Trump because he endorsed Joe Biden.
26:43
Speaker 1: He was probably I would say, the biggest left leader
26:47
Speaker 1: to back Biden.
26:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
26:48
Speaker 1: I can't really think of another person.
26:50
Speaker 3: I mean, you could say Bernie and AOC, but like
26:52
Speaker 3: he went to the mat for Joe Biden.
26:54
Speaker 2: Well it's interesting though, because I don't know if you recall,
26:56
Speaker 2: during the whole Tariff Liberation Day thing, Sean Fayn came out,
27:00
Speaker 2: yeah he's know this, which was you know, I mean
27:03
Speaker 2: I disagreed with him, but he was looking out for
27:05
Speaker 2: I think this will benefit auto industry and we need
27:08
Speaker 2: to you know, we need to not just throw tariffs
27:10
Speaker 2: out entirely.
27:11
Speaker 5: There was a lot of we talked about it at.
27:13
Speaker 2: The time, a lot of neoliberal like this is why
27:15
Speaker 2: tariffs are just bad, period, end of story, which I
27:17
Speaker 2: also profoundly disagree with. So in some ways, it's not
27:21
Speaker 2: like he's been a hardline Trump derangement syndrome. Anything Trump
27:24
Speaker 2: does is bad. But obviously this administration has targeted any outspoken,
27:31
Speaker 2: you know, supporters of Palestine opponents of the genocide in Gaza,
27:34
Speaker 2: and so that appears to be according again to Sean Faine,
27:38
Speaker 2: that appears to be what's.
27:38
Speaker 1: Going It could be here.
27:39
Speaker 3: I seem to think, I feel like there's something bigger
27:42
Speaker 3: at play. It could be that this whoever guy is
27:44
Speaker 3: made a deal with Trump. That makes a lot more
27:46
Speaker 3: sense is that whoever his internal opponent is made a
27:49
Speaker 3: deal about up and.
27:51
Speaker 1: Was like, look, we can use this as you.
27:53
Speaker 5: Know, they could get away in the Teamsters exactly.
27:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, you go to the Dreamsters at the very I
27:58
Speaker 3: find it hard to believe, you know, this current age
28:00
Speaker 3: because you know, as popular as Trump was with some
28:02
Speaker 3: of the UAW members and we won a decent portion
28:05
Speaker 3: of the actual membership vote this time around. I mean,
28:08
Speaker 3: I can't imagine that being massively pro Trump is like
28:12
Speaker 3: going to be all that popular, yeah, or even within.
28:14
Speaker 1: The team Shirts.
28:15
Speaker 3: I mean, Sean O'Brien he made a huge bet, you know,
28:17
Speaker 3: that he could extract some stuff from Trump.
28:19
Speaker 1: I don't think it's been all that successful. It had
28:21
Speaker 1: a chance.
28:22
Speaker 3: I mean, I'll defend his ability to do so, but
28:24
Speaker 3: it had a chance.
28:25
Speaker 1: But at this point it hasn't really worked out.
28:28
Speaker 2: It made some more tactical sense when Sean O'Brien did it.
28:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, But Trump was going to get.
28:33
Speaker 2: Way one right, You're like, Okay, I'll be close to
28:36
Speaker 2: him and maybe I can get a little something and
28:38
Speaker 2: the teamsters can be protected, which again hasn't really happened
28:42
Speaker 2: in terms of Trump's been terrible for labor, terrible for
28:44
Speaker 2: the economy in general.
28:46
Speaker 1: And his labor sack left. I mean, we hadn't. We
28:48
Speaker 1: didn't spend enough time covering because I think that happened
28:50
Speaker 1: during Iran.
28:50
Speaker 8: But his labor secretary, she was pushed down because of
28:54
Speaker 8: corruption and also her husband was apparently like running around
28:56
Speaker 8: the Department of Labor like harassing, sexually asking women, so
29:01
Speaker 8: allegedly alleged they got pushed down.
29:03
Speaker 2: But yeah, it has not been a pro labor administration
29:07
Speaker 2: in any way, which of course was predictable. But yeah,
29:09
Speaker 2: at this point, if you're a labor leader coming in
29:12
Speaker 2: when Trump is dismally unpopular, losing support among every you know,
29:17
Speaker 2: certainly working class demographic, to then be at this time
29:21
Speaker 2: like let me cozy up to Trump wouldn't make a
29:23
Speaker 2: lot of sense, but it makes sense.
29:24
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it.
29:26
Speaker 1: We're about to do AMA, and we'll see you all
29:28
Speaker 1: tomorrow