← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
5/21/25: Israel Plots Iran Bombing, US Podcaster Beaten In Israel, Trump's Golden Dome, Trump Defies Judge, Trump's Secret Crypto Dinner
01:27:31
Loading summary
Transcript346 lines
- [00:00]
Host 1
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
- [00:06]
Host 2
Want to pull off the season's freshest trends?
- [00:08]
Host 3
You just need the right shoes. That's where designer shoe warehouse comes in. Loving wide leg jeans.
- [00:15]
Host 2
Pair them with sleek low profile sneakers. Obsessed with the sheer trend? Try it with mesh flats.
- [00:21]
Host 4
Feeling boho comfy sandals.
- [00:24]
Host 2
Nail the whole free spirited thing. Find on trend shoes from the brands you love like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas and.
- [00:31]
Host 3
More at DS CSW. Get this. Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes. Us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives. But are we investing in their future financial success? With Greenlight you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing. And this investment costs less than that. After school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free trial@greenlight.com iheart greenlight.com iheart with comprehensive.
- [01:07]
Host 1
Reports on local schools you won't find anywhere else, homes.com is the only place to find the in depth info home shoppers want very in depth info. Curious about where a school ranks in the state? Look no further. Percentage of teachers in their first or second year? We've got it. Lowest student teacher ratio? No problem. The best cafeteria lunch in the district for your nine year old food blogger. Would it surprise you if we said yes? Homes.com we've done your homework. Hey guys, Sagar and Krystal here.
- [01:38]
Host 3
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for.
- [01:44]
Host 4
The future of this show.
- [01:45]
Host 2
This is the only place where you.
- [01:46]
Host 1
Can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.
- [01:51]
Host 3
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.
- [02:02]
Host 2
We need your help to build the.
- [02:03]
Host 1
Future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breakingpoints.com.
- [02:10]
Host 4
Good morning and welcome to Counterpoints. A lot of Trump news today. Can you believe that?
- [02:14]
Host 2
I mean, just another day that ends and why?
- [02:16]
Host 4
Yeah, not like Donald Trump making news all over the world.
- [02:19]
Host 2
That's right, all over the world.
- [02:20]
Host 4
Some of it actually good. And we're not going to do an entire segment on this, but we did want to let you know that the Senate passed the no Tax on Tips Act.
- [02:29]
Host 2
Yeah, it's fantastic.
- [02:30]
Host 4
Let me Give credit to two people that are despicable. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump got together, wrote a bill.
- [02:36]
Host 2
He's not gonna come back on the show if you do that. Right.
- [02:39]
Host 4
And I just said something nice about him. They wrote a bill, and it unanimously passed the Senate.
- [02:44]
Host 2
Mm.
- [02:45]
Host 4
Because the center really cannot hold if you have left populism and right populism actually genuinely working together. Because then you're at like a 70, 30 issue or 80, 20 or 90, 10. Like, who's against tax on tips?
- [02:59]
Host 2
Well, nobody, because it was unanimous. Except the vote was unanimous.
- [03:02]
Host 4
Yeah. Literally. Yet it still wouldn't have happened if the populist wings didn't push it and left populists didn't really push it. This is Trump. Gotta give this one to Trump.
- [03:12]
Host 2
Kamala Harris mirrored it at one point in the campaign. She was like, yeah, tax on tips.
- [03:16]
Host 4
There you go. So it caps. The income cap is 160,000. So if you make less than 160,000. I was reading the bill. I'm. We'll see if it fades in or not. You get basically a $25,000 tax credit against. Against your taxes and what they. And it's against cash, which basically means you can cheat because as long as you. You can just say you got $25,000 in tips and write that all off of your income tax. Now, most people aren't paying that much at that level, so it's kind of basically wipes out your tax bill.
- [03:51]
Host 2
Yeah, it's fantastic. Great bill.
- [03:54]
Host 4
And now it has to pass the House. We'll see.
- [03:56]
Host 2
Yeah, great bill.
- [03:57]
Host 4
But it should. Why wouldn't it pass the House?
- [04:00]
Host 2
I think it'll be just fine. It's a great sign that it was unanimous.
- [04:04]
Host 4
Two or $300 billion, I think.
- [04:07]
Host 2
Yeah.
- [04:07]
Host 4
Over the next 10 years.
- [04:09]
Host 2
So it's in Golden Dome territory.
- [04:11]
Host 4
Yeah.
- [04:12]
Host 2
A lot less than Golden Dome, actually.
- [04:13]
Host 4
Probably just scrap the Golden Dome and pay for it.
- [04:15]
Host 2
Well, we're going to get to the Golden Dome because there's all kinds of news on that front. We'll explain what the Golden Dome, who might pay for it, who might be in charge of constructing it. His name rhymes with D Line Trust. Yeah. So we'll get into all of that. We have news, obviously, probably you've already heard leaked news about Israeli plans for Iran that we're going to get into right away on today's show. We'll then be going through some comments that Donald Trump made yesterday. He was on Capitol Hill talking with reporters. We got some pretty interesting tidbits out of that. We're going to talk about Sudan as well.
- [04:53]
Host 4
Yes. Apparently DHS sent 12 migrants from Myanmar, Vietnam, elsewhere against a judicial order to South Sudan. And a judge has ordered them to not let those migrants out of US Custody even if they're in South Sudan, in case he decides that they need to come back because he's already indicated that this was a flagrant violation of, of court orders.
- [05:21]
Host 2
Speaking of flagrant, Bernie Sanders was on flagrant. We're going to have a conversation about the appearance that Bernie Sanders made with Andrew Schultz on flagrant. And it's really, really interesting. We're going to combine it with a New York Times article about how Democrats are looking to Astroturf influencers to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. So we'll break all of that down. Congressman Ro Khanna is here. He's going to respond to Jake Tapper's appearance on Megyn Kelly's program yesterday. Some of his recent town stops, Ro Khanna's recent town hall stops have been pretty interesting. So there's a lot to break down with the congressman and Elon Musk speaking of him. He says he's out of politics. He literally said he is going to stop giving money to politics unless he thinks he has a good reason to do it. So that's a huge change, a multi, multi billion dollar change for the Republican Party for their incentive structure and for the influences, the outside influences on policy going forward.
- [06:18]
Host 4
Yeah. And we're also going to talk about the potential breakdown of talks between Iran and the United States when it comes to the nuclear deal. Steve Witkoff pushing the US Position to zero uranium enrichment, including for civilian purposes. Ayatollah Khamenei pushing back against that. And Israel now saying, well, maybe we'll just bomb them.
- [06:42]
Host 2
Yeah, we'll get into that. Make sure to subscribe at BreakingPoints.com, we do the Friday shows now. They're really fun. The second half is paywalled for our Breaking Point subscribers. So if you want to do that, go ahead, head over to breakingpoints.com if you can't, no problem. Make sure to like the videos, leave us comments, all that good stuff. Subscribe and subscribe wherever you're getting your podcasts. We appreciate it so much.
- [07:04]
Host 4
So, yeah, let's start with this news from cnn, which sourced it to American intelligence officials, which suggests that it's a strategic leak out of the US they are claiming we put this first on the screen, that they have intelligence that says that Israel plans to go forward striking Iranian nuclear facilities without the United States now, this comes after Steve Witkoff, Trump's envoy, who is in charge of trying to strike this nuclear deal, which is ongoing. Like, we have not. These talks have not ended, said that enrichment, any enrichment at all, is becoming a red line. Let's roll, Wyckoff. Well, the president has been very clear. He wants to solve this. This conflict diplomatically and with dialogue.
- [07:52]
Guest 1
And he's given.
- [07:54]
Host 1
He's given all the signals.
- [07:55]
Host 4
He's directly sent letters to the Supreme Leader. I have been dispatched to deliver that message as well, and I've delivered it. And. But on the other hand, we have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment. We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability. We've delivered a proposal to the Iranians that we think addresses some of this without disrespecting them. And so that's important.
- [08:24]
Host 1
We want to. We want to get to a solution here.
- [08:30]
Host 4
And. And we think that we will be able to. But everything begins for, from our standpoint, John, with a deal that does not include enrichment. We cannot have that because enrichment enables weaponization, and we will not allow a bomb to get here. While Trump was in the Middle east, there was this floating of an idea that there could be a basically nuclear and civilian nuclear enrichment cooperative among, like, the Emiratis, maybe the Qataris, Saudis, Iran, and Iran said, fine, I think that's a great idea. We're happy to contribute, you know, research science and be part of this. But we also want our own program, like, so that you can't just, like, cut us off at a moment's notice and then your entire civilian program gets shut down, which is a big deal if you have, you know, half your country relying on civilian nuclear power. And so the Israelis have been pushing, and the pro Israel faction within the Trump administration have been pushing very hard to say zero enrichment has to be the red line.
- [09:39]
Host 2
Yeah.
- [09:39]
Host 4
Because they know that Iran is not going to accept that.
- [09:43]
Host 2
Well, I mean, it's also just like sort of in substance, a pretty reasonable red line from the perspective of the American people who listen to the bellicose rhetoric from Iran. And I'm not saying I actually support the 0% enrichment target, because I don't think I do. I don't think that's a reasonable way to come to a deal. But I guess in substance, it makes sense why you would say zero enrichment from an American.
- [10:05]
Host 4
Yeah, you would. Yes. I can imagine that that would. It would poll. Well, no. No nuclear enrichment, whatever.
- [10:12]
Host 2
Oh, yeah. When you have people saying that they want death to America, hey, that's Exactly.
- [10:16]
Host 4
That's their logo. Meanwhile, Israel has been threatening to bomb Iran for decades now and is now, according to American intelligence officials, planning, drawing up plans to do so even without the United States and even while the US Is in negotiations with Iran. So you can imagine why from Iran's perspective, they're like, doesn't sound very trustworthy. Separately, Israel keeps referring to their idea of zero enrichment for Iran as the Libya plan. And we know how Libya ended. Libya gave up its nuclear weapons and then the west overthrew Gaddafi and he was sodomized to death.
- [10:59]
Host 2
And we now have Trump Tower, Tripoli. So things are going well. Yeah, we came, we saw, he died. Is that the Hillary Clinton line?
- [11:06]
Host 4
Yes, that is. And Libya is now, I think, what Israelis would like, what the Israeli government would like Iran to be, which is a complete and total shambled failed state that therefore can't pose any threat whatsoever beyond the kind of the threats to the, the world public that failed states actually do present.
- [11:30]
Host 2
Yeah. And we have a response here from Khamenei so we can put the next element on the screen. It always sort of tickles me in, sadly to see him post. Right. So he says, for the Americans to say, quote, we won't allow Iran to enrich uranium is utter nonsense. We aren't waiting for anyone's permission. The Islamic Republic has certain policies and it will pursue them. And that's really the flip side of what I was just saying about the American perspective on zero enrichment. If you're Iran, of course, I don't need the United States permission to pursue my own sovereign foreign policy, so.
- [12:05]
Host 4
And they already enriched uranium like they already do it.
- [12:08]
Host 2
Yeah. And so we'll see how far this is able to go. I wanted to point out the byline on the CNN story includes Natasha Bertrand, also Jim Sciuto, who is an Obama appointee. So it's interesting, when they're sourcing this.
- [12:21]
Host 4
To US Intelligence, what did Jim do in the Obama.
- [12:24]
Host 2
He. The. He was like a deputy adviser to the China ambassador. Pretty interesting time period to be China ambassador. So. But when they say the U.S. has obtained new intelligence suggesting that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, that's the first sentence of the story. And Ryan, I'm like, yep, yeah, yeah, the intelligence. We needed the intelligence to tell us that. So it's true. It's definitely a leak from US intel for some purpose.
- [12:53]
Host 4
Yeah. Aimed at. There's a cynical, malevolent version which is that the US actually is going to help Israel with this attack and is leaking this now. So that they can say, we didn't have anything to do with that. That was all Israel. Or the more benevolent, benign explanation would be that the US Is leaking it to try to get ahead of Israel. We'll just say, do not do this. We're watching you. We know you're thinking about this. We're in the middle of negotiations. We, you do not have the right to blow up our diplomacy, blow up our foreign policy.
- [13:31]
Host 2
So, and I think putting the puzzle pieces together with the Barack Ravid leak yesterday about how Trump is frustrated with Netanyahu, which is sort of an echo of the Biden era, leaks to Barack Rafid about how the American president's frustrated. Yes. When you're frustrated, but you don't really think you are going to do anything about it. You just go to Barack Ravid and you tell the world about it.
- [13:53]
Host 4
And you can leak to cnn, too.
- [13:55]
Host 2
Yes. And I think that's, I actually think putting those two together, that you have the Trump administration trying to suggest in the media that they're at the end of the rope with Israel. They're, you know, really frustrated with Netanyahu and then leaking this to CNN as well. I mean, that looks to me like a pretty clear indication that they're frustrated with Israel. They actually are frustrated with Israel.
- [14:15]
Host 4
Yeah. And there were reports that Trump has been shown a lot of pictures of suffering children inside Gaza that are the result of not letting any food in since March 2nd. You'll have this bizarre argument from Israeli propagandists that says, look, it doesn't matter. This is all Pollywood. This is all fake. There's plenty of food. It's like you haven't let food in since March 2. What do you think happens when 2 million people don't get fed for that long? Like you think like it's just an insult to basic common sense.
- [14:53]
Host 2
Well, they're also saying that it's part of their strategy.
- [14:55]
Host 4
And they're openly saying, yeah, is it part of your strategy or not? Right, right.
- [14:59]
Host 2
Because they'll, I mean, wasn't Smotrich just out like yesterday talking about how it was part of the strategy? I mean, it's not like they're denying that it's intentional.
- [15:07]
Host 4
And what Smotrich added recently, as I think you guys talked about, is that they are now going to allow in a very minimal amount of aid, just enough to relieve Western pressure, like a.
- [15:19]
Host 2
Pita a day for pelvis.
- [15:20]
Host 4
And so they are doing that. They've let in maybe 5 to 10. There's some reports that maybe 97 trucks got in. Now you would need 500 a day. And that's not even accounting for the backlog of two months of starvation. So the indication that they're feeling pressure is that they let in any at all, because clearly feeling no pressure at all. We know what their approach is. Zero trucks of food, zero trucks with medicine, zero trucks with tents, and any of the other supplies necessary to keep people alive. And we're not even talking about the basics like soap and other things for basic hygiene. An entire city, not city, but a region of 2 million people need to stay alive.
- [16:08]
Host 2
Trita Parsi, who obviously had on the show many of times, many times, posted just yesterday, the number he says something is happening. The number of government officials from around the world who I've heard in private conversations call Israel's slaughter in Gaza a genocide without qualifications and caveats has increased dramatically in just the past weeks. The dam is breaking. Donald Trump himself obviously just got off his trip to the Middle East. So you can understand how Trump, who's sort of this, like, hyper pragmatist, much more than he is in ideologue, compared at least to previous benchmarks of, like, neoconservative ideology that's brought into the West Wing, you could understand why he in particular would be responsive to that.
- [16:47]
Host 4
Yeah. And in the Senate, 46 Democrats, all of them except for Fetterman, signed onto a resolution, very simple resolution, calling for Israel to allow aid in. And there was a debate on the House floor yesterday. Jim Risch, the top Republican in foreign affairs, responded by saying, well, look, all Hamas has to do is surrender and to return the hostages and we'll let in food aid, which is, I don't know if you realize this or not, an admission that you're using starvation as a weapon of war, which is a war crime like that. You just. You cannot do that. And it is also an admission that. Wait a minute. And it also got him to admit the actual crisis underway. Meanwhile, a lot of Senate Republicans will not come forward and say Israel needs to let aid in, even though Trump is saying it.
- [17:42]
Host 2
Senator Rubio said it. Yes. Well, I shouldn't call him Senator. He was in the Senate, so. But he did say it yesterday.
- [17:47]
Host 4
He's got to say it. His boss says it.
- [17:49]
Host 1
Right.
- [17:50]
Host 2
But it isn't. I mean, Marco Rubio, five years ago, I don't think would have ever said what he said yesterday, which is that Israel.
- [17:56]
Host 4
That's exactly what he said yesterday. He wouldn't.
- [17:58]
Host 2
Yeah, maybe. Yeah. He said yesterday that Israel can allow aid in and defend itself at the same time, something to that extent. Which again, the typical paradigm, everyone knows this would have been for a Republican politician with such dogmatic support for Israel, but I repeat myself, would have never would reject the paradigm of the question. Would reject the premise of the question about that would say Israel has every right to act in its own interests and defend its own people and do.
- [18:26]
Host 4
Whatever it wants to trust.
- [18:27]
Host 2
Yeah, exactly. So kind of, kind of interesting. But you know, the cynicism. When people see Biden talking like this, Kamala Harris talking like this, and now Donald Trump talking like this, especially as Trump is kind of in the middle of trying to get a deal done and you know, leaking the White House is leaking frustrations, then I don't think the cynicism is unwarranted at all. If the pressures lead to a better outcome and to peace, then that's good. Even if it is utterly cynical.
- [18:55]
Host 4
Yeah, if Israel did actually bomb Iran against both the public and private wishes of the United States, used United States weapons to do it, and blew up US Foreign policy and diplomatic approach to Iran, I would think that even the U. S Israeli relationship doesn't survive that completely intact. But what do I know?
- [19:21]
Host 2
Yeah, we'll see. Now, Ryan, we're joined by a guest.
- [19:24]
Host 4
Yes, Eric Maddox is a podcaster from California who was detained and roughed up in in Israel this week and he's going to join us to talk about what that was like.
- [19:34]
Host 2
Let's get to it.
- [19:36]
Host 3
This message comes from Greenlight. Ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely and invest with your guardrails in place. With Greenlight you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on what your kids are spending with real time notifications. Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight. Get started risk free@greenlight.com iheart homes.com is.
- [20:09]
Host 1
The only place where you can find specialized neighborhood guides with the in depth insider info home shoppers want. Very in depth info. Want to know if there's homes for sale in the area? We've got it. How long has a home been on the market?
- [20:23]
Host 4
We'll know it.
- [20:24]
Host 1
Average lot size?
- [20:26]
Guest 2
Uh huh.
- [20:27]
Host 1
Proximity to local parks.
- [20:29]
Host 2
Of course.
- [20:30]
Host 1
Insight into your neighbor's divorce? We're working on it. Homes.com we've done your homework.
- [20:37]
Host 3
This is Jenny Garth from 9021 OMG. Aging is a natural process as we all know and we at the deep dive, we embrace it. But I will tell you one thing about aging that I don't care for. It's the symptoms that stem from changing hormones, especially as you get closer to perimenopause and menopause. That's why listeners, I want to tell you about Happy Mammoth's Hormone Harmony. It's all over social media. Happy Mammoth, the company that created Hormone Harmony, uses science backed ingredients that have been proven to work for women. Hormone Harmony is perfect for those menopause symptoms that put a woman's life on hold. Hot flashes, night sweats, racing thoughts, low moods, poor sleep, gas, no desire to be in bed next to someone, if you know what I mean. Yeah, Hormone Harmony can help with all of these things. I've noticed a little extra pep in my step since I started taking the Hormone Harmony supplement and I love feeling more energetic. For a limited time you can get 15% off on your entire first order@happy mammoth.com just use the code Garth at checkout.
- [21:51]
Host 4
Joining us now is the host of the Latitude Adjustment podcast, Eric Maddox from California. He's joining us from the West Bank. Eric, thank you so much for being here. So you were recently in the old city of Hebron when clip of you being detained and dragged away by Israeli forces went, went viral around the Internet. For people who are just listening to the podcast, we're rolling this here. Can you, can you tell us kind of what you were producing, first of all, when, when they came upon you and what, what preceded this, this moment? And then we'll get into what happened afterwards.
- [22:42]
Guest 2
So in brief, Hebron or Khalil in Arabic, al Khalil in Arabic is kind of the entire occupation of the west bank condensed down to miniature. Whereas in some cases in the west bank trying to travel from city to city, you'll be faced with checkpoints and occasional incursions by the IDF and police. In the city of Hebron, it can be street to street just trying to cross. You won't be forced to cross. The checkpoints show ID and subject to all manner of harassment from settlers who are literally living on top of Palestinian shopkeepers and homes and also invading their homes, stealing their homes, etc. And pushing them out of the city. So every Saturday for some time now, there is a march by the settlers through the old city of Hebron, which is still, you know, a place where Palestinians live and do their business. And it is overseen by, protected by the Israeli forces, the police, and to some extent, I would imagine, the IDF as well. And that's what I was there to document along with several Palestinian journalists on this past Saturday, four days ago. And so what happens is the Israeli forces will show up preceding the arrival of the settlers who are given, like, this really bizarre entitled tour that forces Palestinian shopkeepers to shut down their business while the Israeli police are pointing their rifles at children, at the elderly, at the infirm. I mean, this isn't just my opinion or something I've seen. I documented all of these things as they were happening. And at a certain point, you can see the settlers that are maybe, I don't know, 30 meters away. And at that point, I mean, I was complying with all the orders of the Israeli police. And at no point I should make it clear, at no point was I told to put away my camera or to stop filming or to hand over my camera. At no point before I was tackled and detained and we were complying, like, backpedaling. And as we're backpedaling, they're screaming at the shopkeepers and various people, politicians, on the street, to abandon where they are, to get inside, close their shops, kicking their stuff around and otherwise making their lives hell. And at a certain point, when I could see the settlers in the background, I just yelled out, you know, I've been seeing. My first time in Palestine was 16 years ago. Okay? I've had colleagues, journalistic colleagues that I have worked with, killed in Gaza. And we're now facing what, close to 200 journalists and associated media personnel who've been assassinated in Gaza since October 7, and also the routine harassment, detention and torture of Palestinian journalists in the West Bank. So, I mean, this is personal to me as well as something that I think should be of concern to all people and journalists, especially around the world. And so when I saw this as something, at a certain point, it snapped for me, just like it snapped for university students over the past 19 months. Been saying the same things that I was saying in this moment, which is free Palestine. I'm an American. I'm sure some of you who are, like, in this settlement tour are probably American or European citizens as well. And I'm tired of paying for this with my tax dollars. This is ridiculous. And at a certain point, the Israeli started filming me, the police, and I just said, look, enough is enough. Do you feel brave flagging women and children in the infirm with your weapons? And this is when they charged me, lunged for my camera. It wound up on the ground. I wound up on the ground. And then I was immediately just beaten, handcuffed. And I can tell you what happened after what you saw in that footage? Because that's the soft part. Everything after that was the actual, like hooding, beating, torture, all that stuff.
- [26:35]
Host 4
Right. So. And as you're, as you're leaving, there's somebody else filming you. And they say, you know, who are you? You say, eric Battington from California. So these police who were dragging you out of there, they know you're a Californian.
- [26:52]
Guest 2
They're so great. But I would assume they know what California means.
- [26:55]
Host 4
Yeah, right. Yes. I mean, definitely they know what California. The whole world knows what California is. And this is not to say that because you're from California, you should not be beaten and tortured and illegally detained like nobody should be. However, it's to acknowledge the geopolitics of the situation. So they take you away. Where do they take you and what happens next?
- [27:20]
Guest 2
I do underscore your point because that's the reason I'm coming on this show and any other media I do. This isn't about me as an American getting roughed up. And it was more than roughed up. I mean, I don't want to downplay it either. I was tortured for four hours. And what was done to me doesn't even begin to come close to what is done to my Palestinian colleagues in the west bank or those who have been assassinated and continue to be persecuted, targeted, and their families as well in Gaza. So I want to make that very clear. Anything that was done to me, multiply that by many, many factors up to and including death, my Palestinian colleagues. So that's why I'm on the show. That's what I want to call attention to. And also the absolute cowardice and abdication of all moral responsibility and professional credibility by much of Western English language media, who should be, in my opinion, resigning en masse in protest at the absolutely abysmal coverage and facilitation of this genocide that's been going on for 19 months.
- [28:23]
Host 4
And then I think that's, I think that's a valuable, that's valuable context and a valuable caveat. But as you said, it also does not justify violence against, even for only four hours. So what did happen to you?
- [28:40]
Guest 2
So after I was out of. First of all, the people who called me, I didn't know them, they were just random people who happened to be standing there. One of them you can hear on camera, ask me, who are you? And I don't know where. If I look dazed, it's because I had my head pounded into the cobblestone streets while like several men with assault rifles Took shots at me. And they escorted me, escorted to a gate, a gated area at the head of the old city, out of the view of the cameras. And that's when they just started beating the hell out of me, punching me in the back of the head, throwing me on the ground, and then demanding that I get up, I'm copped and unable to move. And then they got me to the top of this hill next to an armored car. And they didn't seem to be clear on what they wanted either because some of them were telling me to get in the vehicle, some were telling me to get out. Then they hooded me, put a black hood over my head, told me to get on my knees. I refused. I figured they were going to do something terrible, I'd rather not be on my knees. And they did it. And so at that point they threw me on the ground and started beating me more. They avoided my face for some reasons that might be obvious, but they started going through my things, confiscated my wallet, my passports, and then continued to beat me, put me in the military or the police vehicle, continued to beat me in the vehicle on the way to the police station. And at this point they were. They had my camera, which is my phone, and they were twisting my arm to the point, apparently they were going to break it and demanding that I unlock my phone, you know, with like the biometric scan, fingerprint thing. And I refused. And they were trying to open my hand and force me to use my fingerprint to open it. And I just clenched my fist as hard as I possibly could and somehow managed to avoid that. I'm sure had it been Palestinian, they would have been brutal enough to where they might have broken me. So they eventually got me into the police station. The police were there, they saw what was happening, didn't do anything to stop it. I spent about four hours in the police station, at some points having my handcuffs taken off, being taken in to do like, a preliminary discussion with the police officer who told me, asked me if I had a lawyer. I said no. So then they put me in touch with the Palestinian lawyer from Haifa. She told me that I was going to be interrogated. I had the right not to say anything, but it might be in my interest to actually tell them at least what had happened. Then I was again cuffed. They let me get some water, but before I could drink from the water bottle, they re handcuffed me, beat me some more, and then uncuffed me, took me back, did the interrogation. And at that point the police officer started asking Me, what was Your opinion of October 7? Are you affiliated with any anti Israel groups? Are you taking money from them? And I said, I don't see how these questions are in any way relevant. Are you going to ask me about all the bruises that are all over my body? And he said, no. He said, why are you in Israel? And I said, I'm not in Israel. I mean, I was hooded for some period of time, so unless you've taken me out of Hebron, I'm not in Israel. And he said, yes, you are. And then he tried to ask me where I had been staying and who I was affiliate with locally. I refused to answer those questions because I didn't want other people to be put in harm's way. And I also told him I didn't recognize that he had any legitimacy as a law enforcement officer because he had no interest in conducting an actual investigation. And then I was booked. I mean, I guess, like I was fingerprinted. They did the full biometric scan on my face. They took my mug shots. And I mean, it just went back and forth between these procedural things. That was odd. I mean, there was this weird, like, juxtaposition of like, kind of benign procedural stuff with just beating the hell out of me and just this really casual attitude toward just sadistic treatment. I could hear another Palestinian guy around the corner from me being, I imagine, beaten severely because he was screaming his head off. I couldn't see him. So I yelled, free Palestine. Got beaten some more. And then just mockery like holding cameras in my face and presumably taking pictures for Instagram. And I just said right into the camera, I said, look, whenever this is translated into Hebrew, I want you all to know I'm surrounded by six heavily armed men while I'm handcuffed. And I was taken here because I was taking pictures. You guys are not on the right side of history, et cetera.
- [33:01]
Host 4
When they're hitting you. You said they mostly avoided your face. Like, where would they. Where would they hit you? What would they hit you with? How many?
- [33:07]
Guest 2
Back of the head. Back of the head. Occasionally they would try to sit next to me or on top of me just to try and intimidate me. And so if I would move away or when they were taking my picture, I would stand up and tell them to stop and they would hit me or use pressure points, like in the inside of my neck. A lot of this was like, what are called stress positions, where they would take my head and force it down so hard that it felt like the back of my, like, My neck was going to break. Putting their knees and their elbows on top of my head, but, like against my hairline so that you couldn't see the bruise. A lot of the beating was like on the hairline so that the bruises aren't as easy to see. I mean, I do have bruises on my body. I mean, you can see like a little bit on my wrist here, et cetera. But most of it was done in a way that seemed like it was left intended not to leave marks. And again, I'm sure had I been Palestinian, the treatment would have been far, far more subdued.
- [34:00]
Host 2
And what, if anything, have you heard since being released from the Israeli government and just the general reaction since the video has gone viral. What has the response been like?
- [34:12]
Guest 2
Sure. So the charges weren't clear at all. I was told something along the lines of obstructing with the police action. You can see from the video that I provided you guys, like the last thing, thankfully that actually was recorded. They're charging me and at no point have they told me to stop filming. Right. So the idea that I was in any way interfering is preposterous. Not that that would even justify what they had done to me. The response has been from. And I do need to be careful, I think, in some ways. But what I understand at this point is I have not been formally charged with anything. I'm just under suspicion. Of what? I have no idea. And I've been banned from the city of Hebron for 15 days from last Saturday, which honestly seems pretty light. Some people, some good friends of mine, I believe, swung into action very swiftly. And I understand that congresspeople and other journalists, etcetera, Were contacted. I don't know, I haven't even had a chance to catch up because I'm still just dealing with this all. I haven't. Four days ago, so I'm still just kind of recovering. And then on the Internet, I mean, that all seemed to go viral in about a day. And I mean, people reaching out to me privately, like through social media, it's just been amazing. I don't think I've had one single. And like, I can't even keep up with all the messages. It's all been just supportive and that's been validating. And also just. It's done a lot to help me kind of process that experience. And it's also just. That experience is humbling also just in like, I don't know that I could have handled two days of that. And there's people that have been locked up for months years and treated worse than me the entire time. Those are the people that have been, that are still alive. Like, I am not a particularly brave person. I just had. I just had enough. And everybody has their point where they just feel like, look, like silence is no longer an option. And that what everybody has been saying from university campuses all around the world for the last 19 months. I stand in solidarity with them. I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. And I also feel like the people who are perpetrating these crimes need to feel like there is no place where they can be, where they will not be exposed to shame for their behavior, including Palestine itself.
- [36:43]
Host 4
Did any of the people, any of the officers that you interacted with throughout the entire time express any concern or reservations that they might be screwing up by doing this to an American?
- [36:55]
Guest 2
Not in the slightest. Not in the slightest. I mean, who knows what's going on in their head and whether or not that they pulled their punches a bit. But, I mean, they knew where I was from. I did speak to a few of them in English, and then there were IDF soldiers who came. I became like, this point of curiosity where more and more of them kept coming and, like, asking me, like, what are you doing here? They were asking me, like, how do you feel about Eurovision? Just bizarre questions, right?
- [37:21]
Host 4
Oh, yeah, because they got, like, snubbed from Eurovision or something.
- [37:24]
Guest 2
But this is like, right before, I think those. It was just so freaking surreal. Sorry. On so many levels. And while this is happening. And they were also just. I kept talking because of the adrenaline. It is telling them, look, like, can somebody translate the word coward for me, please? Tell them all. And I'm like, counting. Some of them spoke Arabic. Like they're Arabic speaking Israelis, Arab Israelis, I'm assuming. One said his family is from Yemen originally. And so I just counted up in Arabic, you know, like soldiers. There's six soldiers, one journalist, Fahitzah, like, with my hands behind my back. You really feel brave. This is something that you're going to be proud of showing on Instagram, wherever you're planning on posting this. So, no. 0. I mean, I talked to the police officer. He kept repeating things that I can't repeat. Every time I would tell him, look, like, aren't you embarrassed? Because he would close the door periodically and let them rough me up more. Then I would tell him, look, you do realize what's happening when you shut the door? And he just ignored me. No, no concern at all.
- [38:30]
Host 2
Tell people where they can go to find your work.
- [38:34]
Guest 2
Sure, they can find my podcast, which I'm going to be relaunching at the latitude adjustmentpod.com or just find Latitude Adjustment podcast, Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen to them and also you can find me on social media, on Instagram, Ad Matics. My name is Eric Maddick.
- [38:54]
Host 4
Well Eric, thank you so much for joining us and wish you safe travels back to the United States whenever you decide to come home.
- [39:03]
Host 3
Get this Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes, us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives but are we investing in their future financial success? With Greenlight you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing. And this investment costs than that after school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free trial@greenlight.com iheart greenlight.com iheart@holmes.com we do whatever.
- [39:39]
Host 1
It takes to get you the in depth info on local schools you won't find anywhere else. Things like student teacher ratio, test scores and school programs. And sometimes that requires attention. Attending school recitals. So many recitals.
- [39:57]
Host 4
That's my son. Isn't he terrific?
- [39:59]
Host 1
Yeah, a real prodigy. Homes.com we've done your homework. Not everyone who handles your personal information is going to be as careful as you are. And it only takes one mistake to expose it to hackers and identity theft. Maybe that's why there's a new victim of identity theft every five seconds in the United States. Fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen. A LifeLock US based restoration specialist will help solve identity theft issues on your behalf, guaranteed or your money back. Plus, all LifeLock plans are backed by the million dollar protection package, meaning LifeLock will reimburse you up to the limits.
- [40:39]
Host 4
Of your plan if you lose money due to identity theft.
- [40:42]
Host 1
You can't control how diligent others are with your personal information, but with Lifelock.
- [40:47]
Host 4
You can help protect it.
- [40:48]
Host 1
Act now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply.
- [41:00]
Host 2
President Trump made a significant announcement about the United States impending Golden Dome in the Oval Office yesterday. Let's go ahead and roll B1 to get a flavor of how Donald Trump described this project.
- [41:14]
Guest 1
I am pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for this state of the art system that will deploy next generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space based sensors and interceptors. And Canada has called us and they want to be a part of it. So we'll be talking to them. They want to have protection also. So as usual, we help Canada do the best we can. This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term. So we'll have it done in about three years. Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space. And we will have the best system ever built. As you know, we helped Israel with theirs and was very successful. And now we have technology that's even far advanced from that. But including hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, all of them will be knocked out of the air. We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland. And the success rate is very close to 100%, which is incredible when you think of it. You're shooting bullets out of the air. I'm also pleased to report that the one big beautiful bill will include $25 billion for the Golden Dome to help construction get underway. That's the initial sort of a down posit. And we have probably. You're talking about general. We're talking about $175 billion total cost of this when it's completed.
- [43:04]
Host 2
Well, according to the New York Times, that was actually also a. The, the Defense Department suggested the golden, the Golden Dome moniker, knowing that it would probably appeal to Donald Trump. Like Israel's got an iron dome. Donald Trump, you need a, you need a golden dome.
- [43:20]
Host 4
It's a little bit ballsy, though, for him to go for that when he spent years with Democrats accusing him of taking a golden shower. And now he's going to have a golden dome preventing us from things raining down on us.
- [43:32]
Host 2
Actually, I take that back. He probably does think about that all the time.
- [43:35]
Host 4
Of course he does.
- [43:35]
Host 2
Yeah, he's probably deeply irritated by that.
- [43:37]
Host 4
Yes, he was bothered by that one.
- [43:40]
Host 2
Well, maybe the Pentagon, actually. This is really a way to continue embarrassing Donald Trump, the Defense Department. But it will be a pretty penny for the contractors in all likelihood. Lockheed Martin CEO was on Fox and Friends this morning saying it will be built domestically. Trump is saying it'll come in at about $175 billion, which seems impossibly low. The Congressional Budget Office is putting that more at 542 billion, which in the.
- [44:04]
Host 4
Context annually, he said two to three years. CBO says 20 years.
- [44:08]
Host 2
Yeah. And in the context of an annual defense budget that's more than $2 trillion, it's not insane to propose a half a trillion dollar idea that could hypothetically protect the country from missiles. What the Trump administration wants it to do, which is enormously ambitious.
- [44:29]
Host 4
But missiles shot by who? Normally, when you, of course, can cox one of these things, like you, you have first spent the, like, propaganda capital to sufficiently scare the public into believing that a particular boogeyman or boogey woman is going to be shooting missiles at us. And so therefore, we need to spend all this money on a, you know, to give $500 billion to Elon Musk to, like, build this thing because these scary people that we've told you about are going to attack us. He just skipped right over that. Like, are we such pushovers now? We don't even need to be propagandized into fear. We're just like, okay, sure, go for it. Like, who's shooting missiles at us?
- [45:14]
Host 2
Shine bomb, maybe, but no Iran.
- [45:19]
Host 4
We're reaching a deal with them. North Korea is his best friend. Russia. Is it Russia? No, it's China.
- [45:26]
Host 2
It could be anyone. That's the point.
- [45:29]
Host 4
And if it's China, come on, you think they can't get through whatever Elon Musk puts together?
- [45:35]
Host 2
I think the rate of technological advancement has been so rapid that the world feels like an extremely scary place to the point where people don't need to be propagandized into some type of significant, urgent, single problem. Although it's probably no coincidence that it's happening as the negotiations with Iran are unfolding either.
- [45:55]
Host 4
I mean, it would be cool if Star wars could first kind of break the fiscal back of the Soviet Union and then break the fiscal back of the United States. It could kill two empires without ever actually getting built.
- [46:10]
Host 2
Well, you know, that's. I mean, it's a complete parallel, obviously, to the Reagan years, because on the other side, Donald Trump is working on a massive tax cut proposition right now. So as they're, you know, sort of, as you have your deficit hawks freaking out about spending, you're also about cutting spending and using taxes to aspirationally juice the economy. Then you're also trying to increase defense spending significantly with a massive expenditure here. Now, Trump says again that he. I mean, he's putting it way lower than the CBO estimate. That's half a trillion dollars, which is, you know, a significant chunk of the annual defense budget. But, you know, I think it's if it were to do what it said it would do, it would be a big deal.
- [46:52]
Host 4
Now, Trump also, and the budget. So think about this. They're estimating a particular cost for a weapons project. Has it ever come in under ever in the history of the world? So this would be the first one to come in under. And it's going to come in the. At 90% under.
- [47:11]
Host 2
Yeah.
- [47:11]
Host 4
Okay.
- [47:12]
Host 2
Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a deal. So, but again, here's this.
- [47:17]
Host 4
Can I bid for this?
- [47:18]
Host 2
Probably.
- [47:19]
Host 4
I will not build something and take $500 billion.
- [47:22]
Host 2
You will automatically be competitive.
- [47:24]
Host 4
Excellent.
- [47:25]
Host 2
With the rest of the contractors. And you could just take a ten year vacation too.
- [47:30]
Host 4
Yeah.
- [47:30]
Host 2
Oh, Boeing's going to do Air Force One. Don't worry about it. They're on it.
- [47:35]
Host 4
It's taken a decade for Air Force One.
- [47:37]
Host 2
Yeah. This should be nothing.
- [47:38]
Host 4
They're going to build this in two years.
- [47:40]
Host 2
So the parallels to 1980s continue. Donald Trump was on Capitol Hill yesterday trying to negotiate with House Republicans in particular who want to pass their bill. Actually, they want to pass it today and send it over to the Senate because they really want to. First of all, that's a beautiful bill. Johnson set a genuinely arbitrary deadline of Memorial Day, but from his perspective, if you don't set a deadline, then this is going to bleed into the fall. And so they really, I think they want to do this by 4th of July. From the Senate side we're seeing. We'll see how reasonable that is. But they actually were marking up the bill until what like 6am just today. Once again, all those staffers pour one out for them tonight. They've had a rough couple of weeks. But let's take a listen to Donald Trump after that meeting, chatting with reporters, and bear in mind that this is, I think, a parallel with the 1980s in an interesting sense that Republicans are trying to get a, you know, limited government stimulus to the extent that you can call it that, while also blowing up the deficit. Passed. And now you're going to face questions just like this one B3, you campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. How do you justify cutting food assistance in this bill?
- [48:55]
Guest 1
Let me just tell you, the cut is going to give everybody much more food because prices are coming way down, groceries are down. Eggs, you told me about eggs. You asked me a question about eggs my first week. You said eggs. I said, I just got here, tell me about eggs. And it was going through the roof. You know that Eggs now way down. Everybody's buying eggs. Groceries down, energy's down, gasoline Is now buying. They're buying gasoline now for $1.99.
- [49:20]
Host 2
You said eggs. I mean, week one, he had a great interaction with a reporter. This was Reese Gorman from Natas. So notice.
- [49:29]
Host 4
What was notice.
- [49:29]
Host 2
I have no idea.
- [49:31]
Host 4
I'm with Trump on this one.
- [49:31]
Host 2
Yeah, same. This is before Andy Harris said that.
- [49:35]
Guest 2
You didn't adequately convince enough people to vote for the bill. The House Freedom.
- [49:39]
Guest 1
You mean after this speech?
- [49:40]
Guest 2
After this speech.
- [49:42]
Guest 1
Well, what do we see at the voters? I think it was a great, great talk. It wasn't a speech. We talked about things. Who do you work for?
- [49:49]
Host 1
Nurse.
- [49:50]
Guest 1
Who?
- [49:50]
Host 1
Nurse.
- [49:51]
Guest 1
I don't even know what the hell that is. Get yourself a real job, Mr. President.
- [49:58]
Host 2
Get yourself a real job.
- [49:59]
Host 4
Get a haircut and get a job.
- [50:00]
Host 2
If you were listening to that, what you missed was Mike Johnson awkwardly stand next to Donald Trump, trying not to bust out laughing the entire exchange. Trump is funny.
- [50:10]
Host 4
We gotta give him that.
- [50:11]
Host 2
Oh, he is funny now. B5, though, is an interesting development as well. This is Wall Street Journal's Olivia Beaver saying that when Donald Trump was delivering his message about Medicaid, which was basically, he doesn't want cuts that don't have anything to do with, quote, waste, fraud and abuse, he said about the Freedom Caucus, quote, I love the Freedom Caucus. Please leave them alone. Freedom Caucus are my guys.
- [50:33]
Host 4
So how do you square that?
- [50:35]
Host 2
You don't. You don't.
- [50:36]
Host 4
Freedom Caucuser has guys who want drastic Medicaid cuts.
- [50:41]
Host 2
Yes.
- [50:41]
Host 4
Trump says, don't do drastic Medicaid cuts, but also leave my guys alone. It goes back to that thing where, like, the number one thing he cares about is do people like him. And Freedom Caucus people are clear that they like him, and he prefers that to them agreeing with his populist policy of we're not actually going to hurt poor people to, to do this tax cut for the rich.
- [51:02]
Host 2
No, it hasn't always been that way. So when Chip Roy has pushed back on Trump, like raising the debt ceiling, for example, Trump has absolutely exploded on.
- [51:12]
Host 4
Right. So I'll primary you.
- [51:13]
Host 2
And, yeah, so, I mean, I'm curious how long this lasts. He does seem to be much more sympathetic to negotiating with the HFC guys than with Mike Lawler. This is the next element for the screen. This is a post from our friend Jake Sherman at Punchbowl. If you missed that segment a couple weeks ago, just. Just put it into your YouTube browser. Breaking points. Punchbowl. Sherman says that Trump went up to Lawler from the informal salt caucus and said, quote, I know your district better than you do. If you lose because of salt, you were going to lose anyway. And that is because Lawler is pushing for, obviously, a higher cap on the salt deduction than the $30,000, which is, by the way, already very generous. It's already tripling the current deduction. So quite amusing quote there from Trump.
- [52:04]
Host 4
Lawler represents the Hudson Valley district north of Manhattan. Trump might actually know it better than him. His point is an interesting one, and it's one that I've made a mirror version of on the left at times where it's like, look, you're not actually gonna lose over this.
- [52:20]
Host 2
Yeah.
- [52:21]
Host 4
So just go ahead and do it.
- [52:22]
Host 2
Yeah.
- [52:22]
Host 4
If. And if you do lose over it, you are actually gonna lose anyway. So I actually agree with Trump's analysis, and I think it is actually quite possible that he does know Lawler's district better than he does. The salt thing, if you're not familiar with it, it means it stands for state and local tax deduction. If you are upper middle class in a place like Hudson Valley and you have a million dollar house, or a $1.5 million house, even if you're making, let's say, $300,000 a year, which is a huge amount of money, all of it's going to pay this house. And then at the end of the year, you get hit with these high state and local taxes. And it used to be that you could deduct all of those off of your federal taxes. Now there's a cap on that. They want to raise the cap. So there would basically be a very big tax cut for people who live in million dollar homes. Yeah.
- [53:22]
Host 2
Yep. No, exactly. And so let's combine all of this together.
- [53:28]
Host 4
And those are Lawler's people.
- [53:29]
Host 2
Those are Lawler's people. And Trump, to the point about that he was making about the Freedom Caucus and about Lawler, what that gives right now is leverage for the Freedom Caucus to continue pushing for cuts. And when you ask, how do you square it to the quote, waste, fraud and abuse that they see in Medicaid? And, and the problem is you have to be able to find sufficient waste, fraud and abuse and do it quickly enough. Because part of their frustration is a lot of this is funny business with the CBO projections, in order to make the numbers work, it's still blowing up. What, $4 trillion isn't? I have to check the number. Exactly. But it's still a budget busting bill, and that's a real problem.
- [54:12]
Host 4
What they'll say is that you're pushing all of the cuts to Medicaid down the road. And when we get to down the road, you'll undo the cuts. So you'll take the tax cuts now and you'll pay for them by promising to hurt poor people later. But when it actually gets to it, you won't do it because you'll realize, oh, wait, we're a working class party now and we're actually going after our own people who don't believe that they're getting a government handout just by their parents being covered by Medicaid or them being covered by Medicaid because they say we've worked our whole lives and, you know, this is health insurance for us or for our parents or for our children who are suffering.
- [54:59]
Host 2
It's particularly difficult when it's juxtaposed with other elements of the bill. For example, a massive corporate tax cut. So if you're going from 21% to 15% for corporations, yes, there would be some projections that say this, this would be tax relief. I mean, every projection basically says this would be tax relief for the middle class. The question is, is it more tax relief for the rich than it is for the middle class? Some of that's going to depend on what happens with salt. But I think it's especially difficult when you're passing a big corporate tax cut to then also go after, quote, unquote, waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid. I think that's something that people like Chip Roy are aware of and know that needs to be done sensitively, but also are saying, we've staked like the amount of, the amount of political capital that we have put behind Doge. For example, if you're Chip Roy, if you're a Freedom Caucus member, if you're a Trump supporting member of the House of Representatives, your district is pro Trump. You have put political capital on the line for Doge to cut waste, fraud and abuse and to cut government spending. And now you're being asked to support a big spending bill. It raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. I'm reading a rundown here from Politico of what's in the bill. Right. Trillion to lock in the tax cuts. You know, it's, there's the car loan deduction. So interest on car loan deductions, that's a good thing. Child tax credit increased by $500, although some people really want that to be a lot higher. Great tax hike on university endowments. So that goes from 1.4% to 21%. But it would cut $625 billion through Medicaid that right now, as Politico puts it, is, quote, largely through new work requirements and as CBO puts it, would, quote, lead to 8.6 million more people losing their health insurance. It phases out clean energy programs, which have been sort of, I'm not a fan of most of what that's done. It has been something of an industrial policy in localities around the country over recent years. They do want to cut back food stamps in certain education programs. So the headlines if this bill passes over the next year or so are definitely difficult when the bill also had a big corporate or will have a big corporate tax cut and all of that stuff in it too.
- [57:19]
Host 4
It's also idiotic just on a fiscal level in the sense that, oh, you're going to save money by kicking 7 million people off of health insurance. Okay, let's explore this magical thinking for a moment. Are these 7 million people going to all of a sudden not get sick and never need any medical treatment? Because that's great. If that's the case, I support that. A policy that would make 7 million people magically immune to any disease for the next 7 million years or accidents probably not going to happen. Those people, instead of going to their doctor because they have medical insurance, are now going to go to the emergency department. Emergency department is going to send them a $12,000 bill for showing up in the emergency department for whatever malady they had. That person doesn't have $12,000. The hospital then is going to carve it up and send the bill out to everybody else. Or is Trump going to yell at them to just eat it like he's yelling at Walmart to eat the prices? No. If these people are still getting sick, we as a society are still treating them. The only difference is it's going to cost us more to treat them because we've kicked them off health insurance.
- [58:39]
Host 2
Yeah, absolutely.
- [58:40]
Host 4
So we're actually like, even your deficit cutting Medicaid cuts are going to long term add to everybody's costs, whether it's raising your own cost of insurance, raising the bills that you pay, tweaking private equity to like screw you a little bit harder next time you come into one of their hospitals or adding to the deficit.
- [59:04]
Host 2
The only person or the only group of people that our half and half system is good for right now are the same people who will benefit from this. And it's yeah, massive, like conglomerates. It's not people, it's not the government because we just have this mixed system. It's like half capitalist and half like democratic socialists, subsidized Right.
- [59:23]
Host 4
Where hospitals are required to, to treat people. And I don't think anybody wants to change that law.
- [59:29]
Host 2
No, no, absolutely not. And it's completely inefficient and it's not good for anyone except for the people who are profiting off of all of it in the meantime. So it's, you know, it's going to be this entire thing. If you're the Trump administration, you have promised to make the tax cuts permanent and that will bring some relief to the middle class. But you've also promised to get America's fiscal housing house in order and you've promised to do these massive new defense initiatives, which, by the way, as the Lockheed COO is saying on Fox and Friends this morning, if it's built domestically, that could be a, that could juice the economies in places where they're manufacturing parts of it. I don't even know what that's going to look like. I don't think anybody knows what that's really going to look like. You know, Reagan's sdi, which sort of gets laughed at. Like Star wars sort of gets laughed at. Well, Trump made an interesting point when he was rolling out the golden dome announcement that he was like, Ronald Reagan wanted to do this years ago, but we didn't have the technology. Now we do have the technology. SDI laid the groundwork for decades of R and D that came from that massive ambition. I'm not at all laughing at the idea of having significant ambitions and sort of pie in the sky ideas. I actually don't think that's that insane and crazy. And we don't, it's fine to laugh at, but it doesn't always turn out to be a joke. You can sort of nudge some things in the right direction when you do that. But this is a recipe for a fiscal disaster and everyone knows it. But Republicans are locked in. They're locked in. And their best argument right now, what they're telling the Freedom Caucus guys, is that it's better than nothing if you're forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, the lesser of two evils is going to be some tax relief for the middle class and some modest cuts. Because everyone knows, even though you have both houses of Congress and the presidency and a man who is, whose presidency is predicated on a pledge to revolutionize Washington. Whether you believe it or not, you have all of the political capital in the world. And because the margin in the House is so small, you either take it or leave it. And they can lose like two people if everyone is voting. So I'm actually still very skeptical that this even gets across the finish line as a one big beautiful reconciliation bill. It's possible that they end up having to break this up.
- [61:44]
Host 4
My bet is they figure out something.
- [61:46]
Host 2
I mean, the stakes are so high that it seems easy to imagine people compromising.
- [61:52]
Host 4
Yeah. And it's easier to agree to something that actually doesn't even make any sense, put it into law, and then deal with the consequences later.
- [61:59]
Host 2
And none of this makes any sense.
- [62:00]
Host 4
Yeah, that would be in line with what we normally tend to do.
- [62:07]
Host 3
Get this Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes, us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives. But are we investing in their future financial success? With Greenlight you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing. And this investment costs less than that. After school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free trial@greenlight.com iheart greenlight.com iheart.
- [62:39]
Host 1
Hula we got one play. Everything we work for comes down to this quick question. Speaking of workouts, how would you rate your athletic program? Bro, we're in the middle of the state championship. Oh, so like a B then?
- [62:51]
Host 4
Dude, get out of our huddle.
- [62:52]
Host 1
Well, at homes.com we leave it all on the field to get you detailed information on local schools.
- [62:58]
Host 2
Off the field.
- [62:59]
Host 1
Off the field Copy. All right. Go sports.
- [63:02]
Guest 3
How'd he even get in here?
- [63:04]
Host 1
Holmes.com Bingo. We've done your homework.
- [63:08]
Host 3
You're a hustler. You get things done, but you don't always do things for yourself. With JLO Beauty, it takes just a few minutes a day to look like facials are a regular part of your routine. JLo Beauty's Fresh and Flawless skincare kit includes six skincare products that work as hard as you do. They'll hustle to brighten, firm and hydrate your complexion morning and night. This skincare kit is a one and done solution that is clinically proven to visibly tighten and lift for instant and long lasting results. Cleanse, treat, moisturize, protect. The fresh and flawless skincare kit does it all. See why the kit's a best seller today? Visit jlobeauty.com deluxe and get an extra 25% off your first shipment plus free gifts with code DELUXE. If you're not satisfied, return the bottles within 60 days for your money back. See the website for details. That's jlobeauty.com Deluxe to get that JLo.
- [64:01]
Host 4
Globlow want to talk about South Sudan?
- [64:04]
Host 2
Let's do it. Yeah. We'll go from Trump to Sudan in our tour around the world.
- [64:09]
Host 4
So President Trump began by sending migrants from not El Salvador to Bukele's prison, notorious prison in El Salvador. There were then reports that he was looking at sending people to Libya. There was some pushback on that. There are now reports that DHS has deported up to 12 migrants against court order, against an explicit court order to South Sudan, a country on the brink of complete collapse and civil war. Put this first element up on the screen here. Judge has now responded again and said, look, you need to make sure that these migrants do not leave federal custody because the migrants who are in, we can talk about this. Kristi Noem was up on the Hill yesterday talking, making this argument again. Rubio is making this argument as well that look, these migrants, we'd love to file the court order and return the ones that the court is asking us to return, but we don't hold them anymore. Bukele has them. It's like, oh, well, what about this invoice where you're paying them to keep them? Doesn't that suggest that you have some control over them? That's just basically, that's a broad grant that doesn't apply specifically to this one individual. So this judge is saying you violated the court order that says people have to have a reasonable amount of time to contest their deportation. Which is not the. Apparently they gave the ones that we know about, they gave them like a couple hours and not enough time to like for the lawyers to do anything. And they handed the document to Myanmar deportee in English and the person doesn't speak English. They said that's not enough time. You have to give them enough time. And so you have to keep them now in, in your control under humanitarian, under humane conditions so that if I order you to return them, you can't come back with some catch 22 argument of up. Too bad already. Let him go.
- [66:26]
Host 2
I'm on Farah right now and there is a registered lobbyist on behalf of South Sudan who's a former Bush administration official. So that's.
- [66:36]
Host 4
Who's that?
- [66:37]
Host 2
Joseph Slavic. I think I know him, but that's what I mean. It was Vogel Group when we were looking at, what was it? Libya. The attempted deportations toit was Libya, wasn't it? I'm trying to remember a couple of weeks ago. Yeah.
- [66:53]
Host 4
And Libya then said basically that they wouldn't allow it.
- [66:57]
Host 2
Yeah. And I don't Remember? So to be clear, we have no idea whether or not the lobbyists facilitated that. But I did reach out to them and never got a response, which seems interesting. I'm really curious why they're making these. I think it's very interesting what negotiations are happening behind the scenes with African countries to make these deportations happen. Because the United States obviously is competing like Belt and road in Africa and is trying to have relationships with some of these countries in ways that compete with China or provide leverage over China. So there could be all kinds of interesting stuff happening behind the scenes as to why they're making decisions for random country deportations, basically.
- [67:43]
Host 4
And it seems like this fits into the Stephen Miller I want spectacle type of action. Like to send. To send somebody into a completely war torn area.
- [67:57]
Host 2
Yeah. Yep.
- [67:59]
Host 4
Where they're. God only knows what type of conditions they're gonna face. Feels in line with his policy of like, let's make this as vicious as possible in order to discourage any migration. So Chris Van Hollen and Marco Rubio got into it over immigration speech and basically the entire kind of Trump first hundred plus days in the Senate yesterday, it went for quite some time. It seemed personal. Van Hollen used his entire seven minutes basically to go after Rubio. And then Rubio insisted on having time to challenge him to come back. Let's roll a little bit of it. I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State. I yield back.
- [68:48]
Guest 3
May I respond?
- [68:50]
Host 4
You may. Sit.
- [68:51]
Guest 3
Well, first of all, your regret for voting for me confirms I'm doing a good job. Based on what I.
- [68:55]
Host 4
Well, that's just a flippant statement, Mr. Secretary.
- [68:57]
Guest 3
And I respond. Mr. Chairman, you may.
- [68:59]
Host 4
I didn't ask. Senator, please let the Secretary.
- [69:01]
Guest 3
I'd be happy to, but then I.
- [69:02]
Host 4
Can respond to his. Your time's up, Senator. And willfully used, I might add. Your remarks do not represent the view of this committee. Well, Mr. Secretary, please.
- [69:12]
Guest 3
Well, I'd like to. I can't respond to everything he said because much of these are untrue. But I'll go through a few. First of all, I'm actually very proud of the work we've done with USAID. For example, I don't regret cutting $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. I don't know how that makes us stronger and more prosperous as a nation. I don't regret psychosocial support services.
- [69:30]
Host 4
I raised Sudan. Mr. Secretary. Senator, I'd ask you to suspend. You had seven straight minutes. I chose to use my time that way, Mr. Chairman. That's my right to use that. Please suspend that way, Secretary Rubio.
- [69:44]
Guest 3
Well, I can go on. I mean, there's other things here. We spent $227,000 for Big Cat's YouTube channel from USAID. We spent $14 million for social cohesion in Mali, whatever the hell that means. So I can go on and on. I got the list here. And there's more. I didn't even bring the whole list. In the case of El Salvador. Absolutely, absolutely. We deported gang members. Gang members, including the one you had a margarita with. And that guy is a human trafficker. And that guy is a gang banger. And the evidence is going to be clear in the days that. Mr. Chairman, please.
- [70:15]
Host 4
Mr. Chairman, Terry Rubio has the floor. He can't make unsubstantiated claims like that. Senator, Secretary Rubio has the floor. You, Secretary Rubio, should take that testimony, the federal court, Senator, United States. Because he hasn't done it under oath. Yeah, that's something else to me from Rubio because he has been one of the Senate's most vocal defenders of USAID for his entire political career. And, and now he's kind of, he's distancing himself from all of that support by finding a few kind of ridiculous woke things that he can point to when he has supported it as an apparatus of US Foreign policy, you know, for many, many years. To say that you had a margarita Bukele like dropped a margarita on the table between Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia when Van Holland was in El Salvador and then quit. Snapped a picture. Like, get serious here, man.
- [71:14]
Host 2
I like how he pivots from like Chomsky to Stephen Miller in like half a second. He's like going through all this ridiculous soft power USAID bullshit and then is like, so, yes, we did deport people to El salvador. It's like zero to 60.
- [71:29]
Host 4
Yeah. And he's like. And we. And the evidence will show. It's like, well, from Van Hollen's perspective, it's like, okay, how about when the evidence does show that you present it somewhere where we can adjudicate it. You don't tell us that in the future we're going to present this evidence.
- [71:44]
Host 2
You know, Taibbi had a really good post about the Ozturk situation and how he.
- [71:50]
Host 4
And he brought up Ozturk a couple times. He's like. Because Rubio's like, look, you come here, you burn down buildings, which didn't happen. Somebody did break a window, and you disrupt classes. Then we're gonna kick you out. And he's like, did Rumeza Aztark do that? All she did was co author an.
- [72:08]
Host 2
Op ed and Rubio did not answer that question. And so, yeah, this is. Your point about Rubio is an interesting one, a really interesting one, actually. And I'm with, I'm applauding all of that, except for the El Salvador Ozturk insanity. And Taibbi had a good post, actually, where he's taken some heat for saying at one point that the Secretary of State is claiming there's going to be evidence that these people harmed national security in some significant way to warrant the revocation of their visas because he has the power to do it if legally, if they are a harm, if they're a threat to American foreign policy, that's the law that allows them to revoke the visa. And so Taibi is saying that that's such a significant claim, there must be. At one point he said something like, he was like, maybe there isn't more evidence, but maybe there is. And so he was like, it doesn't, there's some reason to say, like, maybe there's something else going on here and it's never materialized.
- [73:12]
Host 4
Right.
- [73:12]
Host 2
And so Taibbi wrote a really. I think it was like, I forget the title of it. It was fantastic and everyone should go read it. But just being like, screw this over and over again, you know, you can look at these examples with the visa revocations where it seems like they're alluding and Rubio in particular seems like they're alluding to something and it never materializes. So that, I mean, he doubles triples down in that exchange with Van Hollen and says, we're going to keep doing it, which from a communications perspective is exactly the right thing to do. I mean, to not shy away from it and to not look like you're wishy washy. So just from like a messaging standpoint, cynically, it's exactly the right thing to do.
- [73:50]
Host 4
But was it the case of Rumesa Asdark? Is that his piece Timeline?
- [73:55]
Host 2
No, the timeline is Marco Rubio has.
- [73:57]
Host 4
Some explaining to do.
- [73:58]
Host 2
It might be that here I'll find it. But anyway, the State Department, I don't know if you get this sense either. I think it's called Ode to Scum. But yeah, I don't know if you get this impression either. But it does seem to me like the State Department actually has slowed down on the visa revocations. The visa revocations. And they haven't done another deportation to El Salvador. They're doing the South Sudan, but how many was that?
- [74:25]
Host 4
12.
- [74:25]
Host 2
Yeah. And what was the attempt for Libya was I think around like 50. They're doing these smaller number attempts. And first of all, they have a significant number of people with actual criminal backgrounds. They said they were going to start with the worst of the worst. Even that their problem, this is why they're looking, turning to Africa again, to be cynical, is that they have all these people with criminal backgrounds, even if it's nothing compared to what the 8 million people that they claim to want to. To deport. They have tens of thousands of people that they need to deport. If they say they want to deport people. The worst, the worst with criminal backgrounds, who's going to take a bunch of criminals that are being deported from the United States?
- [75:04]
Host 4
Well, this shows why it would be helpful if the United States was not such a bully that had such terrible relations with so many countries around the world. For instance, one of the people that apparently was sent to South Sudan is Bolivian, for instance. Why does the United States have such a bad relationship with Bolivia? Well, we were involved with a coup in 2019 and then an attempted coup in 2020 because Elon Musk responded by saying, we will coup whoever we want in the context of all of the lithium reserves that Bolivia has. And so, yeah, so Bolivia's like, no, we're not going to take these people back. So a choice for us would be to not be thugs around the world. And then if they have a criminal who has committed, you know, who has committed crimes in the United States and is also here illegally, then that person would then be deported back to Bolivia. And Bolivia has no choice but to take them unless they have a blanket policy that they don't have a relationship with us when it comes to that, because we are thugs who are trying to overthrow their government. Which is okay. They make a fair point. Now, while you're looking for that, Kristi Noem, DHS Secretary, was also on the Hill yesterday, and I played this clip.
- [76:29]
Host 2
Speaking of their ability to do mass deportations, because that's why Stephen Miller is floating this idea. And by the way, it was also predicated on the notion legally. It must be predicated on the notion legally that there is an invasion happening. The government, the Trump administration, says that they have stopped the invasion and the border crossings have slowed to less than a trickle. So two things can't be true at the same time.
- [76:52]
Host 4
Right. So Stephen Miller has said that if judges keep ruling against them, that they're considering suspending habeas corpus. So, Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire Senator, live free or Die State, asked Kristi Noemi a rather interesting question. Let's roll that.
- [77:12]
Host 2
So, Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?
- [77:16]
Host 4
Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country. Let me stop, ma' am. Habeas corpus.
- [77:26]
Host 3
Excuse me.
- [77:27]
Host 4
That's incorrect, President.
- [77:28]
Guest 2
Habeas corpus.
- [77:30]
Host 2
Excuse me.
- [77:31]
Host 4
Now, I don't want to come off as some elitist that everybody has to know every Latin legal term out there. There are no doubt people watching this right now who are like, what is habeas corpus? I'm not even sure those people are not the Secretary of Homeland Security. So that's cool. If you don't know that.
- [77:49]
Host 2
Whose administration is flirting with the idea of suspending the writ of habeas corpus? Yes.
- [77:55]
Host 4
And so now the person that I'm talking to right now who didn't know what that is, you will know for the rest of your life what it is. Yeah. A writ of habeas corpus means you are held illegally, in your opinion, by the government, and you are able to petition for your release. It is the foundation of a free society that you cannot be held for no reason and without charges. And so if you're. And even if you're charged with something but you don't get a trial, you can file one eventually and say, look, I'm not even getting a trial. All this, you just charge me and you're keeping me locked up here. If you notice, at the very end, she said President Lincoln used it, and it's true now.
- [78:38]
Host 2
But saying using habeas corpus, he did.
- [78:42]
Host 4
Not round people up and deport them.
- [78:44]
Host 2
I declare habeas corpus. It's like Michael Scott bankruptcy.
- [78:48]
Host 4
Exactly. Also, we had open borders then. We did not have this. That's not what we had. We didn't have this system that. That we have now. So there was no deporting people. What Lincoln did do is suspend habeas corpus in the time of war and locked up some newspaper editors and other critics of his. And you could say that there's a shame on him. He was also operating in a revolutionary time. So maybe those were excesses, maybe not. He put points on the board. So I'm not gonna sit here. I'm not gonna sit here and second guess Lincoln. But he did. He did suspend habeas corpus, which meant that if you were a newspaper editor who had written a mean op ed about him, which a lot did, and mostly from the quote unquote, anti war side. These were like Southern sympathizers who, who hated Lincoln and wanted the war to end and wanted him to capitulate to the South. He locked some of them up. And, you know, so my twin impulses of press freedom.
- [80:00]
Host 2
This is like when you're wanting to.
- [80:02]
Host 4
Smash the south and the slave and the planter class are in conflict there. So that's why I'm not going to second guess Lincoln.
- [80:08]
Host 2
It's like sometimes when, and I think Obama did this too, but sometimes when you are talking about China and like Ryan, relax. China was able to build things really quick.
- [80:21]
Host 4
We're all working this stuff out.
- [80:23]
Host 2
It was a great question for Maggie.
- [80:24]
Host 4
Hassen, who knew she didn't have any idea what that is.
- [80:27]
Host 2
Well, this is the thing. She has an idea of what it is.
- [80:30]
Host 4
And we mentioned the Lincoln thing because it shows that she's been briefed on this because she didn't or she was skimming Wikipedia and just didn't absorb it. But habeas corpus is not the right of the president to deport anybody he wants like, or anybody at all.
- [80:47]
Host 2
You use habeas corpus.
- [80:48]
Host 4
If this were a like 9th grade civics test. Yeah. That wouldn't even, it wouldn't even occur to the test makers, I think, to make that one of the wrong answers. Yeah, that's how wrong it is.
- [80:59]
Host 2
I am actually starting to think that Christina may be one of the first sort of top level officials in Trump world who leaves their post. I don't know when the timeline will be, but I don't know. I just feel like it's not working out great.
- [81:12]
Host 4
Lewandowski is a patron. Right. And he's still in well with Trump, right?
- [81:16]
Host 2
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I don't know if Corey Lewandowski has enough sway to overcome Trump getting frustrated with a cabinet secretary, but he probably.
- [81:26]
Host 4
Loves this, like, going on Fox, all gussied up in the like, ice gear.
- [81:31]
Host 2
Although there were leaks to the Wall Street Journal that people were internally upset with that, so.
- [81:36]
Host 4
But was Trump upset with it?
- [81:37]
Host 2
I don't know.
- [81:38]
Host 4
I mean, this is, that's, that's pure Trump right there.
- [81:40]
Host 2
Yeah. But I think even for him, it's a lot ridiculous. And if you're getting some basic stuff wrong and everyone's mocking you, the patience will wear thin at some point. And especially if it's combined with not the scuttlebutt in MAGA circles right now. Hardcore MAGA circles, Bannon World, those places people are really, really frustrated with the pace of deportations because that was one of his biggest campaign promises. And that is one of the most important issues to MAGA world, like the MAGA grassroots. And right now, maybe the benefit of keeping Noem around is that she's a convenient foil. You can kind of project frustrations onto Kristi Noem rather than onto Donald Trump. But there's significant frustrations among his grassroots supporters with the pace of deportations.
- [82:26]
Host 4
It seemed to me that politically they finally hit on something smart recently where they started going to California jails. Did you notice this? So what they did is they said, okay, yes, this is a sanctuary city. ICE is not allowed to interact with these sheriffs, but if you illegally re enter the country a second time, that's a felony. And so what they do is they look for people who've illegally re entered a second time and have been then arrested and are sitting in detention or jail or prison at a state level, and they go in and say, okay, we know you've been deported once already. Then you re entered, then you got arrested, therefore that's a felony. Therefore the sanctuary city logic doesn't apply. And you and here's a warrant and we're gonna arrest you for that. And I think that they would have 90 plus percent support from the public on that because it's like, okay, they've been deported once, they reentered and then they got arrested again. And they would put Democrats in a really difficult position defending that chain of events just for Democrats to be like, well, that's actually okay. You can enter multiple times illegally and commit crimes. Like, they'd have Democrats over the barrel with that. So if I were them, I would just lean into that. But they just want the viciousness, the cruelty, the spectacle.
- [83:54]
Host 2
Well, and part of it is that they think it functions as a disincentive. And it does. I mean, but they're also frustrated with the self deportation numbers because that's seen as a sort of cornerstone. Part of how you're able to do mass deportations is that you allow people to use CBP Home, as it's been dubbed, and get, you know, themselves. It's like $1,000 subsidy for people to return or go elsewhere outside the United States.
- [84:24]
Host 1
Homes.com has collaboration tools to help home shoppers search, share and discuss home shopping with family, friends and their agent directly through the site. Though it was fun to get that email from your husband about that three bedroom in the hills to which you replied via text that you would never live in the hills and you'd like to find a three three bedroom closer to the beach to which he replied. Why are you so uncompromising? A fun way to spend an afternoon, but we think it's just a tad bit easier our way. Homes.com Ding Dong we've done your homework.
- [84:53]
Host 4
Think advertising on TikTok isn't for your business. Think again.
- [84:57]
Host 1
We've generated over 100,000 leads which has converted into over 40,000 sales for our pet insurance policies. My name is Trey Farrow. I am the CEO of Spot Pet no insurance TikTok smart plus AI powered automation takes the guesswork out of targeting, bidding and optimizing creative.
- [85:13]
Host 2
If I can advertise on TikTok, you can too.
- [85:16]
Host 4
Drive more leads and scale your business. Today only on TikTok.
- [85:20]
Host 1
Head over to get started.TikTok.com TikTok ads busy work weeks and weekends can leave you feeling drained. Prolon's five day nutrition program works at the cellular level to rejuvenate you with boxes labeled by day so you know.
- [85:34]
Guest 2
Exactly what to eat.
- [85:36]
Host 1
Developed at USC's Longevity Institute, this science backed program makes your cells believe they are fasting to support fat loss, skin appearance and healthy blood sugar levels. Feel the difference and get real results.
- [85:48]
Host 4
In just five days.
- [85:50]
Host 1
Get 15% off today plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five day program at prolonlife.com iheart that's prolonlife.com.
- [86:04]
Host 2
Ryan on Thursday the President is attending a Meme Coin crypto dinner at his golf club outside of D.C. in Virginia. And Marco Rubio, while he was in the Senate yesterday got some tough questions about that.
- [86:22]
Host 4
Yeah. And to set the context for this, in order to come to this dinner you had to be in the top 200 purchasers of Trump, Trump's Meme Coin. So you basically had to give money to Trump directly, not even through a campaign fund directly. And then the top like 15 or so get like VIP access to Trump. The top 200 get direct access to Trump. And there's been reporting that the vast majority of the people who are in this top 200 and in the top 15 are not Americans. So yeah, so that's what Murphy here is asking Rubio about.
- [86:56]
Guest 2
Let me ask you about the dinner that's happening this Thursday night. The President has offered access to him to the 200 top purchasers of his Meme Coin. Reports are that maybe about half or more of those individuals who will be meeting with him, many in a VIP reception, are foreigners. Do you have a list of those foreign individuals who are who will be meeting with the President?
- [87:24]
Guest 3
I don't he. I don't know anything about. I didn't even know there was a dinner on Thursday night, so I'm not sure what you're referring to.
- [87:31]
Guest 2
So you don't know whether any of the foreign individuals who are going to be meeting with the President this Thursday night, for instance, are on our list of sanctioned individuals or whether any of those individuals have connections to, let's say, terrorist organizations abroad?
- [87:45]
Guest 3
Well, I think if they had terrorist links, the Department of Homeland Security probably would not have allowed them into the country. But again, I don't even know there is a dinner. You're asking me about something I don't. I don't know about.
- [87:54]
Guest 2
Well, but listen, this is a dinner that the president is having. It is likely going to involve some very significant foreign interests. You have to be pretty wealthy in order to be able to get inside this dinner. Isn't that a relevant question for the Secretary of State?
- [88:11]
Guest 3
Yeah, I'm not.
- [88:11]
Host 3
The Social Security.
- [88:11]
Guest 2
Which foreign interests are going to be speaking to the President? I mean, it's kind of naive to believe that they aren't going to be in that room talking about national security matters.
- [88:18]
Guest 3
Well, I don't think that that's the case at all, because I would be aware if it was the case. The truth of the matter is I interact with government officials and others and governments of other countries. That's what I'm saying. You're asking about a dinner I don't know anything about. I can't answer you because I don't know anything about this dinner. It's the first I heard of it. Like I said, I don't keep the president's social schedule. It's not on my phone. It's not in my pocket. I don't even know. I can't comment on a dinner I know nothing about.
- [88:40]
Host 4
I kind of wish from the Democratic perspective that they would go after the corruption more than the national security. Like, I'm actually not worried that there's going to be a suicide bomber sneak into the White House and blow himself up there, or, like, whatever the other national security implications Murphy would be talking about. It feels, like, outdated. It is gross and thoroughly corrupt.
- [89:02]
Host 2
Right.
- [89:04]
Host 4
What do you think of Rubio being like, oh, dinner. I wouldn't invite at that dinner. I don't know anything about that dinner.
- [89:10]
Host 2
He's, like, pissed he didn't get the invite.
- [89:11]
Host 4
Social calendar.
- [89:12]
Host 2
Yeah, No, I mean, that's the only real answer that he can give to the question. It's entirely possible. It's true. I mean, I don't think Marco Rubio is trying to keep Donald Trump's schedule. He's probably not following crypto news that closely, although at some point it does have overlap with the Secretary of State's responsibilities. But it's obviously the biggest handicap, I think it's the biggest handicap in the future of like right wing populism which has been infiltrated and compromised by the tech community who is is eager to, some of them are true believing libertarians of this like libertarian populism that's relevant to crypto world. But that's of, you know, Rosie, that's looking at it through rose colored lenses. There are a lot of people who are just sort of people getting absolutely loaded off of crypto and using it to wield even more influence over global politics. So Rubio in particular doesn't really want to get into that because he's a sort of one of the figureheads, one of the thought leaders in the world of MAGA populism. So he's particularly positioned poorly to face questions about that because it's a huge handicap for the movement that he wants.
- [90:28]
Host 4
To be a leader in and I think for the country too. Let's just look at this from a big picture perspective for one second and speak speaking of China, what's China out there building high speed rail automated factories like robotics that seem to be several years ahead of us EVs that are like five to ten grand and have much longer ability to travel without needing to charge, better battery technology and on and on. What are we doing? We're building crypto blockchain and a golden dome to protect against what the last 20 years were defined by the US spending $10 trillion failing to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq while China made leaps and bounds forward technologically and economically. The next 10 years we're just going to dump all our money into crypto and, and like weapons projects while China just continues along. How do we think that that is going to end? So it's not just this dinner Thursday night in the United States Senate this week. We can put this next element up on the screen. The Senate is moving forward on this key crypto bill, which is they call it, they're going to codify stablecoins. Basically. The Democrats who objected to it, which were led by Elizabeth Warren, argued that, look, what you're doing here is just, you're just codifying Trump's ability to do this insanely corrupt thing into law, that this thing's a giant giveaway to the crypto industry and is going to enable all sorts of fraud. You had a fascinating split within the Democratic Party, you put up C6 here. This is my colleague Stephen Dennis, Bloomberg reporter said some drama on the Senate floor during stablecoin vote. The top crypto friendly Dem Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren, the chief foe, got in a heated argument on the Democratic side of the chamber. A third of the Democrats ended up siding with Gillibrand, two thirds with Warren. The crypto folks were watching this. You can put up C7 and put up a bunch of kind of stills you could see on C Span.
- [93:00]
Host 2
So funny.
- [93:01]
Host 4
Yeah. So if you're just listening to this, basically Warren just chased Gillibrand all over the Senate floor. Just kind of berating her for this, this bill. Like what are you doing? Like what? In this moment in time with this insane amount of corruption washing. And not just washing through Washington because that implies there's some passive force. Donald Trump and his family and Witkoff's kid are like flooding Washington with crypto based corruption and Gillibrand and a third of the Democrats are going to team up with Republicans to basically rubber stamp that and be like that's cool. Now if you put the earlier element that I put up from Warren, this is Stephen Dennis, the Bloomberg reporter, saying that Warren's not against crypto regulation. Obviously she wants to regulate it practically out of existence.
- [94:03]
Host 2
Yeah.
- [94:04]
Host 4
He says, quote, you know, she said she'd be fine with stablecoin legislation with proper regulation to protect consumers, which includes CFPB oversight. Although the CFPB is getting nuked. A ban on presidents profiting off their own coins while in office. That seems like a reasonable piece of legislation.
- [94:23]
Host 2
Yep.
- [94:24]
Host 4
Protection against systemic risks from a failed token. In other words, you have the, you have a scam token that pulls in so much money that it takes down counterparties with it. And we get a financial crisis because of this stuff. And better protection against criminal transactions. And a ban on stablecoins issued by tech companies and other non financial companies that say, in other words, if you want to issue currency, this cryptocurrency that you have to be regulated like a financial institution because we, we already did a great Depression, we did this whole thing before.
- [94:58]
Host 2
It's not just risk to individuals, it's risk to the entire system.
- [95:02]
Host 4
Right. Because we don't have an option to say, eh, you know what, I don't like this crypto stuff. I'm not gonna get involved with it. It's gonna get involved with you when it takes the whole house cards down.
- [95:14]
Host 2
Bankman fried Silicon Valley bank. We already have sort of warning shots that have been fired so it's. So it's not insane at all. But of course the reason Kirsten Gillibrand and others are interested in advancing this legislation is because there's a truly insane amount of money in crypto that is now being. It's the exact point that you're like, Warren is out there trying to tell Gillibrand, what are you doing? There's so much right now as the corruption is washing over the state. It was like, well, that's why Gillibrand is doing it. Said you can be convinced to take an ideological pro crypto stance when people are throwing millions and millions of dollars at you and promising to be great allies for you going forward.
- [95:56]
Host 4
And the best talking point for it is, okay, look, we lost. Crypto's here to stay. Which is kind of terrible talking point if you ask me, because it sounds rather weak to just give up like that. Because you're the United States of America. You can do big things. But okay, let's pretend you can say blockchain is here to stay. Blockchain is an amazing technology. Like, come on, are you serious? Really? Blockchain? Come on man.
- [96:29]
Host 2
We don't need to debate blockchain.
- [96:33]
Host 4
Whatever. Good luck to us.
- [96:36]
Host 2
Exactly. That's the only place that we can leave it.
- [96:52]
Host 3
Does friendly have a taste? If it does, it's probably like hello's peppermint flavored anti plaque and whitening toothpaste. Brush away plaque, show tartar who's boss and remove surface stains to naturally whiten. Hello's thoughtful and flavor forward products make brushing your teeth feel like a confetti filled bathroom dance party. So say hello to hello with the always cruelty free, never tested on animals toothpaste that's made to spread smiles. Visit helloproducts.com and let hello add some everyday yay into your life.
- [97:24]
Host 4
Are you still quoting 30 year old movies?
- [97:26]
Host 1
Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days?
- [97:29]
Host 4
Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted?
- [97:32]
Host 1
If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past.
- [97:35]
Host 4
Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase.
- [97:41]
Host 1
With your card, you automatically earn cash back.
- [97:44]
Host 4
Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more@discover.com credit card Based on the.
- [97:50]
Host 1
February 2024 Nielsen report, homes.com is the only place where you can find specialized neighborhood guides with the in depth insider info home shoppers want to Very in depth info. Want to know if there's homes for sale in the area? We've got it. How long has a home been on the market, we'll know it. Average lot size?
- [98:12]
Guest 2
Uh huh.
- [98:13]
Host 1
Proximity to local parks.
- [98:15]
Host 2
Of course.
- [98:16]
Host 1
Insight into your neighbor's divorce. We're working on it. Homes.com. we've done your homework. You're listening to an iHeart podcast.