8/19/25: Fox Trashes Gavin Over Mean Tweets, ADL Lies About Zohran, Bari Weiss Starvation Denial, Israeli Mil Head Celebrates Killing Kids

Summary

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Main Theme: Critique and analysis of elite media, establishment narratives, and current political controversies—including Gavin Newsom's social media tactics, the ADL's attacks on New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Western media denialism about Gaza, and further evidence of extremism in Israeli policy.

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1. Gavin Newsom’s Trumpian Twitter Era & Fox News Reaction

Overview

Krystal and Saagar open by dissecting California Governor Gavin Newsom’s embrace of aggressive, meme-heavy, Trump-like social media tactics. They analyze conservative media’s overblown outrage in response, and draw parallels to past political polarizations.

Key Points & Insights

• Newsom’s Twitter persona:

  • Newsom’s official press office account has replied to provocative or controversial tweets—frequently leaning into meme culture and even trolling Republicans and conservative figures (Tomi Lahren, Scott Pressler, Nancy Mace, Chaya Raichik [Libs of TikTok]).
  • Notably, Newsom retweeted a meme from a Nazi account and responded "I missed that scarf", and mocked J.D. Vance in old photos.
  • Newsom is intentionally "going Trump" in his online strategy—using humor, aggression, and directness as a means to energize Democratic support.

• Polarization and Performative Politics:

  • Republicans and Fox News are now pearl-clutching over Newsom’s “mean tweets”, despite having celebrated Trump’s similar online behavior in the past.
  • Saagar critiques the hypocrisy:
    • "The only reason that I think any of this is interesting is that Gavin is basically just going Trump. Like, he's going all, like, Trumpy in terms of his posting with the memes and all of that." (04:14)
    • "The more that the Tomi Lahrens and Fox News are mad at Gavin, the more happy that these Democrats are gonna be. They love that Trump owned the libs ... now if Gavin's able to trigger the conservatives, like the Democratic base is gonna eat that up." (08:33)

• Democratic Primary & "Fighter" Energy:

  • Recent Echelon Insights poll (cited at 07:00) places Newsom at #2 for 2028, behind Kamala Harris.
  • Newsom’s success is partly due to his "fighter" stance; Democratic base now wants a figure who triggers the right, as Trump did for Republicans.
  • Krystal:
    • "It’s shocking that more of these idiotic Democratic politicians haven’t realized that that is the case. And actually, it took Gavin a while to get it." (08:33)

• Fox News Outrage Montage:

  • A series of Fox News clips show conservative pundits reacting melodramatically to Newsom’s tweets, decrying his supposed lack of seriousness for trolling figures like Texas Governor Greg Abbott (“he rolled over for Trump”).
  • Krystal sums up the dynamic:
    • “It’s just so funny. Do you not realize who the president is that you like, you know, glaze all the time?” (11:11)

• Limits and Pyrrhic Victories:

  • Krystal and Saagar caution that viral online “hype” around Newsom doesn’t always translate to actual electoral power—citing similar social media-driven surges for previous candidates (e.g. Kamala Harris).
  • Newsom’s podcast is underperforming in views; virality may be deceptive (“sometimes he has a good guest, but sometimes it’s a total bust”—17:09).

Notable Quotes

• Saagar: "He believes nothing. He will say anything. That is absolutely true. That is what you need more than anything to be president. You have to have the black hole in your soul. And he has it." (19:36)
• Krystal: "If sort of leveraged in the right way [his presence and fighting style] are certainly very appealing to a Democratic base right now that again, is just so desperate for anyone who has anything to say and is gonna like, have any sort of a spine or a backbone at all." (18:54)
• Saagar (on Newsom's ambitions): "He reminds me a lot, actually, of Bill Clinton, like, in terms of just that tick inside from the very beginning of, like, have to have it, gotta have it." (20:21)

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2. ADL’s Attacks on Zohran Mamdani: Lies and Media Influence

Overview

Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the ADL, went on CNBC and other networks, falsely smearing Democratic NYC mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani as antisemitic. Krystal and Saagar break down these claims and analyze established institutions’ waning grip on public opinion.

Key Points & Insights

• Greenblatt’s False Claims:

  • Greenblatt accuses Mamdani of refusing to condemn “globalize the intifada” and of never visiting synagogues or engaging with Jewish communities.
  • Krystal and Saagar methodically debunk these lies, pointing to social media evidence and fact-checked reports that Mamdani did attend synagogues, engaged in Yiddish-language press, and maintains strong Jewish campaign staff/supporters.

• Institutional vs. Popular Power:

  • Despite ADL’s legacy and media reach, its political influence is declining—especially among younger, progressive Jewish voters.
  • Recent NEA (teachers union) attempted to sever ties with the ADL over its pro-Israel stance—the executive committee overruled members, showing lingering institutional control.
  • Saagar:
    • "The ADL has a lot of institutional power, but it is increasingly losing a lot of its political power. And I think that's what's very important." (29:37)

• Media Collusion & Elite Bubble:

  • Greenblatt appears on financial networks (CNBC) not just for news, but to help mobilize Wall Street and elite opposition to Mamdani.
  • Krystal:
    • "They do not want to grapple with reality. That's why he's like I don't believe the polls. Actually if you'll recall, in the Democratic primary the polls wildly understated Zorin's support." (32:35)

Notable Quotes

• Krystal: "What brazen... nearly every word out of his mouth is just a brazen lie there." (26:45)
• Saagar: "Institutional power they have... but if you really want to like dismantle it, it's important politically to actually have candidates who outright reject them. But those candidates then need to look at all of the other areas that they're influencing." (31:39)

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3. The Free Press, Bari Weiss, and Starvation Denial in Gaza

Overview

Krystal and Saagar profile The Free Press (Bari Weiss’s media venture) and its egregious attempts to deny and minimize Gaza’s famine by cherry-picking and distorting facts about starving Palestinian children.

Key Points & Insights

• Starvation Denialism:

  • The Free Press published a story claiming that 12 Palestinian children, highlighted as famine victims, actually had underlying medical problems like traumatic injuries or rickets—implying they weren’t really dying of starvation.
  • Krystal calls out the moral bankruptcy:
    • "Is that supposed to be a propaganda win for Israel? That in addition to the fact you're starving this child to death, you also blew up part of his head?" (34:30)
  • The absurdity of using rickets (a disease caused by vitamin deficiency) as a counterargument against malnutrition.

• Holocaust Denial Parallels:

  • Saagar and Krystal draw a direct analogy between these arguments and classic Holocaust denial tropes ("victims had other preconditions", "some people had access to food/restaurants") being weaponized to minimize current atrocities.
    • Saagar: "A key tenant of Holocaust denial is trying to claim that many of the initial victims or purported victims had other preconditions and that's part of the reason why they died." (37:28)

Notable Quotes

• Krystal: "So disgusting. Of course the first people who are on the brink of death or who have in hundreds of instances at this point already starved to death... it's the sick, it's the weak, it's the vulnerable. Those are the first people, often children, often infants or the elderly, to die in famine conditions." (36:04)

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4. Gaza Ceasefire Moves, Israeli Military Leaks, and Sickness in Israeli Society

Overview

Krystal and Saagar cover new reports on ceasefire negotiations, shocking leaked audio from top Israeli intelligence, and data on Gaza’s population collapse. They discuss growing evidence of systemic dehumanization and violence.

Key Points & Insights

• Ceasefire Attempts:

  • Hamas has accepted a Qatari/Egyptian ceasefire proposal for a 60-day halt, but Israel’s response is pending and likely to reject, as previous negotiations have failed due to Israel’s “poison pill” demands for total occupation.
  • Krystal’s pessimism:
    • "I don't feel very hopeful that the Israeli side is going to accept this because they seem hell bent on their complete ethnic cleansing plan and are moving forward with effectuating that outcome." (41:50)

• Leaked Israeli Military Audio:

  • Israeli head of military intelligence openly states:
    • “For every person [killed] on October 7th, 50 Palestinians should die. It does not matter if they are kids. There is nothing to be done. They need a Nakba now and then to feel the price.” (translated at 44:18)
  • Krystal calls this direct evidence of genocidal intent within the Israeli establishment—a chilling mask-off moment.

• Gaza: Demographic Collapse Data:

  • Life expectancy in Gaza has dropped by about 35 years since 10/7/2023—far worse than previous wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Yemen (visuals at 47:53).

• Israeli Recruitment and Diaspora:

  • The IDF, facing a manpower crisis, is openly encouraging the Jewish diaspora (notably in the US and France) to enlist.
  • Saagar draws Nazi parallel:
    • "It's very Nazi blood and soil behavior. The Nazis… any loyal German must return to the fatherland to come and fight for Hitler." (51:11–51:13)

• Systemic Abuse of Foreign Workers:

  • Israeli Knesset found 100% of Thai farm workers in the country reported sexual assault (52:07)—evidence of deeply rooted problems beneath Israel’s self-marketing as a democracy.

• Society-Wide Radicalization & Propaganda:

  • Krystal and Saagar discuss how even Israeli “liberals” now support ethnic cleansing, and compare this moral breakdown to American society’s WWII anti-Japanese propaganda—but noting the added ideological power of religious and supremacist justifications.
  • Krystal:
    • "If you have an ideology that says one group is better, more deserving, gets more rights than another group, then all sorts of horrors flow directly from there. Because if they're not truly human, you can do anything to it." (56:28)

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5. Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Saagar (on cable news): "Every time I watch cable news, I'm like, oh, that's why people like our show. Okay, I get it." (11:50)
• Krystal (on elite Israel-Palestine narrative): "There has been a almost complete loss of public support [for Israel] outside of like boomer Republicans. But there is still a lot of elite support and elite pushing of this narrative." (33:48)
• Saagar (on self-censorship): "It's a lot harder to understand in the year 2025, in the age of the smartphone. It actually makes me doubt whether the information age makes people more informed at all. I actually think we may all be less informed than ever." (54:31)

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Key Timestamps for Segments

• Gavin Newsom’s Twitter and Fox News Reaction: 02:13–21:44
• ADL’s Attack on Zohran Mamdani: 24:23–34:30
• Starvation Denial/Free Press & Bari Weiss: 34:30–39:13
• Gaza Ceasefire, Israeli Leaks, Demographic Catastrophe: 41:50–52:07
• Abuse of Foreign Workers, Radicalization in Israeli Society: 52:07–End

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Tone and Summary

The episode’s tone is fiercely critical, irreverent, and unsparing—Krystal and Saagar blend sharp analysis with gallows humor and frustration. They call out establishment hypocrisy, media disinformation, and elite consensus, particularly relating to Israel/Palestine, Democratic politics, and the mechanics of manufactured outrage. Their intent is to “hold the powerful to account,” echoing their anti-establishment ethos by exposing the mechanisms by which the political and media elite shape, distort, and weaponize narratives against genuine grassroots or antiwar opposition.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

If you didn’t hear the episode, you’ll find a detailed deconstruction of how both American political discourse and pro-Israel propaganda are manufactured and defended—from Newsom’s social media games, to the ADL’s influence, to grotesque denial of suffering in Gaza. The show provides rich analysis, numerous receipts, and a forceful call to look past memes, cable news dramatics, and institutional gaslighting.

Transcript

[Krystal Ball]

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[Krystal Ball]

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[Saagar Enjeti]

Hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here.

[Krystal Ball]

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[Saagar Enjeti]

This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.

[Krystal Ball]

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[Saagar Enjeti]

We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see [e-mail].

[Krystal Ball]

Gavin Newsom has been going wild on Twitter and there's this weird maybe you could explain it a little more to be Sagar, but there's this weird horseshoe where actually like a bunch of the white nationalist Kreipers have negatively polarized themselves against Trump to.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Not just Trump with JD Specific jdv.

[Krystal Ball]

You're right, they do hate and wife. Correct.

[Saagar Enjeti]

That's a huge part.

[Krystal Ball]

Yes, correct.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Not a huge part of it. That's the entire part.

[Krystal Ball]

And so they've negatively polarized themselves into being pro Gavin. And so in any case, there are all sorts of. Let's go ahead and put C2. Let's go ahead and roll through some of these memes, and then we can play the Fox News reaction. There's all sorts of stuff going on. Gavin Newsom replied to this picture of this video of Scott Pressler and thank you, Nancy Mace. Tomi Lahren is then upset by this, says, new lows unlocked by Gavin Newsom. You're kidding me. Your state and your bullshit governor rant and rave on a daily basis about protecting gay people. You're really gonna use your official press office account to troll a gay conservative column? A woman. And then the Newsom press office replies, you sound woke. We can put the next one up on the screen just to get a flavor of a bunch of these. I don't know. This might be a Nazi account. I have no idea who this person is. But in any case, they say, which way, America? And they've got Gavin looking very handsome and fit in high school with his baseball bat and J.D. vance with a wig on at a similar age and apparently eyeliner as well. Let's put the next one up on the screen. You've got. This is a legit Nazi account, this one that Posted Gavin Newsom vs. J.D. vance in high school. And then Gavin retweets this legit Nazi account and says, I missed that scarf. Let's put the next one up on the screen, see what else we got here. This one he posted Go GatimJD. This was actually a video of. Of JD looking, like, not too athletic, running to rescue his kid who's doing the Disneyland.

[Saagar Enjeti]

At Disneyland. Yeah, the parent run of Run don't walk, but know that you're on camera.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah, I'll defend him on that one.

[Saagar Enjeti]

The only reason that I think any of this is interesting is that Gavin is basically just going Trump. Like, he's going all, like, Trumpy in. In terms of his posting with the memes and all of that.

[Krystal Ball]

All caps. Wow. What an honor on Mount Rushmore. Thank you. And it's like an AI image of Gavin Newsom on Rushmore.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I don't quite know. Yeah, go into the next.

[Krystal Ball]

This is lives of TikTok who had posted. I remember she posted something mean about him. And then he said, great job, Chaya, and has the picture of her with her binder so excited on Epstein Files phase one day.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah. My take from Gavin is that he is very clearly trying. He basically is very clearly trying to become the Democratic Trump where it's all just about one thing. He fights, he pisses off the Republicans. And it's been somewhat effective, I think so right now, because. Okay, it's somewhat effective in a couple of ways. Number one is it's turning conservatives now into concern trolling snowflakes like Tomi Lahren being like, that's so mean. Going. It's like, fuck off. All right. Like, you know, come on. This is. We are. We are. It's 2025. We're all ripping on each other all day long. The libs are doing it now. So be. If anything, it's dark fear. Yeah. No more pearl clutching. I think is great. You know, it's like, oh, we really care. Scott Pressler's feelings are gonna get hurt. It's not out here.

[Krystal Ball]

Poor Nancy Mills's.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Get it. Does she even have feelings? I don't even know if she's human.

[Krystal Ball]

She's got feelings. She's got big emotions.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I don't know. It all seems very fake to me. Just saying. She seems like a classic actor. That's all I'll say. But in terms of Gavin, I think what is interesting more to me is our big discussion yesterday about this polarization over what are the issues and what are the things that will define being a Democratic nominee and in 2028. And already some of the initial polling is showing up for Gavin. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. This was Echelon Insights. It was actually just conducted just yesterday, and it's a 2028 Democratic primary poll. Kamala Harris came in at 26%. I'm not sure that would be a good idea, but whatever. But number two is Newsom, and number three, Buttigieg, then aoc, Booker, Crockett, Pritzker, Whitmer, Shapiro, et cetera. All of them are in the 2 or the 3% range. The reason why I think that's important, though, is that Newsom is not only number two, assuming that Kamala does not run again. And what it means is that he's capturing, at the very least, not only with name recognition, but primary, like the primary character syndrome. Of who? The Democrat, like, who's actually leading the fight or whatever against Trump. And that's really just very Trumpian. And it's exactly what I heard from a lot of Republicans back in 2015 and 2016. Even a lot of people People need to remember it was not socially acceptable in Washington even for Republicans to support Trump, like very openly in 2015 or indoor 2016. The defenders would always say the same thing.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah, I get it.

[Saagar Enjeti]

It's distasteful or, oh, at that time it was scandalous that Trump wanted free healthcare or whatever, or was questioning trade policy or anything. They're like, but he fights. And it was one of those where you could connect that with the Trump base voters. And those were some of the first reported. Right when I started out, I started talking to people, I was like, hey, what are these Trump rallies like? I'm talking about the original ones, like Iowa and New Hampshire. They're like, man, I've never seen anything like it. People who came completely out of the woodwork and they just love how he tells it like it is. That's what we heard over and over again. Like it had nothing to really do with policy. I mean, there are policy implications to that. But my point about Gavin is I think that he's connecting very solidly, like with where that no Kings energy is for a lot of these people. And with Gavin and his about face. From the initial days of the Trump administration, post Vibe Shift has been one where he's taken all of the most performative fighting actions, like the lawsuits, the LA riots or whatever, like mobilizing the lawsuits against the National Guard and then the Twitter piece. The only reason I think it's important is really to invite conversation by a lot of the Republican elites to negatively polarize them against him. That's very helpful. Cuz one of the things people loved most about Trump, even if they didn't like him, they loved how much he pissed off the media. So the more that the Tomi Lahrens and Fox News are mad at Gavin, the more happy that these Democrats are gonna be.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah, they love that Trump owned the libs and like that. And now if Gavin's able to trigger the conservatives, like the Democratic base is gonna eat that up. It's shocking that more of these idiotic Democratic politicians haven't realized that that is the case. And actually, I mean, it took Gavin a while to get it. He launched his podcast, having on Charlie Kirk, to just hang out and have this chummy conversation with him and Steve Bannon and others. And then when Trump sent in the National Guard, I feel like that's when it really turned because Gavin started fighting and being vocal and visible and got a positive response and is like, this is the thing that people want me to do. So to your point about triggering the, the Trumpers, I guess we'll say, triggering the Trumpers. Fox News doing some just delicious pearl clutching over some comment that Gavin Newsom made that I don't even know if he intended as being like an intentional dig at Governor Greg Abbott's. The fact that he's disabled, that he's in a wheelchair. I don't even know if he intended that. But anyway, Fox News was in high dudgeon about these comments and you'll see their response to Gavin Newsom's reply. Let's go ahead and this is C1, guys. Go ahead and play this.

[Guest or Interviewee (Jonathan Greenblatt)]

Congressman Greg Abbott, who is in a wheelchair and Newsom says he rolled over for Trump. That's almost as bad as Jasmine Crockett calling him Governor Hot Wheels. You know, we asked for a statement and Newsom's office said something flippant like, you know, you're so woke. He'll get over it. Abbott will get over it.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Your response to that?

[Krystal Ball]

So actually the reply from the Newsom press office was, you know, asked if for a statement. He said no, but how woke of you to ask. I'm sorry. Greg's feelings were hurt. Poor guy. We he recovers. So that was their reply. So that's their level of trolling. And so they're loving seeing. And there were some other. I don't remember if we pulled it or not. Yeah, we did. We pulled C3B, which was another moment of Fox News being so offended and so disgusted by the way that Gavin Newsom is comporting himself. Now, let's go ahead and play that. The other thing for me is that.

[Commercial Announcer]

For the last week, Gavin Newsom and.

[Krystal Ball]

Why am I giving him advice?

[Commercial Announcer]

You have to stop it with the Twitter thing.

[Krystal Ball]

I don't know where his wife is. If I were his wife, I would say, you are making a fool of yourself.

[Commercial Announcer]

Stop it.

[Krystal Ball]

Do not let your staff tweet. And if you're doing it yourself, put the phone away and start over. And if you want, he's got a big job as governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job, he has to be a little bit more serious.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Of course, he should spend a lot less time on his phone tweeting. That's never worked out for him.

[Krystal Ball]

Where have you heard that before? Where have you heard that before? I mean, that's what's so funny is like, do you not hear yourself? Do you not realize who the president is that you like, you know, glaze all the time?

[Saagar Enjeti]

If they do Trump, they'll be like, oh, it's Just so amazing how much direct access we have to the American.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah. Oh, he's so funny. He has such a great way of communicating with people.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I will tell you, the last 48 hours, I have wanted to blow my brains out. Cause I keep watching all this Fox News. Cause of the summit, because of the crazy. I just want the live tv. I just want the live television, like, access to this. So every once in a while, I will forget to mute Jesse Waters. And I'm like, I am gonna kill myself if I have to keep listening to this.

[Krystal Ball]

Every time I watch cable news, I'm like, oh, that's why people like our show. Okay, I get it.

[Saagar Enjeti]

You know, my wife, who does not watch any breaking points whatsoever and thinks I'm cringe, is like, oh, this is why you have a career, isn't it? Even she thinks I'm better than these people. You know, it's one of those where it's maddening, but it's exactly reasons like that where, as you know, there's some octogenarian from watching Fox who's like, yeah, such a good point about Gavin. But then at the same time, it's loves Trump and loves the Mika Brzezinski facelift tweet is their favorite ever. Right.

[Krystal Ball]

Whether they'd admit it or not, they secretly enjoyed it.

[Saagar Enjeti]

They admitted they know if you talk to these people enough, it comes out very quickly about what this is all about. Let's put C4 up on the screen. This is the poly market betting odds. Gavin's. He's quite up there. 23%. That was taken yesterday. He's gone up 2%.

[Krystal Ball]

Oh, really?

[Saagar Enjeti]

Since then. He's at 23 as of right now. AOCs at 4. I would sell that. I don't know about you. I would not buy that at all.

[Krystal Ball]

I genuinely don't think she's going to.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Why wouldn't she come for Senate?

[Krystal Ball]

I think she's gonna run for that.

[Saagar Enjeti]

That'd be the most recent one.

[Krystal Ball]

That is my guess at this point. And I think. Which is part of why I think she's, like, weirdly parsing on, like, the Israeli weapons and all that sort of stuff. It makes more sense now. I mean, maybe, like, political logic escapes these people. Certainly basic morality does, but it makes more sense in the context of trying to unseat Chuck Schumer in the state of New York.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah.

[Krystal Ball]

So that's my reading at this point. I want to run for a second.

[Saagar Enjeti]

That's a total sell for me.

[Krystal Ball]

Oh, yeah. Like, if you watch those Israel answers for him and the cleanup and just how little Riz he has and how black people still don't want anything to do with him.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Like, also, isn't South Carolina still the first like I think it is?

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah, it's still early, so forget about it.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Take a look at black polling.

[Krystal Ball]

You know, sorry. Maybe computers.

[Saagar Enjeti]

How's that going to work?

[Krystal Ball]

Secretary again to Newsom.

[Saagar Enjeti]

You know, I kept. I was trying to find this out what title takes press. Is it mayor or secretary? And nobody can actually give me a good answer.

[Krystal Ball]

I don't know officially, but for me, he's just like, mayor is so baked into his.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I say mayor because it's elected. And cabinet. Cause you're elected. So by, like, by the people, technically in the mayor. So secretary is confirmed by the cabinet, but I'd have to check that secretary's.

[Krystal Ball]

Got an extra syllable in it.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I agree.

[Krystal Ball]

We all know him as Mayor Pete. That's just. That's what he is. It doesn't really matter at this point. But I mean, what I will say, and I said this yesterday, but reiterate. The thing that Gavin is benefiting from right now, too, is that he doesn't really have to answer any difficult questions on things that would be challenging for him. So immigration will be one of those things. But I think more critically right now is where he stands on Israel and Gaza. The things that he has said to date are not good, but he has never put himself in a position where he is going to be specifically pressed on that issue. And a little behind the scenes, we've been trying for quite a while now to get an interview with Mr. Newsom.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I have a new lead on that, by the way.

[Krystal Ball]

Do you.

[Saagar Enjeti]

It's just happened, like, recently. Well, yeah.

[Krystal Ball]

So in any case, he follows me on Twitter. Reached out to him that way. We reached out through the press office. We got specific. No, he's not interested in both instances. And he's been going out and doing lots of. Brian Tyler, all kinds of online media, but he does not want to come here. And it wouldn't surprise me if it's because. Because he does not want.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I think it's because Slotkin.

[Krystal Ball]

He does. I don't even. Because the first time we reached out was pre Slotkin.

[Saagar Enjeti]

That's a good point.

[Krystal Ball]

But he's smart enough to know that, like, if you just look at our channel, obviously Israel, Palestine is a focus of concern for us and interest. And he's not gonna get through an interview without getting asked really specific questions that he has no good answer for. But at Some point, he's going to have to answer those questions and it's going to cause him to have to either divide with the donor base that has been his key to power in California for years and years, or he's going to divide with where the grassroots of the. Not just the grassroots, the entirety of the Democratic Party base is at this point. So there is some treacherous road ahead of him. And there's also. So we'll see. We'll see with him how that goes. Where he ends up. To me, that's sort of the biggest trouble area for him. But there's no doubt the Democratic base is absolutely loving seeing someone show some sort of life. Because it's been few and far between in terms of politicians who have even showed the slightest bit of aura of ability to stand up to Trump, of understanding of new media, et cetera. So it is for, I think a lot of Democrats. It feels like manna from heaven to have this one dude who's at least out there like posting and making people kind of lose their minds about what he's saying.

[Saagar Enjeti]

My only caution is people should remember the Brat Summer thing, which was fake at the end of the day. Completely. Everyone was like, the poll. She's one on one.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah, there's all the coconut memes.

[Saagar Enjeti]

That was totally. Didn't amount to it either was astroturfed or. Actually, I don't think that's fair because I think it was real and organic in some way. But it is.

[Krystal Ball]

It was a relief that Biden was gone.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah.

[Krystal Ball]

And excitement that there was something different.

[Saagar Enjeti]

More. What I mean is, became very overrepresented in coverage and probably skewed a lot of people in media who took it seriously and thought it was real. So my only caution is just that sometimes this online stuff can be taken way too far. And then in retrospect, you know, it's pretty obvious what it is. And there are signs for selling. I mean, we talked yesterday about his podcast. It doesn't do very well. Like, sometimes he has a good guess, but sometimes it's a total bust.

[Krystal Ball]

I mean, he's got episodes up here that are getting 5k views.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Krystal Ball]

So if there was this real organic interest in Gavin Newsom, you would think that every one of them would at least be hitting 100K.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah.

[Krystal Ball]

And there's some.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Look, I mean, there are tiktoks that have gone very viral. Like we have a VO of one of them. Cause it has Lana Del Rey music. We could put C5 up on the screen just to show people what it looks like. This is some of the hype reels that. That people are making. But as I said, the only reason this gives me pause is because I remember all of the ones about Kamala.

[Krystal Ball]

Right.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Kamala was huge on TikTok, right? Yeah. So was Tim Walls. Like, all of them. And you know, there were all these moments that went viral with them amongst liberals, and then they still not only lost the election, he lost the popular vote. Right. I just feel like that's so important to say. So I don't know how it will materialize, but at the very least, maybe we can take it seriously because it is still gonna be representative. At the end of the day, it's about the primaries. We're not yet talking about the general election. We're not right now in the realm of how the American people feel. We're talking about the Democratic electorate. And for them, they wanna see somebody fight. And I think that Gavin right now is the best example.

[Krystal Ball]

And Gavin has more of the goods than Kamala does. I mean, he gives me it. Cause he has this, like, car salesman vibe. Kyle always gets mad when I say that. Cause he used to be a car salesman, but he has this.

[Saagar Enjeti]

They have a bad rep for a reason.

[Krystal Ball]

Smarmy politician like, you can just smell the am See it oozing out of every single pore. And to me, I just. That's a major red flag in every way to me. But I have to take myself out of this equation and say when he's in, he can debate. He is a commanding presence. He's not afraid of being in the spotlight. He's not afraid of getting blowback and being in the mix. And those are qualities that I think if. If sort of leveraged in the right way are certainly very appealing to a Democratic base right now. That again, is just so desperate for anyone who has anything to say and is gonna like, have any sort of a spine or a backbone at all.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I mean, as I've repeatedly said about Gavin, he believes nothing. He will say anything.

[Krystal Ball]

Correct.

[Saagar Enjeti]

That is absolutely true. That is what you need more than anything to be president. You have to have the black hole in your soul. And he has it. You can tell. There's no other reason to be chasing the spotlight for your entire life. To want to go Sean Hannity show to his biggest smile is when he's engaged in fights with Ron DeSantis and with Hannity. That's what he actually lives to do, is to, like, be in the spotlight, is to elevate his profile is to, like, be the number one man. And so that type of ambition can only lead in one direction. He reminds me a lot, actually, of Bill Clinton, like, in terms of just that tick inside from the very beginning of, like, have to have it, gotta have it.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Clinton was much psychological.

[Krystal Ball]

Clinton was much more sort of naturally appealing, though he didn't have that same.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Sure. It didn't come across that way. Although secretly he was. I mean, of course, who else runs for student body pressure?

[Krystal Ball]

How he came off, Right. Yeah.

[Saagar Enjeti]

But it's like graduates from law school and he's like, I'm gonna be governor. People are like, what? Who are you? I mean, to his credit, he did win. So, you know, you can't count him out. Exactly. And same with Gavin. He's got the same appeal. Frankly, he's even more appealing than Clinton. Arkansas is like the 48th most populous state in the country. He's the most populous state. It's a G7 economy in its own right. He has a massive donor base that he can tap at any moment. And they love him because he spends a lot of time with them. And he's cultivated them now for a decade. The richest, most powerful people in the United States, probably the tech industry.

[Krystal Ball]

You've got Silicon Valley and Hollywood lockdown, huge amount of donor money.

[Saagar Enjeti]

And you put all that together combined with the, like, he fights energy. So that's got Democratic elites plus the Democratic base. You marry those two.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I think it's a recipe for being.

[Krystal Ball]

Formidable, shitty establishment neoliberals that are potential for the 2020 field. He's the one I'm most worried about for sure.

[Saagar Enjeti]

You should be.

[Krystal Ball]

I mean, Pete, I'm not worried about Whitmer. I don't know what she's doing. She's out there, like, playing patty cakes with Trump. Girl, you are so misreading the moment. All of these other. He's the one that I think has the most chance. So I am concerned about him. I am officially concerned.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yep, I agreed.

[Big Three Basketball Announcer]

The reviews and ratings are in, and Ice Cube's Big Three is the surprise hit of the summer. And to cap off the season, iHeart presents the Big 3 Basketball Champ Championship and 8th Annual Big 3 All Star Game this coming Sunday, August 24th. Live from Orlando, the remaining two teams fight it out for the Big 3 Championship Dr. J Trophy in the most physical, fierce and competitive basketball league in the world. Don't miss the wild conclusion of Big Three's eighth and most historic season ever. This is the game no one wants to lose. And there's no crying in the Big Three. The action starts with the Big Three eighth Annual All Star Game Game don't miss All Stars Dwight Howard, Montrez Harrell, MVP Michael Beasley, Lance will make you, Dan Stevenson, Jordan Crawford, Greg Monroe, Earl Clark, Nasir, Kor and more show you why they are the best three on three basketball players in the world. Big Three's exciting all star game plus the crowning of a new Big Three champion. The no holds part action starts Sunday at 2pm Eastern, 11 Pacific only on.

[Commercial Announcer]

CBS this Labor Day.

[Washable Sofas Commercial Announcer]

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[American Military University Announcer]

American Military University is the number one provider of education to our military and veterans in the country. They offer something truly unique special rates and grants for the entire family, making education affordable not just for those who serve, but also for their loved ones. If you have a military or veteran family member and are looking for affordable, high quality education, AMU is the place for you. Visit AMU Apus Edu Military to learn more. That's AMU Apus Edumilitary.

[Krystal Ball]

All right, let's go ahead and get to the ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt, who went on CNBC to bash and just outright brazenly lie about Zoran Manzani, who of course is the Democratic nominee for New York City Mayor. Let's go ahead and take a listen to this.

[Guest or Interviewee (Jonathan Greenblatt)]

This we have a mayoral candidate. Well, that's where I want to go with this next. Sure. So what do you make? What do you make of this mayoral candidate who likely the Rate things are going, is going to become the mayor of this. This city. Yeah. And the fact that he, you know, was asked, as you know, three times repeatedly, do you condemn the phrase globalizing intifada? And for, for whatever reason, almost inexplicably, unless you believe he's an anti Semite, which might. Let's just make sure all the viewers know the intifada was a violent uprising in the Palestinian territories where they murdered over a thousand people simply because they were Jewish. Bus bombings, stabbing, shootings, etc. So that being said, why won't he condemn globalizing Tifata? Because he believes it. I mean, I think we have to take people at their word. Look, in the last seven months, make it even more complicated. We had Hakeem Jeffries on last week. Yeah, okay, we talked about this, and we talked about it in the context of those comments. What did Minority Leader Jeffrey say? He almost couldn't condemn him either in that regard. Because what's gonna happen is if he wins, people who even disagree with him on things like this will think that they have to agree with him. Look, whether you agree with President Trump or he would be Mayor Mamdani, we have to deal with elected leaders as they are. But I think there are questions we should ask right now. Like this candidate has visited churches and mosques, not a single synagogue. This candidate has gone to Harlem to meet the black community, Washington Heights to meet the Latino community, Chinatown to meet the Asian American community. Not once to a Jewish neighborhood.

[Saagar Enjeti]

The last poll I saw, something like 32 or 33% of Jewish Americans in.

[Guest or Interviewee (Jonathan Greenblatt)]

New York were supporting fairly, fairly. Respectfully, Becky, like I don't believe the polls, cuz I know something about this candidate. He hasn't been to any of the mainstream Jewish institutions. He's, it would appear. I mean, I haven't heard from him. I don't think the heads of most of the major Jewish groups have Democratic.

[Krystal Ball]

I mean.

[Guest or Interviewee (Jonathan Greenblatt)]

Pardon?

[Saagar Enjeti]

Look at the polls. How many voted for him in the Democratic primary?

[Guest or Interviewee (Jonathan Greenblatt)]

I mean, relatively speaking, we know that the way that that worked out was actually a pretty low number.

[Krystal Ball]

Okay, first of all, why anyone takes this man seriously at this point is an absolute and complete mystery to me. Second of all, what? Brazen. Nearly every word out of his mouth is just a brazen lie there. So he says, oh, he hasn't visited a single synagogue. Put D2 up on the screen. What do we see here? Lo and behold, wonderful to be back at this synagogue on the Upper west side last night for mayoral forum on the critical issues facing the Jewish community in this election. And frankly, the fact he hasn't reached out to Jonathan Greenblatt, in my view, is a major point in his favor. And that's really, I think, what Greenblatt is mad about. If he hasn't gone and kissed the ring of Jonathan Greenblatt than any other outreach that he's done to the Jewish community, which Becky there points out, by the way, this guy is doing better with Jews in New York City than any other mayoral candidate. But if he hasn't kissed Jonathan Greenblatt's ring specifically, then it really doesn't count. We can put D4 up on the screen because they did a good job of breaking down every single one of the lies that in that short clip that Greenblatt tells. So they say. Contrary to Greenblatt's assertion, Mamdani attended Shabbat services in Park Slope in February, visited the offices of the UJA Federation for a town hall co hosted with the Jewish Community Relations Council in May, participated in two separate candidate forums at Congregation B' Nai Jeshuran. Sorry, guys, butchered that. In Manhattan in June. Nonetheless, during the Democratic mayoral primary, he also made an effort to reach out to the more than than 700,000 Jewish voters in New York, including a visit to an annual legislative breakfast in Flatbush, heavily Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn with a politically conservative electorate. He also Greenblatt claims that Mamdani did not reach out to Hasidic voters in their native Yiddish language. Also a lie. He gave an interview to a Yiddish language Hasidic newspaper. There were photos circulating on social media showing pro Mamdani Yiddish language campaign posters on a poll in Borough Park. He's relying on a senior team of Jewish professionals for his campaign. And this whole globalize the Intifada thing is such total and complete bullshit. First of all, if he did say it, I'd support it. But he never actually said it. And he has shifted to even saying he would discourage its use since he got so much scrutiny and pressure put on him over all of this. So just utter and complete lies out of this man's mouth and zero ability to reckon with the fact that actually the strongest candidate in the field, both in the primary and now in the general election with Jewish voters is Zoran Mandani, who, yes, is an avowed anti Zionist who is pro bds, who thinks that the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested if he ever came to New York City. And guess what? New York City voters agree with him, not with you.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah, well said. And I think it's actually just very interesting because it's a couple of different areas that we can look at. The ADL has a lot of institutional power, but it is increasingly losing a lot of its political power. And I think that's what's very important. And just to show everybody though, that the institutional power they have. I found this story recently. I wanted to break some of it down. Can we put D3 up on the screen? There were apparently very recently a huge fight in the teachers union in the NEA over rejecting ADL materials, basically propaganda materials to be used by teachers teach, quote, about antisemitism. So apparently what happened is that the members approved a proposal inside of the teachers union to sever all of their ties with the ADL over the war in Gaza. But the executive committee overruled basically this and rejected it, saying that they will continue to work with them over, quote, anti Semitism or Holocaust educations. So as you can see there. But the reason why I think this is very important is what they say for them is they're blaming union rules or any of that or whatever is that they still have a huge hold on a lot of the nation's institutions, from Twitter to the US Government. Working with the Trump administration, working with the Biden administration, as we saw previously, they assembled a lot of the target lists, or at least helped for some of these deportations of these Israel critics who were students, who again literally were here legally, did nothing else other than criticize Israel. And now a lot of their materials, because of this legacy stuff that they've done on the Holocaust, continues to kind of do the work of pro Israeli propaganda. So it's just one of those where, you know, the beast of the adl, if you really want to like dismantle it, it's not just. It's important politically to actually have candidates who outright reject them. But those candidates then need to look at all of the other areas that they're influencing, like censorship, misinformation and this. That's why I think it's really important to start.

[Krystal Ball]

And this guy gets booked on across cable news.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I mean, you and I were talking when he was on. I'm like, why is this man on cnbc? Like, actually, this is a financial network. You know, when I put CNBC on, I'm like, what's the stock of Nvidia? What's Jensen gotta say? That's it. Bloomberg or any of these other places, this channel is on every office on all of Wall street all day long. They watch it for financial news, not for any of this. Sometimes they have politics on like Charlie Kirk or whatever was on the other day. But even that was about Taylor and that was about the economy. This in particular, it's like what is the purpose of this segment other than to basically weaponize and mobilize the Wall Street New York City elites to try and continue their failed anti momdani campaign. Now so far it's like look, Ackman and et al have all tried. It's all come up nothing because you have nothing. They have no plan or ability to stop Mamdani from getting elected at this point. He's gonna be mayor.

[Krystal Ball]

Their fantasy is that everyone except Andrew Cuomo drops out of the race, which is a fantasy. It's not happening. But even if it did, even in polling, when it is a head to head Zoron still wins because Cuomo sucks. People don't like him, right? He's terrible. He's out there humiliating himself. The way he's posting on a daily basis like your plan has failed. So they do not want to grapple with reality. That's why he's like I don't believe the polls. Actually if you'll recall, in the Democratic primary the pol polls wildly understated Zorin's support. Wildly because he completely was able to change the electorate. He actually shifted the electorate and brought out so many more young people than were anticipated. So don't be surprised if the polls are once again underestimating his support because it's very difficult to predict in these sorts of elections with a candidate who is so unique and who himself is able to change who shows up to vote. It makes it very difficult to do the polling and for it to ultimately be. Be accurate. I wanted to get this in. It's a little bit. It fits, but it doesn't totally fit. But I will say the Free Press is a sort of ADL aligned institution and it does fit with the.

[Saagar Enjeti]

They're actually more militant.

[Krystal Ball]

I would say they are more militant but it fits with the idea that there is like for the Israel bear hug position there has been a almost complete loss of public support outside of like boomer Republicans. But there is still a lot of elite. Elite support and elite pushing of this narrative. Free Press and their, you know, supposal. What was their valuation? $250 million or something. Valuation I think.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Which we support because it means we're worth 100 million.

[Krystal Ball]

That's right. Yeah, exactly.

[Saagar Enjeti]

We support it because that means we're really rich too.

[Krystal Ball]

Tim Dillon was like, what do I need to say?

[Saagar Enjeti]

That's Right, yeah. What do I need to say? 100 million?

[Krystal Ball]

It's fine to blow up toddlers. It's good. Can I send me a check now.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Send me to Jerusalem.

[Krystal Ball]

That was his bit anyway.

[Saagar Enjeti]

You'll never see me again.

[Krystal Ball]

Let's put their latest, latest journalism up on the screen here. I am so thoroughly disgusted with this line of quote unquote reporting. So the headline here is they became symbols for Gazan starvation, but all 12 suffer from other health problems. And they go through these 12 individuals, all of them Palestinian children who are being starved and suffering through all sorts of things. True, not just starvation in Gaza that they are suffering through. As if to disprove the idea that there are famine conditions in Gaza, which is insane because you can just look at the stats yourself about the amount of food trucks that were allowed in for months and months. There was an almost complete blockade. There has been some lifting of that, some trucks are getting in. It has even eased slightly, but nowhere near what is needed. And so let me give you an example of one of the children that they say it's not fair to represent, as you know, suffering from starvation. There's a 14 year old boy, they say, who was featured. I'm just gonna read you what they say. These are their words. The 14 year old boy was featured in the same CNN story as another child suffering from malnourishment. The original caption didn't mention that last May that boy had sustained a traumatic head injury amid what SHMS news agency, a Gaza based out outlet called an Israeli shell explosion. My son was injured in the head, his mother explained. Part of his skull was removed. And so what the free press is saying is, oh well, you didn't mention CNN in that article that Israelis blew part of his skull apart and that that's contributing to his malnourished state. So is that supposed to be a propaganda win for Israel? That in addition to the fact you're starving this child to death, you also blew up part of his head. Is that a win? Another one of the individual, the kids that they talk about here, they're like, oh, they also suffer from rickets. Do you know what causes rickets? Vitamin deficiency causes rickets. And you think that, oh, that's completely separate and apart from malnourishment and famine and starvation. I mean it's just so disgusting. Of course the first people who are on the brink of death or who have in hundreds of instances at this point already starved to death. Yes, of course, it's the sick, it's the weak, it's the vulnerable. Those are the first people, often children, often infants or the elderly, to die in famine conditions. That does not take away anything from the horrors of what is being perpetrated here. And I just. It's unbelievable to me that people put this stuff out and think that this makes Israel look good. Oh, congratulations. He had his head blown up too. And he's starving today. Death. So it's different. CNN's lying. They're doing pro Hamas propaganda. Like, disgusting. So disgusting.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Zed has actually made the. I have never familiarized myself with Holocaust denial, so I didn't know the finer points. I'm learning now, thanks to Zed, we're.

[Krystal Ball]

Watching it real time.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I'm backing you up. You should steal this. Zed informed all of us that a key tenant of Holocaust denial is trying to claim that many of the initial victims or purported victims had other preconditions and that's part of the reason why they died. And the war was tough on everybody. And it wasn't thing. Another one, which I talked about this with Ryan, was people talking about how there are restaurants in Gaza that are operating. And again, because I'm not familiar with the Holocaust denial, apparently that is a key tenet of why the Warsaw Ghetto was not so bad. Was that the very filthy rich members of the Jewish community who could barter, trade or whatever could afford food. Actually, yes, they did have restaurants that they were available. But according to many of the accounts, it was a actual daily reality that you could have rich people afford food and people literally starving outside of those very doors. Which is psychotic and crazy, obviously. But just to demonstrate that thesis straight out of that type of denialism, that's what it is. I had no idea. Again, I've never engaged with any of it, like, at an actual level, but apparently this is a lot of what.

[Krystal Ball]

It looks like we're seeing the playbook unfolding.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Well, the Ricketts thing.

[Krystal Ball]

I know.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I was like, really? You're gonna say Ricketts? It's like, yeah, didn't you know it caused rickets?

[Krystal Ball]

When this Olivia Rheingold tweeted it out, she was like. She mentioned specifically Rickets.

[Saagar Enjeti]

She's the one who read every single tweet of Zoran Mamdani and said that it was journalism, if anyone's wondering. And they made a TikTok about it. Actually, she's like, I've read every single tweet that Zora Momdani.

[Krystal Ball]

It's not stalking. It's called journalism. Wasn't that what she said? Call journalism all right.

[Big Three Basketball Announcer]

The reviews and ratings are in and Ice Cube's Big Three is the surprise hit of the summer. And to cap off the season, iHeart presents the Big 3 Basketball Championship and 8th Annual Big 3 All Star Game this coming Sunday, August 24th. Live from Orlando, the remaining two teams fight it out for the Big 3 Championship Dr. J Trophy in the most physical, fierce and competitive basketball league in the world. Don't miss the wild conclusion of Big Three's eighth and most historic season ever. This is the game no one wants to lose and there's no crying in the Big Three. The action starts with the Big Three eighth Annual All Star Game. Don't miss All Stars Dwight Howard, Montrez Harrell, MVP Michael Beasley, Lance will make you, Dan Stephenson, Jordan Crawford, Greg Monroe, Earl Clark, Nazir Kor and more show you why they are the best three on three basketball players in in the world. Big Three's exciting all star game plus the crowning of a new Big Three champion. The no holds part action starts Sunday at 2pm Eastern, 11 Pacific only on.

[Commercial Announcer]

CBS this Labor Day.

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[American Military University Announcer]

American Military University is the number one provider of education to our military and veterans in the country. They offer something truly unique special rates and grants for the entire family making education affordable not just for those who serve, but also for their loved ones. If you have a military or veteran family member and are looking for affordable high quality education, AMU is the place for you. Visit AMU Apus Edu Military to learn more That's AMU apus edumilitary.

[Krystal Ball]

Let's go ahead and get to updates with regard to Israel because there are some significant ones. Put E1 up on the screen again. We've been so reliant on dropsite. They just do incredible journalism here, breaking things down. This is the statement specifically from Hamas, but they informed the Hamas movement. Palestinian factions have informed of their approval of the proposal presented to them yesterday by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Some of the details here. Again per dropsite. They say Hamas accepts ceasefire proposal submitted by Egypt and Qatar. Egypt this morning presented a Revised version of US envoy Steve Whitcomb 60 day plan based on the 13 point framework. Hamas had submitted amendments more than three weeks ago to the previous proposal. Israel never replied, instead withdrawing its team and threatening to, quote, conquer all of Gaza. Hamas officials told Reuters the group has approved the proposal but provided no further details. That proposal, backed by Egypt and Qatar, calls for a 60 day halt to military operations and offers a pathway toward negotiating a comprehensive deal to end the nearly two year genocidal war. Israel's response Response is pending. And as far as I know this morning there hasn't been any movement on the Israeli side. And so I wouldn't, you know, basically what this calls for a 60 day ceasefire while the further phases are being negotiated out to completely end the war. I don't know, I haven't had a chance to talk to Jeremy yet, but personally I don't feel very hopeful that the Israeli side is going to accept this because they seem hell bent on their complete ethnic cleansing plan and are, you know, moving forward with, with effectuating that outcome and putting that into place.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Well, yesterday Trump also had a tweet where he's like, the only way we'll get rid of the hostages is the occupation or destruction or whatever of Hamas. But it is, I mean, I don't know. At the same time, there's long been a theory that the Trump rhetoric or whatever is about pushing Hamas to continue accepting the ceasefire. But part of as you and I, cause we cover it at a daily basis, this stuff almost always gets to the quote, finish line where it's like 98%. And the Israelis are like, no, you have to agree to a full and total occupation for all time. And they're like, okay, well no, we're not going to do that. And that always just breaks down. Or the government, I mean if they actually agreed to it, it would cause a massive political crisis in Israel. The government could fall because the Israeli far right ministers are against any deal Whatsoever. They want full blown occupation. They want already what they want. So, yeah, it's very questionable whether it would actually go forward.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah, I think so too. I mean, we've seen this playbook so many times where he'll. Netanyahu will either. I mean, at this point, I don't even. It seems like they don't even fil need to lie anymore and pretend like they're doing things in good faith or like they're acting morally. They just are all out in the open, mask off with all of this. But in the past, we've seen him insert various poison pill provisions even from the deal. Remember back in the when Biden announced we've come up with this deal and listed all the provisions and the Israelis are behind us, et cetera. Hamas is like, okay, we accept. And then Israel inserts all sorts of new provisions and makes sure that it's impossible to get through. You have the most psycho members of the Netanyahu coalition and Ben gvir, who are obviously completely opposed to any sort of deal. So I think it's unlikely it goes forward. But we wanted to make sure to put the news out there about the latest. We also have. This is. We could put this up on the screen. There's this leaked audio from the head of Military Intelligence on October 7th. This is our friend Shael who breaks it down. He says it makes it very clear Israeli policy is to kill tens of thousands of Palestinians, including children, and ethnically cleanse them. Quote, for everything. This is from that head of military intelligence. For everything that happened on October 7th, for every person on October 7th, 50 Palestinians should die. It does not matter if they are kids. There is nothing to be done. They need a nakba every now and then to feel the price. And Shail goes on to say, this is not some rogue extremist. This is the heart of the Israeli security establishment. And this would be the type of person who would be portrayed, by the way, as moderate within the Israeli context. Just so we're all really clear, I think we have the specific text of what this individual was saying. So here's what the leaked audio, what the translation says. The fact that there have already been 50,000 deaths in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations. Okay, you humiliated, you slaughtered, you murdered. Everything is true. The price, I said before the war, for everything that happened on October 7th, for every person, 50 Palestinians should die. It doesn't matter now, kids. I'm not talking out of revenge. I'm talking about this as a message for future generations. There's nothing to be done. They need a nakba every now and then to feel the price. There's no choice. In this disturbed neighborhood, there is no choice. So lays it out pretty plainly. And by the way, you know, at this point where we are all the experts who have looked at this and estimated out, say there's hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, we don't know the exact number, who have been killed either directly by the fighting, buried under the rubble, died of malnutrition of other illnesses, of, you know, not being able to get medical treatment for chronic conditions, etcetera, Et cetera. That's where we are at this point. To back that up, we can put E3 up on the screen because this is absolutely shocking. If you have any doubt about the extent of the horror and the outright genocide that's going on here, look at the fall off in life expectancy since October 7th. So the darker blue that you can see there that just absolutely plummets a change in life expectancy of roughly minus 35 years. So 35 years on average being cut off of everyone's life in the Gaza Strip. Unbelievable. And you can see the comparison to other brutal wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen. Syria is the closest comparison and at its worst life expectancy just dropped about 12 years. Which again, horrifying, horrifying numbers, but pales in comparison to the scale of the slaughter and destruction of life in Gaza where life expectancy has plummeted by 35 years. It's just to see it in that form is just absolutely chilling, Sagar.

[Saagar Enjeti]

It's very grim. We can go to the next part too, just to show people. Let's put this this guy, by the way, if anybody doesn't remember, is the student who cried on camera with Mike Johnson about not feeling safe on camera campus since I didn't realize this is Eyal Lore. Eyal is, since probably one of the most prominent, I would say, Zionist propaganda guys on Twitter. He says, quote breaking. Israel is currently in talks with five countries, Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, South Sudan and Libya about the potential resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Kind of just saying it out loud. By the way, did anyone notice that like three of those countries are either failed or shaky governments which are war torn and a lot of money, desperately desperate for something not exactly thriving, places that are capable of sustaining their own population, let alone, I don't know, millions of people who would be expelled. So just think it's kind of important for people to see. What else am I thinking here? Oh, right, this last one I Can't get over this because it gives the whole game away. Let's go and put E5 on the screen. I love how they just say this shit, shit out loud and admit the game. The IDF is planning on asking the Jewish Diaspora to encourage Jewish youth to join the IDF due to a severe manpower shortage. So let me just read that again. The IDF says that they have a severe manpower shortage and some quote estimated at 10 to 12,000 that are missing right now from IDF ranks. And because it would be too shocking to Israeli politics to draft the ultra orthodox who are all on welfare and live off of the dole, by the way, the dole that America pays for just in terms so people understand. They now say they will need to get some six to 700 additional soldiers each year from Jewish communities abroad, who added that the United States and France will be the main targets of the IDF efforts. So basically the IDF is saying that the only way that they can sustain their manpower and Gaza is to basically propagandize and ask American citizens, residents of the United States and of France, to move to their country and to go and serve in their military, which they know will not result in them losing US Citizenship and also will basically, quote, deepen the ties. That's always the way that they talk about it between those two face no consequences. And it's an open part of their recruitment strategy. Strategy. Imagine if America was like, we don't have enough troops, so we're gonna call on. I mean, actually there's no parallel. There's no ethnic, you know, component of being American across the world. There's no other country in the world that could do this or get away with it. I mean, wouldn't people be outraged? Imagine if India and Pakistan got into a war and they were like, we call all Indians of Indian descent to come back and to fight. The Germans actually did this. The Nazis, I forget exactly what it was called. They were like all loyal Germans.

[Krystal Ball]

It's very Nazi blood and soil behavior.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Okay, there you go. So all. Yeah, what the Nazis did is that I forget the exact term, it's in German. But they were like, any loyal German must return to the fatherland to come and to fight for Hitler. And it wasn't all that successful, just so people are aware. But that's effectively like the equivalent of what they're saying. Any Jew who is really patriotic. The conflation of Judaism in the state of Israel, which is always sickening. I mean, just today, Netanyahu attacked the Prime Minister of Australia, who said that he had abandoned Australia's Jews because he was willing to recognize the state of Palestine. That literally just happened this morning.

[Krystal Ball]

There is nothing more anti Semitic than saying every Jew has to be associated with this genocidal holocaust. Like it's there is utterly disgusting. But I mean, also part of me is like, listen, if you feel moved to, you know, if you want to put, put like if you're pro genocide and you want to go be part of that, go like, get out of here.

[Saagar Enjeti]

But the problem is because they can come back.

[Krystal Ball]

That's the problem. Because what happened, I mean, then they come back and they end up the head of censorship at TikTok or working for the New York Times or, you.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Know, or worse, somebody protests them, an American, and then they get investigated by the doj, which is literally happening, correct?

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah, that's exactly right. So, yeah, I can't say that. Not to mention, I mean, I mean, it's just. Yeah, it's very revealing. Another very revealing thing that I don't even know what to say about. I can't even really wrap my head around it. Let's put E6 up on the screen. There was a Knesset special committee on foreign workers that performed an investigation of the Thai agricultural workers who were there in the state of Israel. And they found that 654 out of 654 had reported experiencing sexual assault. 100% of the Thai foreign workers who were there reported being sexually assaulted as part of this study. Now, they don't typically report it to the authorities, one can only presume because first of all, they're worried about losing their job, losing their status, don't think they'll be believed, et cetera. And this person opines the same state that markets itself as a democracy, relies on imported farm labor, then turns a blind eye as sexual violence becomes routine, routine, silenced and systemic. So just disgusting abuses here that you know, are lurking under the surface of this society and sometimes not on the surface.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I genuinely don't even know what to say about that. It's crazy, that's all. You can't say, I don't know what's going on over there.

[Krystal Ball]

I mean, it's wild. It is really wild to wrap your head around. And I don't think Israelis, like, fundamentally as human beings, are any different than human beings around, which is why it's so unsettling when you see these polls that are like, yeah, they're all for the ethnic cleansing. Like, even the quote unquote liberal ones, they're down with it. They are, you know, huge numbers are like, yes, Murder every Palestinian. And you're just like, how does this happen in a society? And it's years and years of ideological propagandizing. It's years and years of complete and total dehumanization of Palestinians or Arabs over overall. I mean, it's. I don't know. There need to be studies of what the hell has gone wrong in this society because it's truly sick intellectually.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I can understand it because I've read a lot about it in terms of the. I mean, look at the way that Americans treated the Japanese. Like Japanese Americans, right. And not only internment camps, but even worse, like in terms of the propaganda and the way that we all looked at the war. And I'm not even talking about the, I'm not talking just about the atomic bomb, but really like the way that they would cheer it. And look, I mean, that's not absolving literal Japanese war crimes and like barbaric behavior for 13 years in the war, but it's part of that where you could see how that could happen in the 40s and the 50s, because that's when information was much more controlled. It's a lot harder to understand in the year 2025, in the age of the smartphone. It actually makes me doubt whether the information age makes people more informed of at all. I actually think we may all be less informed than ever. If you don't want to be. Because if you don't seek things out, you actually just won't see it. You can see almost anything of what you want. It's not even controlled by the government at that point. It's like creating your own space.

[Krystal Ball]

Self censorship.

[Saagar Enjeti]

And then nothing can enter that. Right. And so you can actually live in a reality where every child in Gaza is a, you know, is a Hamas.

[Krystal Ball]

Reading Minecamp from the time that they're two years old.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Right. It's not the FDR who people who have to tell you that it's like you're all socially reinforcing it and it kind of bubbles up from the surface. But I don't know, I mean, it is genuinely a sociological study of like this is a western style country for years or sold itself that way. It's always had weird, you know, little idiosyncrasies. But I visited there, I'm telling you, if you go to Tel Aviv, it did not feel all that different from Los Angeles. I really want people to understand that. And so to watch that, I was there 12 years. So to look at that from there to now, it's shocking. You know, it's shocking the way that it's all flipped on. People I probably met and spent time with, you know, are either fighting or supportive. You know, it's crazy. And I see that in their podcasts where they say this stuff in English and they're like, it makes me happy when I see Gaz and Starbucks. Yeah, dude, that's great.

[Krystal Ball]

Those two guys. Was their podcast called, like, Two Nice Jewish Boys or something like that. And they're like, it makes me. When I'm watching a soccer football, it makes me feel better to know that Palestinians are suffering. That makes. That heightens the enjoyment of the experience for me. How fucking sick. Just sick. And you're right. Intellectually, like, it is a hard thing, like, emotionally to grapple with. It's a hard thing to. Because you think we've evolved and, oh, we have these, like, progressive values. And we try to, you know, we don't live up to it, but we try to be more tolerant of all different types of people. And we don't have this, like, race science that says, oh, no, different races are different, but they. Zionism is built on a supremacist ideology, on a Jewish supremacist ideology. And I truly think that that is a cancer. If you have an ideology that says one group is better, more deserving, gets more rights than another group, then all sorts of horrors flow directly from there. Because if they're not truly human, you can do anything to it. You can abuse them, you can rape them, you can murder them, you can starve their children. You can lie about all of it. And it's that bedrock ideological foundation that I think allows all of that to flow. And then the use of religion, too, makes it extra potent, because if God is saying, hey, this is like you're doing the right thing per God, then it provides this like. Like moral justification for absolute horrors. So it's pretty disturbing.

[Saagar Enjeti]

All right, thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it. We'll have a what Wednesday show tomorrow. I don't even know what day of the week.

[Krystal Ball]

Today's Tuesday. Wednesday will be in. Yes.

[Saagar Enjeti]

We'll see you on Thursday.

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[Krystal Ball]

Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient.

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[Krystal Ball]

Whoa, this thing moves.

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[Krystal Ball]

This is an iHeart podcast.