← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
2/20/26: Epstein Billionaire Wexner Drops BOMBSHELLS, Iran War LOOMS, Dem Tea Party Gains Steam
01:03:01
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- [00:00]
Krystal Ball
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
Saagar Enjeti
This is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas
- [00:07]
Ryan Grim
with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
- [00:11]
Saagar Enjeti
Hey, so what if you could boost
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Ryan Grim
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- [00:35]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, it's WI fi that is so
- [00:37]
Ryan Grim
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- [00:48]
Ryan Seacrest
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- [01:19]
Public Investing Sponsor
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures hey guys,
- [02:20]
Ryan Grim
Sager and Crystal here.
- [02:21]
Krystal Ball
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show.
- [02:28]
Ryan Seacrest
This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left
- [02:31]
Saagar Enjeti
and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.
- [02:34]
Krystal Ball
So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to BreakingPoints.com Become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad, free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.
- [02:45]
Ryan Seacrest
We need your help to build the
- [02:46]
Ryan Grim
future of independent news media and we
- [02:48]
Krystal Ball
hope to see you@breaking points.com Good morning everybody. Happy Friday. How goes, goes? Excellent.
- [02:55]
Emily Jashinsky
It goes. Yes. We got a really busy show today, don't we?
- [02:59]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, and I think Emily's gonna be joining us. She just was having like some boomer computer issues so we'll let her work that out and she can, she can jump on whenever she gets that figured out. But yeah, I mean we're all watching, see whether we're going to be at war with Iran over the weekend or next week or what exactly is going on there. Ryan's got some new reporting about how Democrats are approaching all of this and you know, I, I would say you'll be disappointed, but I think actually people probably expect the way that Democrats are by and large elected official Democrats are by and large approaching the possibility of a major war with Iran.
- [03:32]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, nobody can be disappointed anymore. Yeah, you have to have hopes and expectations to be disappointed.
- [03:39]
Krystal Ball
Yes, good point. Excellent point.
- [03:41]
Emily Jashinsky
High hopes, high hopes.
- [03:43]
Krystal Ball
We'll take a look at that.
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Emily Jashinsky
We got a Wall Street Journal article on that right here that was breaking this morning. Trump weighs initial limited strike to force Iran into nuclear deal President Trump is weighing initial strike to force it to meet his demands. A first step that would be designed to pressure Tehran into an agreement but fall short of a full scale attack that can inspire a major retaliation. The opening assault, if authorized, could come within days. Would target a few military or government site. People familiar with the matter said if Iran still refused to comply with Trump's directive to end its nuclear enrichment, the US Would respond with a broad campaign against regime facilities. So what do we make of this, this deal making, you know, strike first, deal later?
- [04:27]
Krystal Ball
Well, the, and what's different about this reporting is prior to this we'd been, obviously we can see all of the military equipment that is being amassed in the region. You know, the Largest amount since the Iraq war. So everyone can see that a bunch of the leak to Barack, Ravid and others were saying, hey, they're actually preparing for this to be much larger than the 12 days war, potentially weeks long engagement. Iran also is in a place where they've kind of realized like, hey, we did the kind of choreographed, like we're going to hit you back, but not really, that obviously didn't work because we're still being threatened. So they're in a very different place in terms of how they're tactically and strategically thinking about this. And you know, the problem with this, I mean, outside of obviously like any act of horror is illegal, both by our own laws and by international law, et cetera. But the problem with this tactically too is if you think that some sort of tactical strike on Iran is going to help coerce them at the negotiating table, the reality is the exact opposite. They're going to walk away from the negotiating table, which this report lays out, by the way. If you hit them in any way. They're hoping that attacks from the US Are going to create some sort of rally around the flag, like nationalistic fervor to help reglue a country that has in some ways, you know, come apart over the past two months and that they'll be in a stronger position in terms of like the government's solidity. So this plan, like in my opinion, all of the other plans makes no sense, especially when I still don't even know what Trump is really actually trying to accomplish here.
- [06:00]
Ryan Grim
Yes, exactly. And it's, it's a miscalculation probably in the sense that the previous moderates who had urged the kind of little tit for tat that you talked about them carrying out in both the 12 Day War and also back in January when they first struck. All the people who advocated that have either been pushed out or killed by the, by the actual attacks. And so they've been replaced by people who were warning at the time that if we don't hit hard, we're just inviting further attack, further and endless attacks. So if Trump comes in with what he thinks is like a little gentle tap to like nudge them to some, to nudge them at the negotiating table, which is like just an absurd concept to begin with. But let's, let's say that Trump tries that they don't know that this is just a love tap. You know, they expect this to be the, you know, emptying of the barrel from this massive, unprecedented, unprecedented since Iraq war armada that's hanging out in the Middle east, they think this might be the end. The hardliners who have, who have come to power by the fact that we have brought them there would then be arguing to just, you know, fire everything. Like, we're probably going down at this point, just, you know, empty the cabinet,
- [07:20]
Krystal Ball
fire everything, see if we can race to a nuke. I mean, that's. And, and that's the thing too is think of it from our perspective. Like, if someone attacked us, would that make us more likely to have a diplomatic solution with them to come to the negotiating table? No, of course not. And especially when what they've already seen is that any sort of trying to take a reasonable or moderate approach, et cetera, just encourages more escalation and more aggressive, more aggressiveness on the part of us and on the part of Israel. So they'll look at that and say, okay, well if they hit us and then we bend to their demands, what is that going to teach them? I mean, Ryan and I being parents like this is very basic sort of toddler logic. If they throw a temper tantrum and you give them the piece of candy, guess what they're going to do the next time they want the piece of candy. The same logic applies here. If the US throws a temper tantrum and strikes them and Iran rewards that behavior by capitulating to what are insane demands in terms of, you know, the full, like, not only are you giving up the nuclear program, which Iran has long been willing to do, just see the, you know, Obama era accords and you know, their continued willingness to come to the table on that. But in addition, we want you to give up all of your ballistic missiles. We want you to stop supporting any of the, you know, resistance groups in the region. None of this is really, you know, feasible if you want to maintain any sort of projection of power, if you want to maintain, if you want to be a sovereign nation whatsoever, otherwise you're just a complete sitting duck. So in any case, if you reward this war like behavior and give into any of those demands, then guess what? That is going to encourage more attacks from the US and from Israel. So I think that's how they're thinking about it. Um, there's also a piece in this, I can't remember if it's in, I don't think it's in this article. I think it's in a Financial Times report about the way that Iran is thinking about this. And they said that the, there were a bunch of IRGC commanders who did not want to agree to the ceasefire from the 12 Day War. And whereas the. The Western press has painted the 12 Day War as just a stunning victory for the US and for Israel, it's not seen that way internally in Iran. From their perspective, they're like, yeah, you hit us hard. You, you know, we're able to take on a lot of people, infrastructure, et cetera, but at the end of the day, y' all were the ones who came to us wanting a ceasefire. And again, to Ryan's points about, you know, the moderates versus the more hardline approach, the hardliners said we shouldn't agree to this ceasefire, we should continue hitting them, we should extract some more pain and assert ourselves more, because otherwise they're just gonna come back and attack us again. And guess what? They've been completely vindicated. The hardliners have been completely vindicated by the approach and by the continued threats that we're making now.
- [10:05]
Ryan Grim
Right. Cause they could argue right now, and I'm sure that they are arguing internally. If you had listened to us and you had hit Israel for another week or another two weeks or another three weeks, yeah, we would have taken on more damage, but they were depleted. They were on their back foot. We would have caused them the kind of damage that they're not used to, which would then give them second thoughts about doing this next time. Now they're doing it with many times more American resources in the region. And so it may be possible now, you know, we'll see, but it may be possible that Iran just doesn't have the capacity to push through all of those resources. But if they aim at, you know, closer areas, you know, you know, American linked bases in Iraq or, you know, Qatar or Dubai or Abu Dhabi, like it's. It's a little more difficult for the US to intercept and play defense around there. You know, you have to go further to get to Israel. So that just gives us more opportunity to knock stuff out of the air. But, yeah, you're exactly right. There they are saying right now, we told you so, we told you that the only language that the US and Israel understand is violence. Anything else shows weakness to them.
- [11:23]
Krystal Ball
Yeah. Ryan, you want to talk about what you guys are reporting out today about the Democratic side of this equation? Tell us about our opposition party. How are they doing?
- [11:31]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, opposition party in quotes. You may have noticed that other than a handful of members of Congress, including Ro Khanna, who has teamed up with Thomas Massie to push for a War Powers resolution vote, which should come to the floor next week, there's been very little said Publicly by Democrats against this. Even during the Iraq war, you had Democrats that were for it, but you had a lot of Democrats that were outspokenly against the Iraq war. You're not seeing much of that this time. So back in June, and this is what we'll be reporting later today over at drop site, if you remember, Trump was kind of fainting that there had been progress in the negotiations. And actually, you know what? We might not go ahead, you know, and strike Iran. And Chuck Schumer came out with this video mocking him as Taco Trump.
- [12:24]
Krystal Ball
Yeah.
- [12:25]
Ryan Grim
And this coalition of more than two dozen anti war groups sent a letter saying, schumer, what are you doing? Like, are you trying to taunt Trump into going to war? Like, don't do. This is not a game. Don't do Taco Trump stuff right here. Like, give him a political off ramp. Give him the space that if he wants to do a diplomatic solution, eat the taco, enjoy the taco. Like, this is much better than killing, like a thousand plus or who knows how many you're going to end up killing. It ends up being about 1200 people, but who knows? It could have been a lot more. And so after that letter was sent, there was then a call with a top foreign policy aide who, by the way, as we'll report in the story, has taken two recent trips to Israel paid for by aipac. So this aide calls one of the lead organizers and they have a conversation and she says to him, listen, what you need to understand is that there are many Senate Democrats who believe that Iran needs to be dealt with militarily. But they also understand that this would be catastrophic politically for Democrats. Another war in the Middle east is not something that the Democratic base wants. It's not something that the American public more generally wants. And so they would like Trump to carry it out for them. And for these two reasons. One, it accomplishes the goal, the policy goal that they have of attacking Iran. But also they think it would be bad for Trump, so his domestic politics would suffer. His base would be split. The issue of Israel would become and Israeli kind of leverage over Trump would deepen the fissures that already exist within the MAGA coalition. So from the perspective of these Democrats, it is a win win. Now, she added, Schumer doesn't believe that. Schumer himself, of course, is opposed to these strikes, doesn't want them to happen. But that is the political logic that exists in the caucus that is kind of pushing some of the momentum around how this is messaged publicly. So that is and there is.
- [14:36]
Krystal Ball
They're basically just not saying anything.
- [14:38]
Ryan Grim
Right. Because there's a cold logic to it. Like that logic, in a completely cynical way, doesn't really have any holes in it other than that it's evil and it's going to lead to, could lead to untold lives being lost and tens of millions of people living in a country that's completely destroyed. But that doesn't factor into the cost benefit political calculations. Would it be better for the midterms if this happens for Democrats? Probably. And also a lot of Democrats want it to happen anyway. They just can't. They just know that they don't have the kind of political will or the political support to carry it out.
- [15:21]
Krystal Ball
Wow. And how deep does this support for this approach go in Democratic caucus? Are we talking about like a handful of the most hawkish members, or is this kind of the conventional wisdom?
- [15:33]
Ryan Grim
It's, it's hard to say. But if you look at, you know, I, I think if you look at a vote on, you know, sending offensive weapons to Israel, for instance, and you, you get like a pretty sizable majority of Democrats supporting it still. Like, I think that that's a pretty useful kind of proxy for how much support there remains for something like this,
- [15:58]
Saagar Enjeti
which is interesting, Ryan, because that's different.
- [16:00]
Julie Gonzalez
Hi, everyone.
- [16:01]
Saagar Enjeti
That's different than Venezuela, right? Like the, their Dems were not exactly.
- [16:07]
Ryan Grim
Like, a lot of these Democrats are happy to go to war with Venezuela too, like this.
- [16:15]
Saagar Enjeti
But they made process complaints.
- [16:18]
Ryan Grim
Sure. Yeah. And they'll make process complaints again and they'll pin it on Trump publicly. But privately, are they actually that upset? I don't think so. Not, not. I mean, obviously there's a serious, like anti war base and, and they have their representatives in the Senate and the House. But, but outside of that, you know, there's not a whole lot of squeamishness when it comes to using American power violently around the world.
- [16:47]
Emily Jashinsky
And the timing's a little ironic after all of the Democrats just came to Munich for their foreign policy debuts. To all of a sudden be radio silent on foreign policy is very interesting. Now, Ryan, I know you're talking about more of a moderate sort of centrist wing of the party who thinks about this, but where are people like AOC and others who are considered the progressive left of the party? It also seems like a little bit of radio silence from them. Is that true?
- [17:14]
Saagar Enjeti
So,
- [17:18]
Ryan Grim
like, we can, we can assume that aoc, of course, is against war with Iran. I haven't heard, I think she did
- [17:24]
Krystal Ball
say something about it in Munich, maybe.
- [17:26]
Ryan Grim
I mean, she's certainly against. Yeah, like, you can, you can, you can count her as, like, in the no column on this, but I certainly haven't seen her out there as a vocal opponent, somebody making this, like, a significant issue. Now, I should say, Horna, sources in the Schumer's office that this is, this is not an accurate, you know, characterization that this person had of this conversation with the staffer. He, this, this person recounted it to a number of other people at the time. So I, I find it, I find the characterization of it credible. But just to say that there's some, there's some dispute about how this, you know, conversation went. But no, they're like, you haven't, you haven't seen much noise from somebody like aoc. Maybe she's preparing something. I don't know. But I haven't seen like a kind of Bernie, obviously he's against it. Like, there's no question that they, like Bernie and AOC are against this. But, like, have we heard, are they pushing it hard?
- [18:26]
Emily Jashinsky
Yeah, exactly.
- [18:27]
Krystal Ball
Yeah. We haven't seen them leaning, leading the charge.
- [18:29]
Emily Jashinsky
And Emily, on your side now, I also feel a little bit of radio silence in the lead up to this one. That feels different than the conservative America first noise. Before the 12 Day War, it seemed like there was a lot more pushback, consternation and anxiety from the right leading up to the strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Whereas now it kind of feels like people are perhaps just kind of given up or they're just kind of going with the flow. Is Venezuela part of that equation? That people felt like Venezuela was such a win that you now look kind of like a loser or a wimp and that you should just trust the plan. What's the perspective on that side?
- [19:15]
Saagar Enjeti
I think that's right. And I think there are two things behind it. First is that actually what the government calls Operation Midnight Hammer didn't cause nuclear escalation. And the second point would be that those were strikes on nuclear sites. And what's likely to happen now is strikes on, according to the Journal, government buildings, military facilities, that sort of thing. Not a nuclear strike. In particular, I think when you're listening to Tucker Carlson ahead of Operation Midnight Hammer, that was a lot of the concern was specifically about striking nuclear sites. So there's that. But also I think, because Midnight Hammer and then Maduro were quick and targeted, as people say, there's just a little bit more like people feel like they have maybe some, some egg on their face, probably privately, they'll probably still say, listen, if, if this, what happens? If there are strikes in the next couple of weeks, then how successful really was quote unquote, Operation Midnight Hammer? That's an obvious question.
- [20:28]
Emily Jashinsky
Yeah, I thought we got rid of the nukes.
- [20:30]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, the goalposts just keep getting shifted. So. Yes, but I think people are wary of coming out so hard and saying this will lead to nuclear war. This is almost certain to lead to nuclear escalation. And I think that's a lot of what was happening earlier in June. Still think that was correct, by the way. It didn't turn out that way, but the argument is that the possibility was intolerably high. And just because nobody said it was 100% possibility. Well, maybe somebody did, but most people weren't saying it was 100% possibility. So just because you have 10% or 20% that it won't lead to the end of the world, that's, you know, not sure I'm taking those odds.
- [21:08]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you guys listen to Sagar with, with Andrew Schultz on this, but he was saying, look, basically the anti war faction or the, you know, more restrainist faction within the administration has been completely cowed. Like they've been, you know, they're, they've either given up or they're just on board at this point. And the, the fact that the 12 day war and the Venezuela strikes were seen as these like, grand successes has basically led to them keeping their mouth shut. And then the other piece I think is, you know, one of the voices and I, you know, it's not someone I give a lot of credit to, but one of the voices leading up to the Iran war who was opposed to it was Charlie Kirk. And you know, he's been, he's been killed, he's taken, taken off of the, the chessboard in terms of someone who had access, who could be pushing some of those messages and was, you know, was reticent at least in the build up to Iran. So, so yeah, I think they've been effectively cowed. You hear very little from the, you know, the America Firsters who were previously opposed and, you know, love to tout Trump as the anti war president, blah, blah, blah, like those voices are gone. And so which you couple that with what Ryan was reporting about the radio silence from much of the quote, unquote opposition party, including some of the progressive leaders. You know, you basically got Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie once again out there as the dynamic duo. Like, hey guys, you know, you're supposed to come to Congress. Like, we're not really. We're not down with this, what's going on. But other than that, we sit on the precipice of a potentially major war. If you just look at the assets in the region, once again, more than we've seen since the Iraq war buildup. We sit on the precipice of this major war, and it feels like everyone's just like, huh, yeah, whatever. We'll see. What are you guys up to this weekend? It's kind of crazy making, you know. And go ahead.
- [23:04]
Saagar Enjeti
Well, just speaking of the chessboard, who else was ahead of the 12 day war? It was Marjorie Taylor Greene. Steve Bannon. Bannon has been somewhat neutralized by the Epstein stuff. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is no longer in Congress and does not have a good relationship with Donald Trump. Because she was pushing the administration, she started doing it publicly to focus more on domestic policies and less on foreign policies. And so she's now just back in Georgia.
- [23:30]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, Ryan, one last question I have for you, and then we can move on to this good segue to the Epstein class and the latest things that we're learning. There is the ayatollah put out this tweet that was like, hey, you know, this island y' all are talking about? That's just the tip of the iceberg. We got a lot more that we can let you know about if, you know, your crazy president does attack us. You know, how much credence do you put in that? Is that just bluster, or do you think there could be some substance behind it?
- [24:00]
Ryan Grim
So the. I had told so Handala is the hacking group that originally got access to. To Ehud Barak's inbox. It ended up getting leaked to this nonprofit, Distributed Denial of Secrets, which made it available to news organizations, including us. So and we were able to do, you know, significant amount of our early reporting based on that on that hack. It is, it is often said that Handala is linked to the Iranian government, or it's never been proven, but it's like one of those things where, like, all of these, there's, like, the hacker group that's associated with the US There's a hacker group that's associated with Russia. There's a hacker group that's associated with the Israelis. This is the one that people think of as, like, associated with the Iranians. So the ayatollah, like, may have been briefed that, like they did if it. If that's true, that they played a role in, like, getting some of this information out. We also know According to the warrant that was used to search John Bolton's house, according to that warrant, Iran hacked his AOL account like three times. And one of the things. And the reason that they were searching him is that he was keeping, according to this warrant, classified intelligence on his AOL account. Many such cases, it's very, very easy to hack an AOL account.
- [25:25]
Krystal Ball
I mean, having an AOL account to begin with is embarrassing.
- [25:28]
Ryan Grim
Like, forgot, like, forgot password, you know, done. Like you, you basically, you're in. You're in. And so the Iranians, according to our own, you know, doj, are sitting on at least John Bolton's inbox. God only knows this guy's been involved in every, you know, piece of American shenanigan for decades. Like, golly knows what's in there. So. And what else have they hacked? Like, like, what other they. They have claimed to have, you know, all manner of, like, information about the Israeli government, Israeli politicians, American, like, so that, that. That's what they're alluding to. They are also like a staggeringly kind of conservative country when it comes to their. What they do. Like, if you look at the, the kind of conservative responses that they've had to the attacks, every time the. They had, they. They seem to have had that Barack inbox for a very long time before it was leaked, if it was them that had it. Interesting because, like, the time that it stops there's many years before then between the, like, last email and when it finally gets, you know, made public. So why, like, why don't we have another. Like, according to FBI, they have Bolton's inbox. Like, why have they not released that? I don't know. So, you know, we'll. That's. That seems to be what his. He's referring to there.
- [26:57]
Krystal Ball
So imagine being Trump, being the President of the United States, being in the Epstein files like a million times and that, that we know of and then knowing that Israel has all of that information and now Iran's like, let me just level the playing field here and tell you that we also have all of that information. So move, boss.
- [27:19]
Ryan Grim
Right
- [27:22]
Saagar Enjeti
when you started the sentence with imagine being Trump, I was like, oh, my gosh, where is this going?
- [27:28]
Krystal Ball
Too early. Too early for those.
- [27:30]
Saagar Enjeti
Imagine being Trump.
- [27:33]
Krystal Ball
You've been up all night on True Social. Your 10am Big Mac run is on its way to you.
- [27:44]
Emily Jashinsky
That's why Emily was late. She was putting makeup on her hands.
- [27:49]
Saagar Enjeti
Well, but I take a lot of ibuprofen. I take a lot of ibuprofen.
- [27:53]
Emily Jashinsky
The big ones.
- [27:53]
Krystal Ball
I think it's Tylenol, isn't it? Tylenol. She wants her blood nice and thin, you know that's what it is.
- [28:00]
Emily Jashinsky
If Iran or the Ayatollah have have any info ryan dropsitenews.com I am not
- [28:08]
Ryan Grim
soliciting any information from any designated terrorist organizations whatsoever. To be very clear, that's
- [28:18]
Emily Jashinsky
maybe I'll start a new AOL account. I'm starting a new AOL account and everyone can access it from there.
- [28:26]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Are you feeling those winter blues? Well, do not worry, they've got you covered with ways to boost your mood. Add a little sweetness to your day with big savings on all your favorite sweets. Shop in store or online and save on items like Gummy Savers, Five Flavors, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Sour Patch watermelon, M&M's party size stand Up Bags and Ferrero Rocher Mixed Variety squares. Offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [28:57]
Public Investing Sponsor
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investment investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures there's
- [29:58]
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- [30:23]
Ryan Grim
Lenovo.
- [30:24]
Krystal Ball
Lenovo.
- [30:29]
Emily Jashinsky
On that note, we do have more Epstein stuff happening. Les Wexner, the Epstein associate billionaire, came in to testify. We've got a few clips from that right here, including one Ryan wanted to start with about a Roman embassy and an exchange with his lawyer. Let's take a listen.
- [30:51]
Saagar Enjeti
Look at that pleather vest.
- [30:53]
Les Wexner
I'd be walking out with forks and spoons. Gee, that's a good idea. We ought to have an inventory. Then there was. I hired a lady to be like the house manager who had run the US Embassy in Rome and said, yeah, I know how to do this. Well, why don't we keep inventories of stuff? And she said, yeah, I could do that. So she did that as kind of a puny example, but I wouldn't have had the idea. But then all the things were inventoried. That wasn't work for me or Jeffrey. It was just regularly done.
- [31:36]
Emily Jashinsky
And for those just listening on the podcast, Les Wexner's lawyer leans in and whispers in his ear, I will fucking kill you if you answer another question with more than five words.
- [31:51]
Krystal Ball
I sort of appreciate Wexner's response to that, too, which is to laugh.
- [31:56]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, yeah.
- [31:57]
Krystal Ball
No, yeah, you're probably right.
- [31:59]
Ryan Grim
Yeah. Let this. But let this man cook. So that. That part of it went viral. What a lot of people didn't notice was what led into it. Let's. Let's unpack that for a second. If you are somebody who has even dipped your toes in history of the U.S. you know, post World War II or even ever seen a Jason Bourne movie. Like, what. What does. What. What happens when you hear the words embassy in Rome? Like, that is the locus of the CIA's operations when it comes to working with organized crimes. All of its. All of its espionage.
- [32:39]
Saagar Enjeti
It.
- [32:40]
Ryan Grim
That's. That's where it projects power to the Middle East. It's. It's work with terrorist organizations. It's worked with drug trafficking, arms trafficking. Like that embassy in Rome. That is the hub of, like, all of it. That is, like. To hear, like, alarm bells are going off in everybody's mind, who's like, here's the embassy of Rome. So, Jeffrey. According to Wexner, Jeffrey Epstein had the woman who ran the logistics for the US Embassy in Rome, which is also, like, this is the CIA's hub of its operations in this entire region, and moved her to Wexner's mansion to count his forks and knives, to do an inventory of his forks and knives.
- [33:27]
Saagar Enjeti
I see nothing Wrong with this.
- [33:30]
Ryan Grim
I mean, you're not going to get anybody better at logistics.
- [33:32]
Krystal Ball
Feels like anti Italian bias to me, to be honest with you, Ryan. This whole approach, it's.
- [33:37]
Ryan Grim
It's so, like, try to think of who is doing logistics and. And operations for the US Embassy in Rome. Like, this is somebody who is read in on the deepest secrets of US Espionage. Like that. That's the person that. That Epstein suggested to Wexner run his operation. Yeah, as he. As. He's also, as we reported, like, moving the CIA's southern transport planes, you know, to his operation to transport his apparel around the world. Like they are. It's like they're. They're taunting us, to be honest with you.
- [34:20]
Krystal Ball
The fact that Wexner just sort of, like, naively lays out this piece of information and has to be have his life threatened by his lawyer, it does give some credence to his claims. Like, I'm just kind of an idiot and a rube and very naive, and I had no idea what's. What was going on here fully, at least.
- [34:41]
Ryan Grim
Either that or he's saying, if you keep pushing me, you keep prosecuting me, I might accidentally reveal a lot more.
- [34:51]
Krystal Ball
So you see it more as a potential sort of like an Easter egg for people who are in the know of, like, these are the type of connections that I have, just so you know, so I'm not just this, like, innocent, bumbling old man.
- [35:04]
Ryan Grim
It was the woman who ran the embassy in Rome. That's who. That's who we're working with. Yeah. That is, like, very, like, only lightly veiled, like, reference to.
- [35:16]
Emily Jashinsky
I don't think it's that intellectual. I think this gives, like, old man at the retirement home, and the kids are coming to visit, and he's telling them old stories. Like, I don't think he's that calculated anymore.
- [35:26]
Ryan Grim
I mean, maybe he is, but maybe. I don't know. I don't know, but I wish she'd keep cooking. Well, it would explain why we don't. You have the Rothschild one, too.
- [35:35]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, I was just gonna say, while
- [35:36]
Ryan Grim
I pull this one up.
- [35:38]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, it would just some of it might explain why we never, ever hear from Les Wexner and that, like, they're utterly terrified that he lacks discipline in legal settings.
- [35:47]
Emily Jashinsky
He's a blabber.
- [35:48]
Krystal Ball
I mean, how old is he at this point?
- [35:50]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [35:52]
Krystal Ball
I mean, he's clearly in there with this leather vest. He's like, let me tell you about the old days with my buddy Jeff. They're like, yeah, don't do that.
- [35:59]
Saagar Enjeti
I just. I love the concept of them. They're like, sir, you have to. You're being deposed by Congress. What would you like us to pack? Bring me my finest pleather vest.
- [36:13]
Krystal Ball
It's interesting to me that you clapped that as pleather, because I feel like that could actually be real leather.
- [36:19]
Saagar Enjeti
It could, it could, but I. But we'll watch this one.
- [36:23]
Emily Jashinsky
I think he killed. I think he killed many animals for that vest. All right, let's take this one from the Rothschilds.
- [36:29]
Les Wexner
Personal work for the Rothschild family in France. Well, specifically, I talked to Elie de Rothschild, and so I mentioned that earlier. So he represented their whole family. So there have been a whole bunch of people, most of whom I never would have met. But I knew la. He would say, like, I'm providing financial advice to the founders of Google. I'm financial. Providing financial advice to Jeff Bezos.
- [37:00]
Krystal Ball
This is why I'm like, this guy leaning in again.
- [37:04]
Saagar Enjeti
It's like when Sagar starts going off and Crystal just has to do, like, a Sagar.
- [37:09]
Ryan Grim
Crystal, you should. We. Crystal, we need, like, a button that you can press that says, Sagar. If you answer one more, I will
- [37:16]
Krystal Ball
fucking believe more than five words.
- [37:20]
Saagar Enjeti
I'm gonna fucking kill you.
- [37:24]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's very. The whole thing is very. And again, drop site has done some of the best reporting here because Wexner claimed, you know, oh, we cut off all contact at this certain point. And then you got those, you know, access to those emails. And lo and behold, that was not true. And by the way, the philanthropy that, you know, Wexner family, like philanthropy, was being run almost completely entirely by Jeffrey Epstein was one of the largest funders of Zionist causes, by the way. And long after the supposed contact is cut off, they're still saying, hey, what did. What does Jeff think about this? What does Jeff want to do with X and Y and Z? And the other thing that is very revealing in terms of trying to figure out, okay, was this just some, like, really stupid rube of an old man who was completely, you know, bamboozled and had his money stolen by Jeffrey Epstein, which is the story he's. He and his lawyers are trying to put forward, or is this someone who knew what was going on? You also uncovered an email from him to Epstein that said, you know, after his conviction, that said, you violated your. Your one rule. Always be careful. And Epstein replies to him, you know, still, there's no excuse. So that would indicate, you know, I mean, that would seem to suggest that he had some knowledge of Epstein's doings. Not to mention the fact that like, when you look at the birthday book, when you look at the way he converses with effectively everyone in his social circle, like they're constantly talking about his lifestyle and girls and sex and, you know, gynecologist and torture and all kinds of crazy. So it certainly gives the impression of if you knew this guy, you knew something of what he was all about.
- [39:13]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And he knew him since the 80s, like, is what we're learning. Like, you know, a much longer relationship than we understood. And also it's another wonderful Easter egg for him to throw out saying that he was working, that Epstein was working with this Swiss bank in the mid-80s. And these kinds of Swiss banks were at the nexus of the Iran Contra money laundering and money movement operations. They were moving that money from one bank to another. Something like, I don't know, Emily, you might remember from, you've read Ari Ben Menashe's book more recently, but every 90 days or something, they were moving huge amounts of money from these 30 banks to another 30 banks to another 30 banks. And so the people involved with that got familiar with the shady end of European banking, which might even have been even shadier in the 80s than it is, than it is now that it's with electronic records. It's a little, little bit trickier to move things around than just with paper and pencil and bags of cash. But yeah, so connecting Epstein to this Swiss Rothschilds bank as far back as the mid-80s gives more grist for the, the, the idea that he really did get his connections to both intelligence and wealth through the, the really epic change, you know, era changing Iran Contra scandal.
- [40:50]
Krystal Ball
And didn't Wexner, am I remembering this right? Doesn't he end up with the. Some Iran Contra plane stuff?
- [40:57]
Ryan Grim
Yep, yep. So after, after the, after the heat comes on to the, the CIA's airline that it was shipping the planes and the drugs in the, in the 1990s, the Thing files for bankruptcy and sells half of its planes to like I think some Angola company. And then the other half get moved to Columbus, Ohio by Epstein to work for Wexner, who already has the Victoria's
- [41:27]
Saagar Enjeti
Secret around the country.
- [41:28]
Les Wexner
Yeah.
- [41:28]
Ryan Grim
And who already has. I think maybe he only owned Abercrombie and Fitch at that point, but the limited brands for sure. And, and which was already being managed apparently by, you know, the CIA's top logician out of the Rome Embassy. Like ridiculous.
- [41:46]
Emily Jashinsky
And we have a little bit of sound on those Fashion shows in particular. Let's take a listen.
- [41:52]
Les Wexner
I would go to some of the Victoria's Secret fashion shows. It was very important to the brand.
- [41:57]
Saagar Enjeti
It's some of the very important to the brand.
- [42:00]
Les Wexner
Trump was there. And I remember because Trump would always introduce himself to me, and I always thought it was kind of odd that he was at the fashion show because he had nothing to do with fashion.
- [42:14]
Emily Jashinsky
So is that another veiled threat that he's going to, that he's got more to say, or how do we feel about the fashion show comments here?
- [42:22]
Krystal Ball
I mean, it could certainly be read through either lens. Just an old man remembering things that he remembers and sort of enthusiastic about having the opportunity to share them. It does that vibe of like, you know, your dad or your grandpa at the dinner table. Like, finally, I've got a captive audience. Let me tell you about what happened in 1943. Yeah, yeah. Someone asked me a question. They're engaging with me. I've got things I want to say. Yeah, it has that energy. But then, I mean, if you view it through Ryan's theory of, you know, he's mentioning these little nuggets, none of which is conclusive, but just to kind of indicate, like, listen, if you take too hard a line with me, there are things, you know, I have levers I can pull here. This would certainly fit into that, you know, into that theory as well.
- [43:07]
Saagar Enjeti
The Victoria's Secret element is not unimportant because the Wall Street Journal has a great, like, TikTok of what went on with Jean Luc Brunel. And there's a lot more depth. I mean, it's. It's probably like a 2000 word story or something, but there's a lot more DEP on the Jean Luc Bruno stuff. Actually, Crystal has been, like, in on that stuff for a long time. But it's the. You can see how the Victoria's Secret partnership, or the partnership with Wexner who oversees Victoria's Secret, would have been important to Epstein. You can see where that becomes interesting, that Trump is at the fashion shows when, as Wexner says, he didn't really have anything to do with fashion, which is just cutting unintentionally, just absolutely cutting. But what they were doing very clearly was using modeling agencies and the Journal. I mean, I think it's conclusive at this point. You can see it in emails, but the Journal pretty much clearly connects the dots that they were using. Jean Luc Brunel and Epstein were using modeling agencies to recruit women to come to the United States and basically Work as mistresses. There's an email where one of them says, you know, she's reminiscing, and Epstein, she's getting into a tussle with him. But reminiscing and says, you know, when I look back on it, mistress was the only job proposition that you were ever serious about. Having my pictures taken with Bill Gates and Woody Allen, it's nice, but it's not going to help me get a job. And so that really puts it, I think, in. That's a pretty good picture of what was happening. It's one example, but that's a pretty good example of what was happening across the board. So, Wexner, the question then, for me, and I don't know if Ryan or anyone else has thoughts on this chicken or egg. Is Wexner CIA and then Victoria's Secret, or is he Victoria's Secret and then CIA or another intel agency?
- [44:59]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, he's a useful. You could imagine him being, you know, a useful figure in. In many respects. You know, he's moving vast amounts of, you know, material around the world, you know, from a. You know, particularly from. From Asia, but elsewhere, you know, in and out of the United States. Yeah. Yeah. I don't. I don't know. He's also one of the largest, you know, funders of Pro Israel nonprofits here in the. Here in the US and helping to. Helping to organize support for Israel, you know, at a. At a very extreme level like this, like the guy that's doing, you know, maybe in the top three of pro Israel donors over the last, like, 40 years.
- [45:52]
Saagar Enjeti
Well, it's also a lot of that
- [45:53]
Krystal Ball
seemingly directed by Epstein, too.
- [45:56]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, literally.
- [45:57]
Saagar Enjeti
And it's. And it's also. This is Cold War, right after the Cold War, and Jean Luc Brunel Epstein are. And it goes into the last, like, 10 years before they died, but they're bringing a lot of Eastern European women over. And so that's with Wexner having Victoria's Secret models. Like, you have this, like, international group of hot women moving around the world. You can see how that also can come into potential intel capacity as well, unfortunately.
- [46:30]
Ryan Grim
Yeah, absolutely.
- [46:30]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, that's true. Well, and. And we know Epstein used his connection with Victoria's Secret, you know, when he was personally approached, he was, oh, I'm close with Naomi Campbell. I'm, you know, I'm. He would hold himself down as an actual representative of Victoria's Secret to try to, you know, cultivate young women, potentially girls around the world. And so Wexner, that's why this guy is so important. I mean, people watch the show probably already know this, but not only does he have all of this money and hands over power of attorney to Jeffrey Epstein, you know, this is the first place where you can really, you know, sink your teeth into. Okay, this is where Epstein got a lot of funds from, from this Wexner character. And then he has also the, you know, the modeling angle with Victoria Secret. And then there's all these, you know, the Rome embassy and all and the Iran Contra plains and all of these things that are very eyebrow raising about what other connections he may have had.
- [47:29]
Emily Jashinsky
All right, well, we've got a guest waiting in the lobby here. Why don't we let her in and see what's going on with her?
- [47:37]
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- [49:40]
Krystal Ball
All right, guys, so we're very excited to have another candidate joining us this morning. So this is Julie Gonzalez. She's a state senator in Colorado and she is challenging Colorado Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper in the Democratic primary. Welcome, State Senator Julie Gonzalez. Great to have you.
- [49:55]
Julie Gonzalez
Thank you so much for the opportunity. Great to be here with y'.
- [49:58]
Ryan Grim
All.
- [49:59]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, of course. So just tell us why you decided to jump in in this race.
- [50:03]
Julie Gonzalez
Look, I think like a lot of Coloradans and a lot of Americans that we are sick and tired of go along to get along politics. And what I mean by that is our Democrats who are telling us, oh, if only there was something that we could do in the midst of our descent into fascism and then at the same time, going and voting for those very Trump nominees. John Hickenlooper has always been a centrist incrementalist and has voted for not one, not two, but ten different Trump nominees in the midst of the second Trump administration. Y' all make it make sense. At the same time, in the Colorado legislature, we have been doing the work in order to protect Coloradans, whether that's defending and advancing reproductive freedom, passing the Colorado Voting Rights act and ensuring that when ICE agents trample on our constitution that there are remedies and penalties in place. And so we have done the work. And yet those victories end at the state line when we don't also have a fighter in Washington, D.C. fighting for those same values. And the real question is, yes, we do absolutely need to go and flip red seats blue to build a governing majority. And at the same time, we've got to really start asking ourselves as the Democratic Party, let's look at the caliber of leaders that we're sending to D.C. from the safe blue states. And that's why I'm stepping up to
- [51:45]
Krystal Ball
run, give people a little bit of a sense of your background before you were state senator, the work that you probably still continue to do. What is your background? What brought you to politics to start with?
- [51:56]
Julie Gonzalez
Certainly my family goes back in Colorado generations. We are the types of Chicanos down in southern Colorado, northern New Mexico, who we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us. And when I went to Yale for my undergraduate degree, I learned there about power, that if you don't have institutional power, if you don't have a bajillion dollar endowment or tremendous access to wealth, the way that you earn concrete wins is by organizing people. And so I've done that work since I graduated college in 2005. I've been in Colorado organizing on affordable housing, educational justice, and immigrant rights. When Donald Trump came down that golden escalator down in 2015, those of us who had been in the immigrant rights movement knew that his candidacy was viable. And even when a lot of our establishment Democrat colleagues were saying, no, no, no, don't worry, there's nothing to see here, we got involved in organizing. And after he won in 2016, I then stepped up and was part of that blue wave during that first midterm election that achieved a Democratic trifecta here in our state legislature. I've been proud of the work that we've been able to accomplish since,
- [53:30]
Krystal Ball
obviously you come from the immigrant rights advocacy issue near and dear to your heart. You know, there's a national debate on the Democratic side about what the future of ICE should be. You know, are you in the reform camp or are you in the abolished camp?
- [53:45]
Julie Gonzalez
Look, I actually, when my, when my family was, when I was growing up, my dad managed ranches. And When I was 10 years old, my dad got a job managing a ranch in deep, deep South Texas. And so we moved there in the summer of 93, and in the summer of 94, I'm sorry, in, in January of 1994, NAFTA was enacted. And so middle school me actually witnessed the real beginnings of the militarization of the U.S. mexico border. Growing up down in deep South Texas, I've now seen, right. I went to my very first Dream act rally in August of 2001, and the Dream act is now old enough to get a beer and we still haven't passed it. And ICE is younger than the DREAM Act. So for those who say, oh no, let's just go and reform ice, let's just go and add some additional training and body cams. No, I've seen it firsthand. I've seen what border enforcement looked like before the militarization and the fear mongering of the creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And I stand firmly in the abolish ICE camp in order to replace it with a system that provides an actual legal pathway to citizenship, that restores due process, that treats everybody with dignity and respect, and doesn't ask babies and 3 year olds to represent themselves. In immigration proceedings. Let's ensure that everybody has access to legal counsel so that they can navigate this incredibly important system. Let's make sure that there's enough judges and immigration adjudicators to be able to not have people waiting around for 20 years to try to have their application reviewed. But right now, our immigration system is broken and too many Democrats for far too long have gone and played political football with people's lives. And that's on both the Democratic side and the Republican side.
- [56:03]
Saagar Enjeti
And I was going to pick up on one of those points too. You mentioned due process. Colorado is one of the places for all of the nonsense that's been spewed about Trend Aragua that actually really did have a serious situation with Trend. I think it was an Aurora. And President Trump picked up on all of that. So I imagine, you know, even Democratic Coloradans were upset with with some of what was happening. So I imagine voters will want to hear you talk about what the if ICE is gone or if there's no cooperation with ice, what does a orderly law enforcement system look like for people who are taking advantage of the country's immigration laws? How would you answer that question?
- [56:44]
Julie Gonzalez
Absolutely. Look, we have always wanted to ensure that in a moment of crisis that you are able anybody, whether you are, I don't care where you were born or how long you've been here, that in a moment of crisis that you can feel Safe to call 911 and ask for help. But what we've seen is when local law enforcement is also doing ICE's job for them. That sphere prevents entire segments of community who are either immigrants or live in mixed status families or have mixed status neighbors. They then don't have that trust in local law enforcement. And so we've seen what happens when ICE is doing is not even following the law that local law enforcement abides by. Right. There are roving and causing panic and fear not only for immigrants, but for US Citizens as well. Right. And so look, I'm proud of the work that in Colorado we have done to say ice, go get a warrant, ice, don't come at me with a wannabe warrant, something that is signed by a supervisor, go actually and follow the due process that every other law enforcement agency in the United States has to abide by, which is judicial review, go talk to a lawyer, go get a warrant and then absolutely we will comply with said judicial orders. But what we have seen take place is fear mongering and scapegoating of communities against one another. The whole trendaragua situation that took place in Aurora was put forward as a red herring by a slumlord who actually owed a whole bunch of was involved in a whole series of legal problems in Aurora. And those fear mongering local elected city council members in Aurora were just booted out in this last November's election. You know, Donald Trump's entire mass deportation effort, he named Operation Aurora after our community here in Colorado. But those local elected officials who were a part of building that, that false narrative were all booted out in a sweep this past November, which I think really demonstrates the extent to which Coloradans are sick and tired of the fear mongering. They actually just want to be safe. And Donald Trump and his mass deportation agenda ain't achieving safety at all.
- [59:50]
Ryan Grim
I'm also curious what it's like in today's media environment to try to go from the state legislature to the Senate. Like, how, how are you going about getting your message out? Hickenlooper obviously has this huge name ID across the state and he's got good relationships with all of the, like, local TV stations, the, I'm sure the Denver Post or whatever else. Like, but where do voters, particularly ones who vote in the primary, like, where are they getting their information and how are you, how are you reaching them and have you found, how's the fundraising going in order to reach them? Going?
- [60:27]
Julie Gonzalez
Absolutely. You know, it's been very fascinating, I would say, in this moment, the disconnect between the establishment and the base. And we have some real soul searching to do, as you know, I'd say loosely. Team Blue, we've got to decide whether or not we are going to continue to be beholden to the corporate interests and the corporate lobbyists who say, ooh, not too much. Ooh, can't do that. If only there was something we could do. Turns out actually we can have nice things if we're willing to fight for them. And what we have seen in the wake of Donald Trump's second election has been an incredible grassroots movement that has been energized and activated to stand up to say no kings in this country themselves. Do your job and let's go and build the governing majority that will defeat this MAGA extremism once and for all. Look, I'm not handpicked by Chuck Schumer. It's fine. I wasn't voluntold to step up and run for this seat, but I stepped up after seeing not only those election victories in Aurora and in school boards and city council across the state booting out mag extremists who are trying to ban books instead of opening libraries and better funding our local schools. And there is a real energy in our state to actually elect someone who is willing to stand on the values of ensuring that we are fighting for an economy that works for everyday people and not just for the billionaires. And so look, I'm not gonna outraise John Hickenlooper. That's never been the goal. We're always going to do the work to outwork him and out organize him.
- [62:34]
Emily Jashinsky
So Julie, you mentioned Chuck Schumer. We reported on a New York Times focus group this week where a lot of voters were talking about wanting a progressive instead of a moderate. They called the party weak, paralyzed, useless. Where do you fit in that Dem Tea Party? Do you believe that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeff should step down or not be in leadership of the Democratic Party?
- [62:59]
Julie Gonzalez
Look, Chuck Schumer would not earn my vote in for for Democratic leader of the U.S. senate Democratic caucus. I think that also given Senator Klobuchar's shift to run for governor and Senator Durbin's retirement, that there's a real opportunity for an entire new generation of Senate Democratic leadership. And I think that it is time for us to think differently about how we go and organize our base. You don't negotiate with bully, you don't negotiate with terrorists, you don't give in to bullies. And so how we stand strong on our values in this moment absolutely matters. And so I'm a no for Chuck Schumer. And it's probably why so much of his incumbent protection program is being deployed at this moment on Senator Hickenlooper's behalf. That's fine. I'm proud of the work that we are doing to earn the endorsements of Indivisible Colorado, of seiu, the Working Families Party and the Sunrise Hub here in Denver. And look, that momentum is indicative of the faith and excitement that Coloradans have to actually send someone to DC who's been battle tested, who has already done the work to move policies that often were seen as impossible on immigrant rights, on reproductive freedom, on voting rights, and move those into getting signed into law and then being implemented. That's how I've shown up. And I'll just say one last thing here. Colorado is one of four states that has never elected a woman to serve either as governor or to serve in the US Senate. The other three states being Pennsylvania, Idaho and Indiana. And with Colorado being a Democratic trifecta and a long standing champion for gender equality, I think it's Time.
- [65:17]
Krystal Ball
I have a few like lightning round yes or no questions for you and we want to be respectful of your time. Okay. So first one, I think you'll find all of these easy, but we'll see APAC funding, yes or no?
- [65:27]
Julie Gonzalez
No.
- [65:29]
Krystal Ball
Corporate PAC funding, yes or no?
- [65:30]
Julie Gonzalez
Nope.
- [65:32]
Krystal Ball
Tax the billionaires, yes or no?
- [65:34]
Julie Gonzalez
Absolutely.
- [65:36]
Krystal Ball
And last one, do you support Bernie Sanders legislation to pause data Center Const for AI?
- [65:45]
Julie Gonzalez
Absolutely, 100%.
- [65:48]
Krystal Ball
All right, well, anybody else got another cue or should we let Senator Gonzalez get back to her busy day, I'm sure. Actually, it's pretty early there. Is it? None, is it not?
- [66:00]
Julie Gonzalez
Yeah, it's eight in the morning over here.
- [66:02]
Krystal Ball
Well, one of the things that I think is very interesting about your race is, and Ryan could probably speak to this better than me, but it seems to me that Colorado, it's not that long ago Colorado was a swing state. It's obviously become a, you know, a very solidly Democratic state. And yet you still have quite conservative Democratic leadership. Between Hickenlooper Bennett and then Governor Polis, there's a, seems to me to be a big disconnect between where the base of the party in Colorado is and the leadership that they're representing, which is why I find your race, you know, particularly interesting one to watch. So let people know where they can follow you and support you if they're so inclined.
- [66:40]
Julie Gonzalez
Absolutely. Look, look, what is clear in this moment is that no one is coming to save us but us and that we are the ones that we have been waiting for. And so if you're sick and tired of having to vote for someone who doesn't align with your values, that's why primaries matter. And the Republican Party in this state is trying to right now out extreme their themselves moving further and further and further to the right. And so the question really now in this moment is who do you want to control your life? Do you want the insurance executives, the ICE thugs, Do you want the corporate lobbyists to control your lives? Or do you want people to have been listening to the people who too often have been either taken for granted or forgotten altogether by people in power actually making decisions? That's how I show up to this work. And it's why I believe that we will win in Colorado. In order to get involved with the campaign, hit us up on social media. I'm sendadorajuli on all of the socials and the currently the only Latina in the state Senate here in Colorado. If elected to the U.S. senate, I'd increase the number of Latinas in the U.S. senate by 100%. The first and only Latina ever to serve Catherine Cortez Masto out of Nevada. Right. And so in these times, we can have nice things if we're willing to fight for them. Hit me up@julieforcolorado.com in order to learn more about the campaign and get involved.
- [68:32]
Emily Jashinsky
All right, thank you, Julie. And we'll leave a link in the description of the video. Have a great day. Okay, that was Julie Gonzalez in Colorado. I forgot to add my lightning round question, are aliens real? In honor of the Obama interview.
- [68:47]
Krystal Ball
I thought about making that joke.
- [68:48]
Emily Jashinsky
We'll leave that one alone.
- [68:50]
Ryan Grim
Gotta ask her after she has access.
- [68:52]
Krystal Ball
That's right. She would be on.
- [68:53]
Emily Jashinsky
That's true.
- [68:54]
Ryan Grim
They don't tell state legislators.
- [68:56]
Saagar Enjeti
No, no, no. But then you gotta be very careful about revealing classified information. According to President President Trump.
- [69:02]
Emily Jashinsky
Absolutely.
- [69:02]
Krystal Ball
Yeah. Do we, do we have that? Are we talking about that in the premium half?
- [69:05]
Emily Jashinsky
Well, we're hiding all the classified info behind the premium paywall here. So if you want to see that and more breaking points.com to see the full Friday shows, you can sign up for a monthly or yearly subscription there and help support our journalism. And we will see everyone else on the second half right now.
- [69:25]
Ryan Seacrest
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- [69:56]
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- [70:26]
Krystal Ball
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