← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
8/7/25: Indian TV Explodes Over Trump Tariffs, China Destroys US On Homeownership, Israeli Threatens Trump Over Epstein Files
00:58:43
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- [00:00]
Sagar Enjeti
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Az Fudd
Hey guys, it's Az Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist. You may know me as an NCAA national champion. You may even know me as a people's princess. Every week on my new podcast, Fut around and find out. I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture, basketball and what it's like to be a professional athlete on and off the court. Listen to Futaround and find out a production of iHeart Women's Sports in partnership with Unanimous Media on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you your podcast.
- [00:35]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neil Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety.
- [00:50]
Sagar Enjeti
What is not normal is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do, the things that you were meant to do.
- [00:59]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
- [01:05]
John Hope Bryant
It's Black Business Month and Money and wealth podcast with John Hope Bryant is tapping in. I'm breaking down how to build wealth, create opportunities, and move from surviving to thriving. It's time to talk about ownership, equity and everything in between. Black and brown communities have historically been lasting. Line Let me just say this AI is moving faster than civil rights legislation ever did. Listen to Money and Wealth from the Black Effect podcast network on iHear radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:35]
Sagar Enjeti
Hey guys, Sager and Krystal here.
- [01:36]
Krystal Ball
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show.
- [01:44]
Sagar 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.
- [01:49]
Krystal Ball
So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.
- [02:00]
Sagar Enjeti
We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breakingpoints.com Good morning everybody. Happy Thursday. Have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal?
- [02:12]
Krystal Ball
Indeed. We do a lot of stuff we want to get to today. So Indian trade war heats up so we will bring you the very latest there. We've actually got a bunch of trade war updates, each more stupid and ridiculous than the last, in my personal opinion. I think yours is, well, Socrates.
- [02:25]
Sagar Enjeti
Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [02:26]
Krystal Ball
There's no disagreement here.
- [02:27]
Sagar Enjeti
But look, we'll give you the facts. You can make up your minds for yourself.
- [02:30]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, that's right. What report you decide. We also have that viral chart. I don't know if you guys saw this, exposing just sort of economic decline for ordinary people in America across the board basically since the 90s. Going to dig into that a little bit as it relates directly to housing affordability and home ownership. So important one to tackle. We've also got the very latest for you with regard to Epstein. Trump just basically keeps digging the hole deeper. So interestingly, they apparently want to try to get Joe Rogan to help them out of their bind. Let's see if Joe, he's amenable to that or not. I don't know. We'll find out. We also are taking a look at the GHF whistleblower who we hosted here, Anthony Aguilar. He made another appearance with Tucker Carlson, this one for a longer interview in person. And there were some truly stunning moments there where he is exposing additional details about GHF and the way that they operate and also what he anticipates is going to come next. So you definitely want to take a look at that. There's a lot happening in Israel today. They are voting, the security cabinet is voting on what is effectively a plan of outright annihilation. This is not a secret anymore. It's not, you know, it's completely out in the open. Of course it has been in a lot of ways. But now an official vote being taken on that. So break that down for you. Sagar's got a big UFO update. Many of our fans will think that it's been too long.
- [03:45]
Sagar Enjeti
You know, it has been too long. My brothers have been asking me what's going on. And listen, I'm subject to the news. Okay, so when policymakers start talking about it, perhaps we get some updates. We'll see. I am gonna put out a page to the White House press corps to ask some follow up questions. So hopefully we'll get something.
- [04:00]
Krystal Ball
Okay. All right, we'll work on that. I have a complete guide to why Cory Booker, just the absolute worst. And Christian Smalls, who's been a longtime friend of ours, I think we're the first people ever to have him on back when he was organized in the Amazon labor union. So he is a well known labor activist and organizer here. He was abused by the Israelis attempting to get baby formula into the Gaza Strip. So he's going to join us to tell us all about his experience and the reason that he got involved in this fight to begin with.
- [04:30]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, I'm excited to talk to Christian about that, his story. You know, Greta Thunberg got a lot of coverage for what happened. But you know, he sticks criminally been undercovered in terms of that story and does tell us quite a lot about what's going on in the country. Before we get to that, thank you to everybody who's been subscribing BreakingPoints.com if you're able to join us for a premium membership. And as we showed you all on Tuesday, we will apologize when we make mistakes here. Part of the premium experience and we deeply do are always working to make sure that it is better. If you can help us out, we would deeply appreciate it. If you can't, no worries. Just go ahead. If you're watching this on YouTube, rumble wherever, subscribe to the video to the channel. And then also if you're listening to this on the podcast, just go ahead and send your favorite episode, any episode that you want to a friend. It really helps us out as well as leaving us a five star rating. But with that, let's go ahead and get to the tariff war. And so in extraordinary fashion, let's go and put this up there on the screen. Donald Trump has put a whopping 25% extra tariff on India for Russian oil prices. New Delhi says that the US President's decision is unfair, unjustified and unreasonable. So let me just read you a little bit about it. He says, quote, I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to oppose an additional ad valorem duty on duties imports of articles of India which is directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil. So let's explain what the hell is going on here. This has been a kind of a chief problem for the United States now, you know, problem I guess of our own making since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, where the United States puts blanket tariffs on all Russian oil imports obviously here, as well as Russian sanctions for the entire banking system across Europe and elsewhere. The problem in that has always been South Korea, China, India are very willing to buy Russian oil because they don't care necessarily about Ukraine and of course being sold on a discount on their markets as well as the ability to refine that oil and export it. By the way, much of that oil is exported across the world to many of the people who are also sanctioning Russian oil. Just to show you some of the problems in that, the theory crystal is that by Stopping India from buying Russian oil, which by the way is the second purchaser of Russian oil behind China, who has a lower tariff rate than India right now. Make that one make sense. The problem is that their theory is that by choke holding the Russian economy they can finally get Russia to the peace deal table in Ukraine. Now as I just mentioned, India is just the second largest purchaser of Russian oil. The Chinese are the first. The Chinese are not subject to any tariffs over this entire thing. And second, it still comes down to this theory of the chokehold being applied to Russia that will finally get it to stop in Ukraine. There is not a single scrap of evidence to show that that is true. The Russian war machine is actually what's fueling the entire economy right now. It's like 20 something percent of GDP. It's increased their overall GDP growth. Their weapons manufacturing is exploding with help from again not just India, but China, North Korea and Iran, many other actors. It really just demonstrates the futility of our trade policy by trying to use it for purposes on Ukraine. And then there's also a bigger question here of what's actually important. Is it Israel and Ukraine? Because that's the message being sent now from the Trump administration. The Trump administration is thinking you or I should pay higher Canadian lumber prices because the Canadian government recognizes state of Palestine. Okay, I don't remember, you know, thinking anything about that whenever it was our trade war. And then second with India, India's now subject to a 50% tariff. Now again, just to explain how ridiculous this is just from geopolitical point of view, if you believe that China is your premier economic competitor now, what do you wanna do? You wanna make sure that you have good relations with all of the great powers in the rest of Asia. Well, that would include Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and India. Namely India, which has always pursued a policy of non alignment. And so from the first Trump administration, including the second Trump administration, their theory was, hey, we'll have better economic relationship here with India because that will mean that this great power, over 1.4 billion people, rising economic giant, will have closer ties there to make sure that nobody is going to fall into the Chinese orbit and create kind of a strategic balance. We pressured companies like Apple, who we're about to get to, to move iPhone production to India. All of these other manufacturing problems. Now look, I'll fair, India's got a very closed off economy. I mean they have insane non tariff barriers. They have for a long time. Their theory, which by the way I think is correct, is that allowing outside western influence Gives these countries too much control over their economy. Can't argue with that. I mean, it's true. You could look at where they are, that's fine. I mean, I'd be happy to punish them, quote, punish them or tariff them if it had anything to do with protecting American manufacturing or any of that, while also considering the geostrategic implications. But this has nothing to do with that. It is literally just to try and pressure India and Ukraine or India and Russia on the war in Ukraine, which has not one scrap of evidence over the last two and a half years to show that it has actually worked. This is the Biden Lindsey Graham policy, literally Lindsey Graham policy, who used to beg for this from day one. And it's preposterous. And actually could send the price of oil sky high if it allows to continue.
- [09:42]
Krystal Ball
Well, and also the fact that thus far India has chosen, you know, we're.
- [09:46]
Sagar Enjeti
Just gonna stop Russian oil. Yeah.
- [09:48]
Krystal Ball
Is actually a testament to effective nature of some of their protectionist policies which help to buffet them from the sanctions or not the sanctions, but the tariffs that are being imposed, I mean, they are sort of like a sanction. They're basically functioning the same way. It's meant as a punishment for them not doing what we want them to do. So it is extraordinary. And I mean it's also, there's a weirdness to it as well, because ideologically Modi and Trump have a lot of similarities. Both sort of like authoritarian inclined. Modi is a Hindu nationalist. You would think there would be this sort of like natural alliance between them. And instead, as we're gonna play later in this block, I mean, you've just absolutely infuriated all of the Indians sort of across the board. And certainly the Hindu nationalists are disgusted with this attack on their sovereignty as they, as, you know, as any country would be. And that's what's been so foolish about this trade war from the beginning, is there's no strategy to it. It's just let me literally piss off the entire world and never have a clear coherent strategy about, you know, explain to anyone about what we're doing. And now as we get down to it, we see just how haphazard and counterproductive it truly is. So in Brazil, we're punishing Brazil cuz we don't like what they're doing with a court case against Bolsonaro, with Canada, we're punishing them cuz we don't like them recognizing a state of Palestine while we're, you know, busy supporting a genocide there. With India, obviously We don't like, oh, you're screwing with our ability to crush Russia and put pressure on them. By the way, this is also the guy who promised to resolve that conflict before he even got into office. Or within 24 hours depending on the day of when he got into office. How's that working out? It really is extraordinary to see the way that ordinary American people truly are basically being used as pawns here for Trump's vicissitudes and for him to pursue whatever foreign policy he feels like in that day. And keep in mind, the people who predominantly pay the tariff price are consumers. When you go to the grocery store, when you go to make a purchase, that is predominantly cuz most of the costs get passed on to you. As we've both said a million times, we are not opposed to some protection policy that makes goddamn sense, but none of this does.
- [11:55]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, and look again, that's my issue here is what if we want high tariffs, it should be on China and China alone. And then you should make it dramatically attractive to make sure that you put all US industry to push it out of China on a five to 10 year plan that they would have to submit. And from that point forward we can look at exclusions, plans, et cetera. That makes strategic sense for the United States. 50% of all GDP will be in Asia in just five years. That's why it makes no sense to punish one of the rising powers of Asia when it is for a war in Europe. For a country that's not in NATO, that is what number 60, whatever in US bilateral trade has no impact on the US economy. India is the 10th largest trading partner of the United States. That's even with all of their crazy non tariff trade barriers. And I mean that's a massive, I mean that is literally. Guys, I'm talking more than Brazil, I'm talking about more than probably more than any other partner that has really come under scrutiny. Aside of Japan, India now joins Brazil with some of the highest tariffs in the world. So how is it that China, the number one producer of the number one problem from an economic competitor level, by the way, the number one purchaser and client state. Really? The Russians. Right, the Russians. What you think India's the one who's selling them weapons or India's the one who's propping up their financial system? No, it's China. And so the Chinese are getting all these crazy exclusions. The whole thing is completely ass backwards. And here's CNBC talking specifically about the price of oil. Well, let's take a listen India and.
- [13:32]
John Hope Bryant
Russia now have to go look for, you know, basically the energy somewhere else. Let's just say they now have to go basically buy from the United States or buy it from Saudi Arabia. Guess what oil price is going to go through the roof. I mean, last year alone, Asia basically imports something like almost 4 big 4 million barrels per day of Russian production. I mean, that is the kind of quantity that you just cannot switch off and then and decide to replace it, okay, with somebody else. It's basically oil. And I think that if Indians were to hold out, you know, they might, you know, basically find out for themselves that Trump will tackle on this issue. Because anything Trump so far has had zero appetite for, anything that could lead to a higher oil price. So the question is, will Modi play this game of chicken with him, thinking that Trump is going to fall?
- [14:25]
Sagar Enjeti
And so there's been similar movement for other countries that have been subject to tariffs like this. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. This is from the president of Brazil, Lula. Quote, I won't humiliate myself. Brazil's president sees no point in tariff talks with Donald Trump. Some 50% tariff on Brazilian goods that took effect on Wednesday. In fact, I just saw a very interesting piece come across my screen which is about the Brazilians and the Japanese striking a deal on food and beef, specifically because a lot of beef, especially like higher end beef, will be purchased from Japan. And the Brazilians, one of the largest meat exporters in the world, have been trying to break into the Japanese market now for quite some time. But because of the way that the Japanese are now configured with this 15% baseline tariff and others from US goods, they're like, yeah, maybe we'll go elsewhere. I just read Toyota, Honda and all these other companies are about to take a 15% haircut on most of their profits. I don't have problems with a lot of this stuff per se. I'm not a defender of Toyota, Honda's profits. But I'm saying, what would you want to do instead of some baseline tariff where the Japanese are gonna buy our filthy American rice? Great for Japan. Congratulations. You can have the same hormonal problems that we do. Instead, we would want to encourage Toyota, Honda and all this to continue the policy that they've been doing, which is building facilities here in America. This is my point about strategic tariffs and all of that. You know, China again is actually getting a more of a red carpet experience than all of the other countries surrounding it, which the policy of some sort of pivot to Asia wouldn't make any damn sense. America right now is addicted to Europe and to the Middle East. It's like we can't get away from it. Can't take your eye off the ball. I've been hearing pivot to Asia in this town for 20 years now, ever since the war in Iraq. Never, you know, get anything about it.
- [16:10]
Az Fudd
Hey, guys, it's Az Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist. You may know me as an NCAA National Champion champion and recent Most Outstanding player. You may even know me as the People's Princess. But now you're also going to know me as your favorite host. Every week on my new podcast, Fut around and Find Out, I'll give you an inside look at everything happening in my crazy life as I try to balance it all, from my travels across the globe to preparing for another run at the natty with my UConn Huskies, to just trying to make it to my midterms on time. You'll get the inside scoop on everything. I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture, basketball and what it's like to be a professional athlete on and off the court. You'll eat. We even get to have some fun with the Fudd family. So if you follow me on social media or watch me on tv, you may think you know me, but this show is the only place where you can really fudd around and find out. Listen to Fudd around and find out. A production of iHeart Women's Sports in partnership with Unanimous Media on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [17:11]
Lizzie Logan
Have you ever looked at a piece of abstract art or music or poetry and thought that's just a bunch of pretentious nonsense? Well, that's exactly what two bored Australian soldiers set out to prove during World War II when they pulled off what was either a bold literary hoax or a grand poetic experiment, publishing over a dozen intentionally bad but highly acclaimed works of expressionist poetry under the name Ern Malley. In an incident that caused a media firestorm and even a criminal trial, the Ern Malley episode made fools of believers and critics alike and still fascinates poetry lovers to this day. We break down the truth, the lies, and the poetry in between on Hoax, a new podcast hosted by me, Lizzie Logan, and me, Dana Schwartz. Every episode, Hoax explores an audacious fraud or ruse from history, from forged artworks to the original fake news. To try and answer why we believe, listen to Hoax on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [18:10]
Radhi Devlukia
Hey, I'm Radhi Devlukia and I'm the host of a really good cry podcast. And I have the opportunity to talk to Dr. Julie Smith. Julie is a clinical psychologist, a best selling author, and one of the most trusted voices in mental health online. She was one of the first therapists to use TikTok as an educational platform. And since then, she has built a global audience of nearly 10 million people by making emotional support accessible, honest, and deeply human.
- [18:34]
Dr. Julie Smith
You know, resentment isn't something that the world owes you, it's that, you know, something that you need to work on. I would say with this stuff is look out for those feelings of resentment because they're a sign that there was some sort of boundary that wasn't held before. You know, that. That if you're not asserting your own desires or wishes or needs and then resenting your partner or your friend for filling the space for you, then it comes back to, okay, well, what do you want that's not there?
- [19:04]
Radhi Devlukia
Listen to a really good cry on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [19:12]
Sagar Enjeti
The whole thing really is preposterous. It continues to be. Whenever you look, continue down the line with the way that these American companies are acting with Trump. I can't even believe this. It's unbelievable. Tim Cook went to the Oval Office yesterday to present Trump with literal gold. Like Trump is a Mongol king of old, like the. And the Duke of Moscovy travels across the step to present him with tribute. That's basically what's happening. I'm not making this shit up. Watch it for yourself. This box was made here in the U.S. california. And this glass comes off the morning line. It's engraved for President Trump. It's a unique unit of one. Designed it for you. And the base comes from Utah and is 24 karat gold. Congratulations, Mr. President. Thank you so much. The great people of Kentucky. The great people of Kentucky. Listen, this is again, this country is a joke. Do we want America, do we want companies like Apple to invest a lot more in America? Yes. But the problem with this stuff is it's all headlines. You know, grabbing it makes no sense. Put this up there on the screen. This is from the Wall Street Journal. Because of the way that Tim Cook and Nvidia's Jensen Huang have kissed Trump's ass, they have now got themselves exempt from a huge amount of the semiconductor tariffs. Nvidia, by the way, has pulled off the coup of the century. In case anybody knows, there were previous chips the H20 chips, which were not supposed to be exported to China, which got themselves a actual exemption from the Trump administration, basically after Jensen and paid like $5 million or whatever to attend some Mar A Lago dinner. And he was actually at the White House just yesterday. But it's all because of this. Now, Apple, what they say here is like, oh, they're gonna invest another $100 billion to the United States. Well, if you look deeply, this was on top of a $500 billion investment plan that they had for America. Well, it was just repackaged spending plan that they'd already put in their public documents, according to all of the industry analysts. So, look, is it great to have an extra hundred Bill? Yeah, absolutely. But if you read a little bit further, quote, Apple has made similar announcements dating back its investment, though, in manufacturing, quote, pales next to its investments in China, India, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, where nearly all of its devices are made. The reason why he's holding up that glass as some sort of great thing is cause that's gonna be the only part of the iPhone that actually comes from America. And even then, shittiest part, it's not even gonna come from all the iPhones. Okay? It's not like it's gonna be the exclusive supplier of the glass for all of the glow. And, you know, like, this is where, you know, the Trump people, they call you a hater and all these things if you just read and you look a little bit deeper into all of this. And so people need to wonder, like, is this an acceptable way to be conducting our trade policies? Why I find it just so, like, maddeningly stupid.
- [22:33]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, absolutely. And this, like, that thing that you saw with, oh, here's your here, sir. Here's your unique, you know, personalized piece of glass and your 24 karat gold base and whatever, like, this is the way our country is run now. That's it. But I mean, not only did he get with the chips, he's gotten his car valance there. There's actually consumer electronics car vant with the India tariffs as well, which obviously, I mean, it probably benefits Apple more than any other company. And so this is why Wall street has been okay with this. Because if you are a gigantic corporation or a billionaire, you can pay the price of admission to get your low car vant and your goodies. I mean, when we talk about, like a captured oligarchy, that's what we're talking about. People who can be in the favored inner circle and they can get their needs met. And as long as they play by the rules of total and complete deference and going in and kissing his ass and doing all these sorts of things, then they're gonna be the favored ones and they're gonna amass a tremendous amount of wealth. And if you aren't in that inner circle, then who cares? You get screwed. I mean, the man is just completely for sale. And that means that our trade policy and our foreign policy, everything is completely for sale to the highest bidder. So when you see Tim Cook, Tim Apple, going into the Oval Office and making this fawning display, when you see going back to the inauguration, having all those billionaires, some of the richest people in the world, standing behind Trump and doing similarly slavish, bootlicking displays, making these big. We're gonna invest this much, we're gonna invest that much. A bunch of the trade deals, too. It's the same thing. We covered the EU trade deal. Oh, we're gonna invest $500 billion in the US and it's like. Well, I mean, we enforce that, but it's a nice idea. He doesn't care. He doesn't care. He just wants the headline. That's all he wants. And these stupid mainstream reporters, it seems like never do they question it. They just get a press release from the White House and they take it as gospel. And they've been taken for a ride. But how many times are you gonna be taken for a ride? I mean, on all these trade deals, on all these big corporate announcements, never once do they look and go, oh, well, you know, maybe we should hold off a minute and see if this is actually real. They just run with the headline. And that's all he cares about.
- [24:46]
Sagar Enjeti
Look, I mean, to the extent that I'll defend them, it's that most of them are so dumb that they literally don't know how to read. If you follow the walls, you would.
- [24:53]
Krystal Ball
Think you would have some pride in this.
- [24:54]
Sagar Enjeti
If you just read the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, there are excellent traders, Bloomberg, the financial press, they'll tell you all what's going on out in the open. Let me explain. I wanna linger on the stock market part. Cause this has been driving me nuts when everyone's like, people predicted that the stock market would go down. By the way, guys, if the tariffs were real, the stock market should plunge. I'm being honest. If you're actually gonna meaningfully change, meaningfully change the way that American companies do business, specifically with China, and bring back manufacturing, margin and profit should be destroyed. I'm being real with everybody. That's Part of the reason why you have to be careful whenever you implement this stuff and also message it in a proper way. The fact that the S and P, some 80% of S& P companies are beating earnings expectations for the first time since 2021, that should tell you something, is that they don't really have to do very much and can continue their margin of business. Wall street, as you just said, has factored the ability for all of these major companies to at least maintain, quote, good relations. That's Wall street speak with the White House and either get themself an exemption or find themselves in a way where they can continue some sort of business as usual. The White House gets to claim some X billion dollars a month that they're taking in in tariff revenue. Great. Okay. But the point is, is that it will lead to marginal price increase, but not a fundamental way to change business. Just remember that the Chinese stock market is flat to 2009. Effectively. Why? Because they don't care about profit. They care about reinvestment, about manufacturing and actually changing the way and making themselves autonomous. At the end of the day, that's their real economy the most. They're a real economy. So, yes, Shanghai stock market doesn't do all that well. That should tell you where our S and P. I don't even know what it would return from.09, even with all the blips and all of that. It's unbelievable the amount of returns that we have gotten here. But, but everyone needs to ask themselves, are you actually richer than you were in 2009?
- [26:48]
Krystal Ball
I would bet we'll answer that question in a moment.
- [26:50]
Sagar Enjeti
Yes.
- [26:50]
Krystal Ball
Yeah.
- [26:51]
Sagar Enjeti
So with that, we'll give you the view people liked when we pulled a clip last time. So we pulled one again from Republic tv. Arnab Goswami. Arnab Goswami. He is the Tucker Carlson of India, nationalist over there, supporter of the Modi government. Here is the view from India's one of the more popular television stations.
- [27:09]
Arnab Goswami
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the nation to really come on together because it is now Donald Trump versus India. Donald Trump is foolishly, continuously and desperately announcing a trade war. Day after day he keeps escalating it. And he's just announced about an hour back about total of cumulatively 50% tariffs on India. That's 25% that was already there. An additional 25% because we are buying oil from Russia. So reciprocal and additional 50% MAGA. Donald Trump tariffs for India. And we say tonight to Donald Trump, bring it on. Bring it on. Ladies and Gentlemen. And that's been our response. We've told them that you can't touch us, you can't really impact us.
- [28:08]
Sagar Enjeti
That's what they're saying there. All right. I mean, listen, are they gonna cave? I don't know. So far, the MODI government has put out statements basically saying, screw you, we don't care, we'll pay the tariff. And the line in India is pretty ironic because you guys buy a bunch of hexafluoride and other products from Russia and then you're coming to us and telling us not to take it. I mean, and by the way, here's the best part. Indian. So Russian oil refined in an Indian refinery is exempt from the tariffs if you export it to the United States. So if Indian companies export oil to America, they will be exempt from the tariff. Make it make sense.
- [28:44]
Krystal Ball
Incredible.
- [28:44]
Sagar Enjeti
Make it all make sense. Last update here on the Ukraine front. Let's put a seven, please, up on the screen. Trump yesterday said that there was, quote, a good chance that he would meet with Vladimir Putin soon about the war in Ukraine. Apparently, Putin is the one who initiated the meeting during a meeting with Steve Witkoff recently in Moscow. It would also have some sort of trilateral meeting, allegedly. I don't know if this is, you know, all this still needs to be negotiated together with Putin and with Zelenskyy to try and bring an end to the war. I think it would be great if it's actually real, but, you know, there's a lot of problems for both countries. And Putin himself is basically called Trump's bluff at every single turn of this. Every time they say that we're gonna have a 10 day deadline, 50 day deadline. Medvedev and the government are like, okay, fine, so same with the Indian government so far. Same with the Brazilian government. As I said, you know, Indian exports and all that. I'm not gonna say it's gonna be Nothing. It's about 17% or so of their economy is exports to the United States. So 50% would be, you know, it'd be devastating for a significant part of their import export business. But just. I recently saw that India will likely attend a meeting of the SCO with the Chinese. They will be meeting with President Xi for the first time since 2019. Apparently, the Russian foreign minister and others are planning trips to New Delhi. So congratulations to our trade policy. Now, so far, most other countries have bent the knee to the US I still would not put it past Modi and them. They're trying to play it cool, but they do think that eventually they'll be able to come to some sort of agreement. They don't think this is really about Russia. Maybe they're right. I'm not so sure. But it is, regardless. What you say publicly does still matter. India has politics, is a democratic nation. Last time I went there, I was shocked at anti US Sentiment for years. You know, the dream of coming to America and all of that was solid. But the brow beating they took from the Biden administration over the Ukraine conflict, they were furious, furious about it. Really splintered a lot of relations. So I can't even imagine, you know, what this will do.
- [30:46]
Krystal Ball
Yeah.
- [30:46]
Sagar Enjeti
And this was a close relationship, Trump and Modi. They had an event the first term. It was called like Howdy Modi down in Texas. I mean, this was like a major thing that was sold from the administration about this pivot to Asia, the cultivating of the Indian relationship, and he basically set it on fire in the span of a week. We'll see how it works.
- [31:06]
Az Fudd
Hey, guys, it's Az Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist. You may know me as an NCAA national champion and recent most outstanding player. You may even know me as a people's princess. But now you're also going to know me as your favorite coach. Every week on my new podcast, futaround, and find out. I'll give you an inside look at everything happening in my crazy life as I try to balance it all, from my travels across the globe to preparing for another run at the natty with my UConn Huskies, to just trying to make it to my midterms on time. You'll get the inside scoop on everything. I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture, basketball and what it's like to be a professional athlete on and off the court. You'll even get to have some fun with the Fudd family. So if you follow me on social media or watch me on tv, you may think you know me, but this show is the only place where you can really fut around and find out. Listen to FUT around and find out. A production of iHeart Women's Sports in partnership with Unanimous Media on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [32:07]
Lizzie Logan
Have you ever looked at a piece of abstract art or music or poetry and thought that's just a bunch of pretentious nonsense?
- [32:13]
Sagar Enjeti
Sense?
- [32:13]
Lizzie Logan
Well, that's exactly what two bored Australian soldiers set out to prove during World War II when they pulled off what was either a bold literary hoax or a grand poetic experiment. Publishing over a dozen intentionally bad but highly acclaimed works of expressionist poetry under the name Ern Malley. In an incident that caused a media firestorm and even a criminal trial, the Ern Malley episode made fools of believers and critics alike and still fascinates poetry lovers to this day. We break down the truth, the lies, and the poetry in between on Hoax, a new podcast hosted by me, Lizzie Logan and me, Dana Schwartz. Every episode, Hoax explores an audacious fraud or ruse from history, from forged artworks to the original fake news. To try and answer why we believe, listen to Hoax on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [33:06]
Radhi Devlukia
Hey, I'm Radhi devlukia and I'm the host of a really good Cry podcast and I have the opportunity to talk to Dr. Julie Smith. Julie is a clinical psychologist, a best selling author, and one of the most trusted voices in mental health online. She was one of the first therapists to use TikTok as an educational platform and since then she has built a global audience of nearly 10 million people by making emotional support accessible, honest, and deeply human.
- [33:30]
Dr. Julie Smith
You know, resentment isn't something that the world owes you, it's that, you know, something that you need to work on. Yes, I would say with this stuff is look out for those feelings of resentment because they're a sign that there was some sort of boundary that wasn't held before, you know, that. That if you're not asserting your own desires or wishes or needs and then resenting your partner or your friend for filling the space for you, then it comes back to, okay, well what do you want that's not this.
- [34:01]
Radhi Devlukia
Listen to a really good cry on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:08]
Sagar Enjeti
All right, let's go to this next one. We've been wanting to talk about this for a while. Viral chart that has gone everywhere recently and you know, actually really does say a lot about the state of America today. This kind of gets to my point earlier. Are you richer than you were in the year 2009? If you have stocks, yes. If you have television? If you measure your ability to buy enough nice flat screen LCD tv, yes. If you measure it in terms of your ability to afford an education, to afford a home, no. You're actually a lot poorer. Let's go and put this up there then on the screen. So this is a quote, Estimated percent of 30 year olds who are both married and homeowners. So as they point out, back in the year 1950, it was over 50% up until the year 1990, it steadily was above 40%. 1990, which, where you basically had the total financialization of our economy and the unipolar moment, nafta, everything starts to come in. You see the precipitous decline from 1990 where you have some 40, what is it, 42, 43% of people who are married homeowners. It drops to 2010 to roughly 22%. So basically halves in that time period. And then after 2010 to today it is now less than 15%, probably somewhere between 7 and 8% of people who are estimating 30 year olds, both married and homeowners. It makes sense. I mean, just take a look at all the data that surrounds this. So for example, let's go ahead and put what was this, A11 please up on the screen because this is where it all kind of starts to come together. Here you have the median yearly wage right there, which is flat to 1970, basically flat if you factor in inflation to 1979. Take a look at the median home price, which again, this is all in real dollars. Median home price was roughly around $250,000 back in 1979 in today's dollars and is now well over 350 to 400,000 even. That by the way, has been fluctuating. The other problem is that that factors in the entire country, which in my opinion isn't really the right way to look at it because we have such consolidation in the urban areas. If you look at the urban areas, like the top 10 most populous cities and their urban metro, it's roughly between 500,000 to a million dollars. And in the mega cities like Washington D.C. new York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, Texas, Atlanta, any of those places, good luck. Over the half a million dollar price range, you're gonna be making some serious compromises basically no matter what at that time period. Not to mention what the mortgages are right now, somewhere around 6.5% or something like that. If you have bad credit, it's gonna be a lot higher. So you're paying double with a mortgage price that you would have just four years ago for a home price that is roughly either increased or at the same from that time. And yeah, I mean, it's just such a mystery then, you know, why people don't wanna have children or putting off marriage and having any sort of ownership in your society. I actually think it's probably the most impactful statistic about the homeownership thing because. Because it makes sense. You put down roots, you have connections. If you're A rent, you're fundamentally at the mercy of bigger economic forces than yourself. You don't have ownership or stakes in society. And I mean, I'm not gonna say it's painting with a broad brush, but it does mean something. And so as that all starts to decline, that's how you have Zoron, that's how you have Trump, that's how you have, I mean, so many of you, our political socioeconomic forces stem from that. And so that really does need to be the problem that needs to be attacked, like from day one.
- [37:50]
Krystal Ball
That's it. I mean, the core building blocks of middle class life just get more and more and more expensive and out of reach. And, you know, there's a lot that goes into that, that chart because you're talking about marriage age, and you're talking about home ownership.
- [38:05]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah.
- [38:06]
Krystal Ball
And some of these elements are, you know, are very cultural. Right. It's a trend across the developed world that, you know, people are getting married older. Of course, women entering the workforce means they're, you know, they're going to college, they're starting careers. That puts off marriage, that puts off, you know, having kids. So those sorts of things play into it too. But when you look at the really falling off a CLIFF in the 90s, you can't just blame the feminists for that one, because most of the introduction of women into the workforce had happened prior to the 90s. So then why does this metric fall off a cliff there? And, yeah, it's not a mystery. It's because houses got really, really expensive, and so people couldn't afford it anymore. And it truly is devastating in terms of, you know, culturally, we place a very high value in this country in particular on home ownership. That's not the case everywhere. Actually. The Nordic countries have more of a culture of like, rental, sort of like that's typical. And getting married later, that's kind of typical. And so the fact that you have this cultural desire to be a homeowner and you have all kinds of government policy that really rewards homeownership. I mean, the, you know, mortgage interest deduction being the biggest one.
- [39:17]
Sagar Enjeti
Capital gains is a big one.
- [39:18]
Krystal Ball
Yeah. And as a renter, you know, economically, you're just like the way our society is structured, you're just getting screwed. And homeownership is also the way that most people build any sort of wealth that they can then pass on to their kids, that can give them some sense, sense of stability. And so if this cornerstone, bedrock piece of the American dream is just being pushed completely out of reach for people. They're having to wait till they're 40, 50 before they can even dream about it, if they ever can at all. Living in one of these big cities. Yeah. You're going to have complete disillusionment with the whole bargain that is the whole sort of social contract that is supposedly operating here in the us So I think it is. I think you're right to say that this truly is at the heart of what is going on with our politics. And it's extraordinary that I feel like now is the first time where there's really any political grappling with it. And it's not like, how long have.
- [40:12]
Sagar Enjeti
We been talking about this? Seven years.
- [40:14]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, for sure. I mean, and just now, do you have politicians even saying anything about it? And I don't really hear anyone having, like, really great solutions that are at scale to actually deal with the crisis. So, you know, this. It does make people feel less invested in the country. It makes them feel a sense of betrayal when you look at what their parents were and their grandparents were able to achieve and at what age. And it just feels impossible for, you know, for younger generations.
- [40:44]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, I totally agree. Let's go ahead and put a nine, please, up on the screen. Take a look at this. This is the unpaid number of student loans by age. So more than one in six Americans are now in serious delinquency rates. And the problem with that, thanks to Joe Biden, you can't discharge any of that through bankruptcy proceedings. Not exactly being helped by a lot of the current administration. This is the problem. This is for the older millennial set. And I actually, you know, people often talk about this with the Zoron phenomenon. There's a lot of people who are like, why isn't educated liberal are becoming more radical? And it's like, well, in a way, and I'm not saying this to put down like working class Americans or anything. They, quote, did everything right, as in they went to college. Like, what was the message? Go to college, you take out the debt, you'll be able to pay it off because of the wage premium. Wage premium obviously still exists. Going to college is still generally a good deal if you don't factor in the debt. If you look broadly at all of these things, things, you'll move to a bigger city and you'll be able to have some sort of, like, moderately accessible life. No one's expecting to get filthy rich, but you know, they're like, I'll be able to do X, Y and Z. And then, you know, I'm 33. So by the time it's been 10 years since basically since you graduated from college. And so then you start to look around and you're like, I'm not seeing a whole lot of that actually for most of the people who are able to do that, even the very successful ones, people who are pulling two, $300,000 per year are still like they might be able to buy a home, but it's not really the one that they want. It has a lot of trade offs. Now obviously, you know, that's how it works sometimes, but that's not the dream that was sold. And especially in the Zoron context, I kept saying this and I said this on the flagrant show. I don't know why everyone acting is acting like $100,000 in New York is in any way rich. Like $100,000 post tax is roughly what, 75,000, 79,000 something in like New York City, state, local and federal. So if you take that over 12 and then you look at the average rent price on a one or a two bedroom apartment and anywhere on Manhattan or like reasonably commutable, you are rent poor. Like almost 50% of your income is being spent on rent, which has inflate massively inflationary over the last couple of years. So yeah, of course people are going to to be upset about that. And then you flip it. On the working class side, their wages have been basically flat, as we showed there, since 1979. And then for a lot of them as well as we've seen the remote work thing kind of spread wealth around the country that makes home price even less accessible to them wherever they used to live. So Texas, where I'm from, I watched the city of Austin go from sleepy, not sleepy, but it was a college town, it was the capital. Okay, what happened? And now it's the destination of tech and all of this. And now there are places like Bastrop where Texans will know what I'm talking about, which is like 45 minutes out. And even there it's apparently pretty dripping spring. I never in my life would have imagined many of these places with $2 million houses that are apparently for sale with like luxury buildings and stuff. And so for those people, let's say you were born and raised there, and let's say you work at your father's plumbing business and you're making 75 per year. How are you moderately supposed to be able to compete with that at all? I hear the same about Atlanta, about Nashville, about South Carolina, any of these places which are like Lower tax havens for people who are second tier wealthy in these places. And so that's kind of like a race to the bottom and it just raises the price for everybody. And I'm not even talking about California, the most populous state in the country, which is just, oh, bonkers in terms of if it's real estate. I don't even, I genuinely don't even know how people live in California. I don't. If you make $100,000 a year in Los Angeles, I'm like, I don't even know what you're doing. Like, if you, if you look at the gas price, if you look at mortgages, your ability to buy anything, I don't know, you must have a two and a half hour commute. I can't think of another one.
- [44:38]
Krystal Ball
I mean, you'll see like, yeah, like a house like an hour out from San Francisco. Oh, that's this tiny, you know, should be starter home, nothing special at all. And it's like, oh, this is $1.5 million. Insane. I mean, it's genuinely insane. And you know, with the New York, talking about Zoran, the knock on him is like, oh, you want to raise tax on the wealthy? You're gonna chase all the billionaires out of the city. And his rejoinder, which I think is really worth thinking about is, you know, who's actually leaving New York? It's not the billionaires. The people who are leaving New York are the working class, the middle class, the poor, like the ordinary people are the ones who are fleeing New York because they can't afford to live here. So how about we have a policy that seeks to keep, you know, to make it possible for them to live in this great city again. And I think that apparently has a lot of appeal to a lot of New Yorkers of like, hey, how about I'm able to afford to live in the city instead of worrying about like catering to the whims of this, you know, elite billionaire class. The student loan debt, it is similar to the homeownership betrayal. It is another betrayal, to your point of a sort of deal social contract that was offered to people. Okay, you're, you know, school's expensive, you're going to take out debt. You know, you're going to take these years to go further your education, but at the end of that, you're going to have that same kind of stable middle class life that, you know, your parents generation may have been able to achieve with like a union manufacturing or blue collar job. Now this is the new economy and that's how you achieve that. And for many people, that has not panned out to be the case. When you factor in how expensive healthcare is, how expensive housing is, the dwindling wage premium, still a wage premium, but dwindling wage premium from going to college, it doesn't pencil out the way that people were told that it pencils out. And so it does represent another betrayal of Americans who were promised one thing and were sold a false bill of goods. The last point I'll make, this is a point shout out to. Ben Norton made this. And I think it's worth contemplating the original chart that we showed of homeownership and marriage age just falling off a cliff in terms of being able to achieve those things by the time that you're 30. It really starts to deteriorate rapidly in the 90s. And one of the things that happened in the 90s was the collapse of the Soviet Union. And so part of what enabled the New Deal and sort of kept capital in check was that you did have this threat from the left of this alternative economic system which was alive and well in parts of the world. And so once you have the end of history, as was being proclaimed at the time, and it's just sort of like wild, wild west, off to the races. You see skyrocketing inequality, you see obviously skyrocketing housing prices, skyrocketing education, health care prices, all of those sorts of things. And you see the country being run increasingly more and more and more just for the wealthy, just for the 1% and the meager social safety net net, President after president after president, whether they're Democrat or Republican, chipping away at that meager social safety net. And even though the Cold War is over. Right. Why are we still, you know, we were in this arms race, okay, now the Cold War is over, can we roll back some of the military industrial complex? No. More and more of our tax dollars continue to go to support an ever increasing expanding Pentagon defense budget and funneling billions into that military industrial complex, in spite of the fact that our primary geopolitical foe was defeated. So, you know, then we could talk about the Iraq war, we could talk about the housing crisis. But, you know, I think it's worth contemplating why that point in the 90s seems to be a true turning point. And I think, you know, NAFTA coming in at that time as well is.
- [48:20]
Sagar Enjeti
I think it's multiple things. It's nafta, it's immigration, and these are all stack on top of each other. It's nafta Immigration, financialization, the explosion of wealth, student loans is a huge part of it. All of that together. NIMBYism is also like a major part of the story. And then globalization generally. I mean, I've talked about this before, but part of the reason that, you know, especially at the higher levels, if you look at the markets for like Los Angeles or New York, well, half of it's foreign owned. It's crazy. Like the global super rich just come here to park their money and make it massively expensive. And then you have all their, like slaves basically who work for them, you know, as private chefs or gardeners or whatever. This stuff is real. Like it's literally like the Gilded Age. If you think about the level of staff and other things that kind of spread out, it actually amplifies if you start to think about Instacart, you know, and all these other different services that happen. Finally, though, we did want to emphasize that there is a different way of living. Let's go and put a 10, please, up on the screen. This was from. This is from Carl Za. He's like a Chinese propagandist. I'll admit I hated Carl for a long time, but I have been forced to say that he is correct on many things. And here he points from a 2007 story. 2017 story. I apologize. In China, where they say, quote, the country where 70% of millennials are homeowners. China has one of the highest homeownership rates in the world, including among millennials. If you're aged 19 to 36 and you don't own your home, you're probably not reading this. In China. While young people around the world are struggling to get on the property ladder, HSBC found that 70% of Chinese millennials have achieved the milestone. In fact, I just saw a statistic that some 90% of people who live in a domicile in China are living in something that was built after 1990. Flip that around and think about that. For America now, rapidly developing economy, it's a little bit different. We have legacy housing, stock, et cetera. But the point being that the starter home is alive and well in China. And compare that to the stock market thing like I was talking about earlier. So the actual building blocks of wealth or educate, anything in America is massively expensive, whereas all of the bullshit is much, much cheaper. So it's the inverse of what you've become materially richer for. Whereas over there, it's the opposite. Their stock market is flat. Who cares? You have a home. You can get very cheap food by the way food delivery over there doesn't have to be expensive. They got drone delivery is cheap as hell. They've got incredible public infrastructure. They have no crime. And so people here are always like, oh, the Chinese people yearn for democracy. I'm like, I don't think so. I'm like, I think the system's working pretty well over there. I mean, not if you're Uyghur or Hong Kong democracy activists or any of that, but that's the price that broadly they're willing to pay. And so that's a lot of lessons, I think, for America. And by the way, they have the coolest cars in the world. It's true. It's true. They do. I still need to film my video soon to go drive some Chinese cars.
- [51:17]
Krystal Ball
Oh, yeah.
- [51:18]
Az Fudd
Anyways, hey, guys, it's Az Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist. You may know me as an NCAA national champion and recent most outstanding player. You may even know me as a people's princess. But now you're also going to know me as your favorite host. Every week on my new podcast, Fut around and Find Out, I'll give you an inside look at everything happening in my crazy life as I try to balance it all from my travels across the globe to prepare preparing for another run at the natty with my UConn Huskies to just trying to make it to my midterms on time. You'll get the inside scoop on everything. I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture basketball and what it's like to be a professional athlete on and off the court. You'll even get to have some fun with the Fudd family. So if you follow me on social media or watch me on tv, you may think you know me, but this show is the only place where you can really fut around and find out. Listen to Futuristic Run around and find Out. A production of iHeart Women's Sports in partnership with Unanimous Media on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [52:20]
Lizzie Logan
Have you ever looked at a piece of abstract art or music or poetry and thought that's just a bunch of pretentious nonsense? Well, that's exactly what two bored Australian soldiers set out to prove during World War II when they pulled off what was either a bold literary hoax or a grand poetic experiment. Experiment. Publishing over a dozen intentionally bad but highly acclaimed works of expressionist poetry under the name Ern Malley. In an incident that caused a media firestorm and even a criminal trial, the Ern Malley episode made fools of believers and critics alike and still fascinates poetry lovers to this day. We break down the truth, the lies, and the poetry in between on Hoax, a new podcast hosted by me, Lizzie Logan, and me, Dana Schwarzenegger. Every episode, Hoax explores an audacious fraud or ruse from history, from forged artworks to the original fake news. To try and answer why we believe, listen to Hoax on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [53:19]
Radhi Devlukia
Hey, I'm Radhi Devlukia, and I'm the host of a really good cry podcast, and I have the opportunity to talk to Dr. Julie Smith. Julie is a clinical psychologist, a bestselling author, and one of the most trusted voices in mental health online. She was one of the first therapists to use TikTok as an educational platform, and since then, she has built a global audience of nearly 10 million people by making emotional support accessible, honest, and deeply human.
- [53:43]
Dr. Julie Smith
You know, resentment isn't something that the world owes you. It's that, you know, something that you need to work on. I would say with this stuff is look out for those feelings of resentment because they're a sign that there was some sort of boundary that wasn't held before. You know that. But if you're not asserting your own desires or wishes or needs and then resenting your partner or your friend for filling the space for you, then it comes back to, okay, well, what do you want? That's not this.
- [54:14]
Radhi Devlukia
Listen to a really good cry on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [54:21]
Sagar Enjeti
Let's move on to Epstein, shall we? Let's turn over to the Epstein story. We've got a couple of new updates here. We have Trump reiterating the Epstein files. It's a Democratic hoax and it's total bull. Let's take a listen. The two.
- [54:33]
Krystal Ball
Kevin.
- [54:33]
Sagar Enjeti
Very good.
- [54:34]
Krystal Ball
Is Vice President Vance hosting a gathering.
- [54:37]
Lizzie Logan
This evening to talk about how to.
- [54:38]
Krystal Ball
Respond to the Epstein situation?
- [54:40]
Sagar Enjeti
Is he working on what?
- [54:41]
Krystal Ball
Hosting some kind of gathering of top advisors this evening to talk about how to respond to the Epstein situation?
- [54:47]
Sagar Enjeti
I don't know. I could ask you that question. I don't know of it, but I think here's the man right here. I saw a report today, and it's completely fake news. We're not meeting the talk about the Epstein situation, and I think the reporter who reported it needs to get better sources. Look, the whole thing is a hoax. It's put out by the Democrats because we've had the most successful six months in the history of our country. And that's just a way of trying to divert attention to something that's total bullshit. Total bullshit. That's his line. The Epstein files, trying to divert attention. Apparently, that's the media and not the actions of the Trump administration.
- [55:26]
Krystal Ball
Okay.
- [55:27]
Sagar Enjeti
There was also, by the way, J.D. vance was responding to a story, which we'll return to in a little bit, where there was some story reported by CNN that they were gonna convene some grand Epstein meeting of the principals to figure out how they were gonna handle it. But we couldn't help but flag this from the Times of Israel. Our friend Glenn Greenwald was able to find it. Let's go and put this up there on the screen, shall we? So here we have a. A rabbi, he's a blogger for the Times of Israel. Yosef. How would you say that, Yanowski? All right, we'll go with that.
- [55:59]
Krystal Ball
We'll go with that.
- [56:00]
Sagar Enjeti
Trump and his administration criticized Netanyahu and Israel. He writes, quote, and now the Epstein files are haunting him for a long time. The files had subsidized in the background, but they were considered to be a much more threat to Trump. All of a sudden, right after he started up with Israel, the files surfaced and they seemed to be overwhelming him. He writes, he continues, now some old files are threatening him. Perhaps Trump will realize that it really doesn't pay to start up with Israel, because when by divine providence, things that were hidden become revealed, it enables people to correct their mistakes and to endeavor to live their lives properly the way God with a dash wants them to. Okay, all right, let's listen. I mean, I sometimes appreciate when people say things out loud, but. All right, let's give the caveat. It's a blogger in the Times of Israel. I will say I think it's crazy that they even published it, just to be fair, like, even to make that sort of accusation. What does he know? Well, it fits with a broader pattern of evidence. I know Ryan and Emily covered the photos from the Epstein story from the New York Times a couple of days ago, but there were some specific Israel connections in there that I think are very important. Let's go and put this next one, please. So this is from Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel. I've talked a lot about his relationship there with Epstein, flew on the jet a number of times, stayed at Epstein's residence, whenever he was photographed going into the Epstein residence, tried to cover up his face, received millions of dollars from Epstein via the Wexner foundation, as well as an investment into his defense startup company in 2015. Well, apparently Ghislaine or whatever, Epstein's staff always would compile these birthday messages to Jeffrey Epstein. So here, here, 2016. So, you know, years after Epstein is a registered sex offender, here's what Ehud Barak writes in his birthday message to Epstein. Quote, there is no limit to your curiosity. You are like a closed book to many of them, but you know everything about everyone. I would also be remiss if I didn't read this one from Mortimer Zuckerman, one of the most powerful, you know, media figures who said, quote, suggested ingredients for a meal that would reflect the culture of the mansion. A simple salad and whatever else would enhance Jeffrey's sexual performance. Next, apparently. Let's go to the Next one, please. B3. Well, Epstein apparently had a preserved map of Israel signed by Barack in his New York mansion. As I say here, apparently there was also a signed bill from Bill Gates. There were literally visible cameras in the bedroom. A first edition copy of Lolita, which has got to be one of the creepiest things I've ever read. And then photos with some of the richest and most powerful people. I would be also remiss if I didn't flag. There were a number of Israel firsters who were very mad at me for flagging the fact that he had a map of Israel. And they were like, why didn't you talk about his pictures with mbs, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia or some of the powerful, one of the powerful sheikhs in the uae? And I'm like, that's not the own that you think it is. Because what it does is confirm the arms deal connections that I've talked about now and why it makes him a Mossad asset. So you're actually proving my point. The fact that he had high level connections to the Saudis proves my point that he was connected to Adnan Khashoggi. And that verifies that he was somebody who was dealing in shadowy arms trafficking networks and probably was involved in things like, or at very least like tangentially knew the principal actors involved in Iran Contra and in funneling weapons between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Oh, sorry, that's right. So not the own that you think it is.
- [59:45]
Krystal Ball
Not to mention these people never go and check and see if you've criticized Saudi Arabia.
- [59:49]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, that's right.
- [59:49]
Krystal Ball
As if we don't criticize Saudi Arabia here. And if you haven't criticized, like cutting Qatar and uae, like, go look at our coverage and be relieved that don't worry. It's not only The Israelis that we criticize. Yeah, but, Sagar, don't worry. We can put the next piece up on the screen because Ghislaine Maxwell, in her Queen for a Day limited immunity meeting, she says Trump did nothing wrong.
- [60:10]
Sagar Enjeti
Oh, okay.
- [60:10]
Krystal Ball
And she is a very trustworthy source, and I'm sure not at all. Just telling the Trump administration what they want to hear so that she can get her, you know, her move over to the Club Fed in Texas and potential pardon down the road. Road. I'm sure that's not what's going on here at all. I mean, it's just insane that they actually think, well, I shouldn't say that, because you know what a lot of Trump's biggest supporters will actually believe.
- [60:32]
Sagar Enjeti
Oh, yeah, they will.
- [60:33]
Krystal Ball
They will actually take this as a look, See, Ghislaine said it's fine. They're reportedly considering releasing the transcripts from the interview so that they can try to exonerate Trump.
- [60:43]
Sagar Enjeti
I mean, I would be for it no matter what. I still think we need transparency in the case. But this is not. I've said it before, this is why you need a special prosecutor behind the deal, so that there's no obvious political influence on what she is or is not saying. It may be true, but, you know, why would anyone actually trust what she has to say when she's genuinely gambling for a pardon and is already receiving special treatment? By the way, do you know what the current strategy apparently is for how to launder all of this? It's not to actually release the Epstein file. It's this. Let's go and put this next one. I love this. Senior Trump administration officials, quote, are reportedly looking at using Joe Rogan to help tackle the lingering fallout from the Epstein crisis. So they noticed that Joe said that the Epstein stuff was, quote, a line in the sand in terms of the way that they were. In terms of the way that it was all being handled and covered up by the Trump administration. So their theory is to send the deputy Attorney General on the show to go and basically talk about all of the handling. They would rather do that than release any of the Epstein files. Now, I actually am not so sure that Joe would even have them on at this point without the release of the files, because the Kash Patel thing was such a disaster. And he was like, I knew it was bullshit at the time. I didn't even really know what to say. And he's like. And the way that it's all handled afterwards, he's like, this is just the most insane shit that I've ever seen. So maybe in some way here, let's agree to this. Todd Blanche can go on. Bring on Dave Smith or somebody else. Bring me copy, Zillow, anybody. All right, have somebody else on who knows something about the case. Let them sit across and be like, okay, let's talk. You know, let's go.
- [62:22]
Krystal Ball
Because as Cash was spinning his bullshit, I mean, it became an infamous moment, no doubt. And you could tell that Rogan was like, really?
- [62:30]
Sagar Enjeti
Wait, what?
- [62:31]
Krystal Ball
But then after the fact, he made this comment. Rogan made this comment that was like, what was I supposed to do? Push back? And it's like, well, yeah, you could do that. You could do that. When he's sitting there, he probably just.
- [62:41]
Sagar Enjeti
This is. It is such in the weeds that if you don't know, it's very easy to be bullshitted. And I mean this too, from the FBI case and from the way the FBI handles it. And I've done this before, you know, going back and forth with the people who are skeptics or others in general, they just don't know what they're talking about.
- [62:59]
Krystal Ball
I mean, no, I'm not debating.
- [63:01]
Sagar Enjeti
I think you should have pushed back. I agree with you.
- [63:03]
Krystal Ball
Rogan has covered this. It's not like it's some side issue that he hasn't thought about before. Totally. He does know a lot of details with regard to. So in any case, I don't know that having. I don't know. Even if they have Todd Blanche on with him.
- [63:14]
Sagar Enjeti
Yes.
- [63:15]
Krystal Ball
And even if he doesn't bring in someone for backup, which I don't think they would agree to anyway. But even if he doesn't do that, I still don't know that that would go well for the Trump administration at this point. Because you've blown it. It's over. No one's gonna trust you on this. It's done. People believe, rightfully so, that there's a cover up. I mean, we know the reporting. His name was in the file, his name was flagged in the files, his name was redacted from the files. We know it was there and know, like, well, Ghislaine Maxwell says that he's all clear. Is going to assuage those concerns at this point. Like, basically the ship has sailed. And probably politically their best move is to just try to stop talking about it and try to change the system.
- [63:55]
Sagar Enjeti
Oh, absolutely. I mean, they already apparently believe that it's, quote, dying down. I would not. This is where I really believe Republicans have a Twitter problem, because it used to be the left had a Twitter problem. Right. It was the echo chamber and people thought that that was representative. I now think the opposite. Where people spend way too much time on Twitter, which is, I mean, the algorithm and everything. MAGA obviously dominates on the platform. It's like spend some time on some of the other social media platforms. All right, go take type in Epstein on YouTube, which is way bigger than Twitter and used by billions of people. I can even show our, I look at our demographics. A lot of the people who watch those videos, they're not foreigners, they're Americans. So I know that they're citizens at the very least. And guess what? There's a lot of interest in the story. Not from me, not just from us. All over the Internet, from Alex Jones to Coffeezilla to anybody else. I mean my episode with Tucker Carlson. The only person who's beat me recently is Candace, apparently. So, you know, can't compete with briefing.
- [64:55]
Krystal Ball
You gotta do a transvestigate.
- [64:56]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, I gotta do a transvestigation. But I'm just saying, you know, if you, if you look at the number of views and other things for people who are informed and are skeptical on the case, I'm talking literally millions, tens of millions if you count up just over the last couple of weeks. They recognize that in the election as supposedly powerful and all of that, but now they think it's dying down because they're MAGA activists or whatever on Twitter. Aren't talking about it. Listen guys, that is not even one iota representative of reality.
- [65:24]
Krystal Ball
I don't know if they even really believe that either though, because I mean I, to me, the fact I know you and Ryan did a great job covering like the gerrymandering story.
- [65:32]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah.
- [65:33]
Krystal Ball
That represents a freakout of like, oh shit, we're gonna, like, we're gonna lose.
- [65:38]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah.
- [65:38]
Krystal Ball
And the Democrats are gonna have some subpoena power. And we could be hoes like this could be actually bad for us. Cuz I don't think Trump like really cares about Republican control outside of how it like directly personally impacts him. But with this story and with Democrats like Ro Khanna and others smelling blood in the water, yeah, this could be a real problem for him. So to me, that was them pulling the fire alarm of like, oh shit, yes. How can we rig this election so that we don't end up with Democratic, with a large Democratic majority that can basically do whatever they want in terms of like subpoena power, investigations, et cetera after the midterms. So I think they on some level do recognize that they're in Big trouble with this. And then the other thing it is assumes is that there are no more revelations, which is a big assumption because the media also smells blood in the water. And you may have whistleblowers inside of the federal government who are not too happy about the COVID up that's being effectuated. You never know what's gonna come out of the woodwork. So if you're assuming there are gonna be no more revelations and we've got this under control, and then the other big question is, what do they ultimately do with Ghislaine? Because if they give her a the of part, I mean, that is so disgusting. I just can't even. It's so disgusting. This is a horrific person. The fact even that she got this move to Club Fed in Texas is disgusting. And apparently we could put B6 up on the screen here. NBC News saw some message from an ex BoP official who said that this move to this cushy prison camp is a, quote, travesty of justice. One person wrote on the Bureau of Prison Staff and Retirees Facebook page, quote, As a retired BoP employee, this makes me sick. Since when are sex offenders allowed at the camp? Another wrote, I don't care who she snitched on, she is a damned human trafficker. In the private Facebook group, a member who identified themselves as a staffer at the Florida facility where Maxwell had been held said they weren't going to miss her. However, quote, glad to be rid of her. She is an absolute pain in the ass. But this is their. What they're pointing to here is sex offenders are not supposed to be periods.
- [67:48]
Sagar Enjeti
At federal prison camps.
- [67:48]
Krystal Ball
In these federal prison camps where it's, I mean, listen, I'm sure being in prison sucks, even at the nice prison, but it's a much better deal. You can roam around the grounds. There's not like the giant. The barbed wire fence is like a lower fence. It's also much less secure. So if she wants to get out or someone wants to get at her, she's much more vulnerable and exposed. There's a lot more programs available. There's a lot more sort of autonomy that's offered. Elizabeth Holmes is there. I mean, this is like where, you know, it's the type of place Martha Stewart would be sent to, you know, white collar type of criminals. That's who's typically there. Sex offenders are not supposed to be there. So I think the other possible political fallout is if Trump continues to cater to Ghislaine Maxwell and cater to her desire to get out of any prison at all. There will be political fallout from that as well, because no one is buying that she's just exonerating him and there's nothing to see here. If he lets her out, if he gives her a pardon, or the government drops their opposition to her appeal at the Supreme Court and she is set free, everyone is going to conclude from that it's because she had the goods on him and he had to cut a deal to make sure that she stayed quiet. So, you know, I think if they are deluding themselves to believe that this is over, this is quieted down, that they've handled it. Yeah, it's not at the sort of existential fervor that it felt for a moment, but that can change on a dime like that.
- [69:16]
Sagar Enjeti
Yep, I totally agree.
- [69:18]
Az Fudd
Hey, guys, it's Az Fudd. You may know me as a gold medalist, you may know me as an NCAA national champion. You may even know me as a people's princess. Every week on my new podcast, Fut around and find Out, I'll be talking to some special guests about pop culture basketball and what it's like to be a professional athlete on and off the court. Listen to Fun around and find out. A production of iHeart Women's Sports in partnership with Unanimous Media on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [69:48]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girl Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety.
- [70:04]
Sagar Enjeti
What is not normal is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do, the things that you were meant to do.
- [70:12]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [70:19]
Sagar Enjeti
Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in the backlog will be identified in our lifetime.
- [70:25]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab. Every case has a story to tell.
- [70:30]
Sagar Enjeti
And the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen, I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology's already solving so many cases.
- [70:42]
Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford
Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [70:48]
Sagar Enjeti
This is an iHeart podcast.