← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
9/9/25: Korea Furious After ICE Hyundai Raid, Trump Epstein Birthday Letter Revealed
00:43:21
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- [00:00]
Sagar
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
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- [01:05]
Krystal
Good Morning. Welcome to Today.
- [01:07]
Today Show Promo
From back to school to tackling your to do list, the Today show is.
- [01:10]
Sagar
Your best start to the day.
- [01:12]
Today Show Promo
It's a new season and every morning we're here to help you take it all on as the forecast calls for football all across the country, blockbuster stars.
- [01:22]
Sagar
Live concerts, and so much more. Wake up to where it's all happening.
- [01:25]
Krystal
We're getting back to all of it and the best way to start is together.
- [01:30]
Sagar
Watch the Today show weekday mornings at 7am on NBC.
- [01:35]
Asma Khalid
America is changing and so is the world.
- [01:39]
Tristan Redman
But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [01:47]
Asma Khalid
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.
- [01:50]
Tristan Redman
Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story.
- [01:54]
Asma Khalid
Every weekday we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world is and America meet.
- [01:59]
Tristan Redman
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:05]
Sagar
Hey guys, Sagar and Krystal here.
- [02:06]
Krystal
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show.
- [02:14]
Sagar
This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.
- [02:20]
Krystal
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 we need your.
- [02:31]
Sagar
Help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breaking points.com Good morning everybody. Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal?
- [02:43]
Krystal
A lot of very interesting topics in the show today, I have to say. So we're going to cover this immigration raid at a Hyundai plant involving hundreds of Korean nationals. A lot of interesting stuff going on there. We also have some bombshell revelations with regard to Epstein including we actually have released now the full birthday book. It is even more disgusting, disturbing and creepy than you could possibly imagine. So we will dig into some of that. Dave Weigel is going to join us to talk about two conferences he just attended, one on national conservatism, the other on abundance. Also comes amid some new very interesting polling about the Zoran Mandani race in New York City. So we'll get him to dive into all of that. Jeremy Scahill is also going to join us to talk about the latest potential ceasefire proposal in Israel with regards to Israel and Gaza. We've got some new Gen Z. Gen Z gender divide polling. That's what I'm trying to say. That is fascinating to dig into the various priorities of men and women in Gen Z depending on who they voted for in the last election. And we're also taking a look at some Tim Dillon political commentary with regard to various political figures. So that should be a fun one.
- [03:47]
Sagar
Yes, that's right. And I apologize for coming in from, from my house today. We're dealing with some childcare issues I think that all parents can relate that looks like. So if you hear any screaming in the background and or cats coming behind me, you can understand exact exactly what that is. Thank you everybody who has been supporting the show. BreakingPoints.com I want to give a special shout out to Crystal and Ryan yesterday for the work that they did. It was an entire team effort behind the scenes preparing for those interviews and I think that is Breaking Points at its best. Releasing the video completely together, some two hours together, everyone can make up their minds for themselves. It's a high stakes story, probably you know, one of the most important stories and it just goes to show you the level of journalism that we're committed ourselves, ourselves here too. So breakingpoints.com if you can help support the show and you want to see more stuff like that, as you guys could see, you know, we had, it was literally took almost two and a half hours and we did of course have to, you know, sacrifice views or you know, not cover other stories and other things. But it does show you the commitment of the type of things that we're committed to here on this show. So breakingpoints.com if you're able to help us out and if you can't afford it, no worries. Just please go ahead and subscribe on this video. If you're listening to this on a podcast, go ahead and send the episode to a friend and rate it five stars. It really, really helps the show. So with that, let's go ahead and start with Hyundai. This is, I'll tell you, I have been infuriated by many things under the Trump administration. This is one of those which has hit more than anything for a variety of reasons because it shows the sheer level of stupidity pervading our government right now. Let's go ahead and put some of this video up on the screen which has now caused an international incident with the state of South Korea. So you're watching, you know, Homeland Security ice basically roll in some military convoy into a Hyundai plant in Georgia. And what you're watching is not only now I'm going to separate my commentary. Some of the people that they allegedly arrested were in the country illegally. But many of these are highly skilled South Korean nationals who entered the United States under the visa waiver program because they are highly skilled technicians who were dispatched by Hyundai from South Korea to the United States specifically to get a manufacturing plant up and running. So these are the people who are actually at the vanguard of the Trump administration's hailed manufacturing plan, where we are basically going around the world telling Hyundai, telling Japan, all of these other different countries, we're like, you need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in our country. And they're like, hey, O. Okay, no problem. We absolutely will do so. We'll hire American workers. The only thing is, is that to get the plant up and running. Of course, as you know, if an American company were to open a factory elsewhere, well, they're the only people with experience in the technology. They're the people who are going to set up the plant. They have no intention of staying and they were literally chained up and, you know, mistreated. Put it on a bus and, you know, summarily humiliated in front of the eyes of the world. This has cannot stress this enough because nobody in the US Or Washington actually looks at foreign media. This is an international incident with one of the most important allies for the United States in East Asia. Let's go and put the next one up there on the screen, guys, just to show you the entire Korean government opposition and the Ruling party are united in their outrage. This is blockbuster news all over South Korean media. They demanded the return of their workers and said that they will bring them home. They will not be deported. And they have privately had to dispatch a jet in order to do this. I think that this reveals actually perhaps we can find some bipartisan agreement here, Crystal. The stupidity of the United States immigration system. In some ways, we hold a gun to Korea's head and say, you need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in America. They're like, great, absolutely. And in fact, because of our work ethic, we want it to happen right now. And so we're like, cool, that's awesome. And then what they do, they apply for a business visa and they, it takes forever. It's not happening. It's not getting approved. And they're like, okay, well, South Korean nationals can enter the United States under the visa waiver program. So we'll just send them over and we'll get this plant up and running. It's better than eating the cost of delays. And so while they're sitting in this plant, then somebody in ICE or the White House, wherever, gets the brilliant idea of let's roll on in there and let's just arrest and chain these guys up. A three, please. Just to explain this a little bit more to everybody. And look, I'm not letting Hyundai, I guess, off the hook. They admit that they're entered under the visa waiver program. Their explanation is, yeah, I mean, we enter under the visa waiver program because the administration was not granting our visas fast enough. And at the very same time that they're slowing our visa process, they're up our ass to get this plant up and running. So I mean, I just think that it tells everybody the level of seriousness to which we are committed to, you know, US Manufacturing and else. I just can't think of a better poster child for allegedly what's supposed to be happening. The point of the trade deals is to increase tariffs, to tell countries to come here to invest in America. You invest in America, we will roll out the red carpet for you. We will make sure that everything is there. We will allow these, you know, high skill technicians again, who are not trying to stay here or anything. They're literally entering America. They're trying to get the plant up, running and eventually is going to create job. This is in a rural Georgia, by the way. It's, you know, not like a thriving metropolis. It's a place which, you know, wanted the plant and has actually welcomed it to come there. So this again, I just want to emphasize this is an international incident. And if you are a Japanese company or a Korean company or a German company or any of these others who, again, basically under duress, which, fine, the government is telling you, you're going to be slapped with massive tariffs, the European and all these other Asian allies are doing everything they can to actually treat manufacturing to the US to be able to build these things here and then to do something like this, it is one of the most chilling effects you can possibly think of for the alleged plan of moving manufacturing to the United States of America.
- [10:31]
Krystal
Yeah, that's absolutely right. And so it shows you the conflict because one of the supposed goals of the mass deportation is to free up jobs for American workers. These South Korean workers were literally there to create jobs for American workers. So you are, there is just no doubt that you are harming American workers with this action. And yet this action is taken. And on top of everything, right, There are a lot of ways you can do immigration enforcement. They chose to do the mass show of force, put everybody in shackles tied around the waist, and to record that and release it publicly. So to your point about the humiliation, it was an intentional, intentional humiliation of these South Korean nationals with regard to their status. Basically what happened, this plant was, this was started actually under the Biden administration. And there was kind of a, like, don't ask, don't tell kind of a policy. Like, look, we don't have a program set up to be able to get you all of the visas in the time period that you need in order to, to have them properly authorized. Just get the normal tourist visa that allows for business meetings and no one's gonna do anything about. Cuz we understand like the nature of the system. And so that was the understanding in the Biden administration and they thought that was the understanding under the Trump administration as well. Basically like, well, we're not gonna pass some new program to actually get you the visas that you need, even though we do have those relationships with other countries like Australia and other places where we have a close relationship, we have a close relationship with South Korea. It would make sense to have the same thing. We just don't have it. So there was kind of a tacit understanding of, just come in, just do what you need to do, no one's gonna do anything. And instead they're intentionally, summarily rounded up and intentionally humiliated in this regard. It's utter insanity. I mean, it truly is. And I do wonder, is this a Stephen Miller special? Is this the local ICE agent? Like, where does this come from the fact that it's being released from sort of the top, in terms of the video release tells me that someone pretty high up the chain must have greenlit this and must have embraced it. And it makes absolutely no sense. And I do think that Trump increasingly has kind of outsourced various pieces of his presidency to different aides, Stephen Miller being a very important one of them. So, you know, likely to me, I feel like it was, you know, Stephen Miller putting his xenophobia over any other.
- [13:00]
Sagar
Sort of goal, maybe that's possible. And, you know, I want to be clear. I'm not defending visa fraud or any of that. We just did a segment yesterday you did about tourist visas, you know, for the GHF and any of that.
- [13:11]
Krystal
So I don't think any of these guys were carrying fully automatic weapons.
- [13:14]
Sagar
I'm more just saying in general, like, I don't support visa fraud. I do think, though, that this demonstrates the lack of seriousness. South Korea is the sixth or seventh largest trading partner of the United States, seventh in goods and services. It is hands down behind Japan, the most important US Ally in the east, in East Asia. It is a government vital. It is a country vital to US national security interests, if you believe in the pivot to Asia, or if you believe, basically, if you believe in US Power projection and good relations that want to make sure that we are not totally at China's whim. Well, this all fits to me with the Chinese national parade, you know, the military parade covered earlier. And one of the most important parts of that parade was a South Korean delegation which actually shook hands with Kim Jong Un at the behest of the Chinese. And it was done specifically to show a demonstration by the Koreans that, yes, we will be willing to work with China. We accept some of the primacy of China in the region on top of our commitment here to the United States. Now, of course, you know, it's a vital US Ally. There's thousands of United States troops present in Korea. We are literally, you know, fought and died together. So this is a country which is united with us in blood and, you know, to treat their nationals like this, not only in terms of the manufacturing piece, but also it's just the sheer lack of respect for the country. I mean, again, you know, Koreans who are present, you know, the Korean media is like, hey, there's a lot of you guys over here. What happened? If we just started rounding all of you up, it's like, oh, you think a lot of these wives of service members and others here are all have perfect visa status. Maybe we should all start looking into it. I mean, that is the level of outrage that we have actually inspired again in a very friendly nation to the United States of America, which creates and wants to create jobs here, which is, I mean, it's a good trading partner. I could go on forever about some of the people who have really ripped us off here, but this is people creating an extremely high quality product in the United States sells well. And it also kind of shows you the problem with a lot of our manufacturing plants because all of them basically rely on. And everything I've heard from, you know, tsmc, for example, is building that giant plant down in Arizona. And here's the truth that they tell you. They go, look, you guys don't have the expertise. So a lot of our guys, they're going to have to come over for at least a year or two, at the very least, to try and train you up because you just don't know what we're doing. This is one of the most highly specialized types of manufacturing in the world. I'm not exaggerating. If a single human hair gets into the facility improperly, it can shut down the entire thing. That's what chip manufacturing looks like. There's a high, high, high, high level of expertise that I cannot stress enough, which they have perfected and which they are genuinely the experts on. So for them to be not only mistreated, but to also show them that the level of seriousness and deference that they will not get as a united, as people trying to invest in America, what message is that sending to them, to Japan, to all of these other countries which are genuinely trying again to do the right thing. They're terrified. I can tell you that they are terrified of actions like this.
- [16:28]
Krystal
Just imagine if it was, you know, Americans who were at like building a Ford plant, you know, in some foreign country and they're rounded up in that way. I mean, we would be horrified. Like, we would be justifiably like, what the hell is wrong with you?
- [16:43]
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- [17:41]
Asma Khalid
America is changing and so is the world.
- [17:45]
Tristan Redman
But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [17:53]
Asma Khalid
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.
- [17:56]
Tristan Redman
Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global story.
- [18:00]
Asma Khalid
Every weekday we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.
- [18:05]
Tristan Redman
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [18:12]
Today Show Promo
A new NFL season means a fresh start and fresh styles. @nflshop.com you'll find the latest jerseys, hats and sideline gear to rep your team all season long. From rookies making their debut to legends, NFLShop.com has it all. Score exclusive styles you won't find anywhere else and show up ready for every kickoff and big play fan like a pro and shop now@nflshop.com.
- [18:42]
Krystal
Even if it's not some super high tech process, different companies just have different ways of doing things. So if it's a Hyundai factory, yeah, you're gonna need people who are like familiar with that process to help set it up and establish the procedures. And all of like this is all very logical. And interestingly, Trump, when he was asked about it, seem to understand the sort of basic logic of this, which makes it all the more perplexing of why the hell this even happened. Let's go ahead and play A four.
- [19:08]
Mike Johnson
It's a battery factory in that case, as I'm told. And you know, when they're building batteries, if you don't have people in this country right now that know about batteries, maybe we should help them along and let some people come in and train our people to do, you know, complex things when they whether it's battery manufacturing or computer manufacturing or building ships. So we're going to look at that whole situation. We have a lot of industries that we don't have anymore and we're going to have to train people. And the way you train people is bring people in that know what they're doing and let them stay for a little while and help. So I'm going to look at that. It's a very interesting situation that took place. Is it training the relationship with Korea? No, we have a great relationship, relationship with South Korea. Really good relationship. You know, we just made a trade deal.
- [19:57]
Krystal
What do you make of that, Sagar?
- [19:59]
Sagar
Yeah, we have a great relationship. Sure. That's news to, you know, the Koreans never agree on anything. The only thing they can agree on right now in their own country. Screw the United States. I just, I can't get over this because together, Sagar, we are certainly. And you know, you have to think about in grand strategic terms. In the last month, literally you have three high profile diplomatic failures on the part of the usa. Number one is Russia, where we have Putin over here. We have the summit. We get nothing out of it. In fact, they just launched one of the largest attacks in I think believe in the history of the war in Ukraine on the city of Kiev. And they included, I believe, bombing one of their main government buildings. Putin flies to the Chinese military parade and stands in solidarity with Xi Modi. You know, we slap India with 50% tariffs. Modi says, all right, fine, let's go. Game on. I've got a lot of options. He attends a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. He stands with Xi Jinping. He tweets pictures of the limo with Vladimir Putin. Kim Jong Un, by the way, who at one point had diplomatic relations with the United States, which I supported. I thought it was great. He included at the Chinese military parade. South Korea sends a delegation there. So I am including South Korea, North Korea, Russia and now China, you know, as well, which very clearly is sending a major message to America. We can be a better to the world. I mean, we can be a better partner to you. We won't lecture you and abuse you. You can do whatever you want. And you know, that's not a great set of rules necessarily, if you want to live by. But for a lot of those people, they, all they see from us is hypocrisy. They see stupidity with the Chinese. They see, at the very least, there's no hypocrisy, right? They're not going to lecture them on human rights or war or anything. They don't care. They're like, how can we do business? And you know, so there's, we've lost not only the, not only the, you know, the sheen of America. And look, I think there's often a talking point like, oh, we're losing the world. Like people's citizens are against us. That's kind of been true for a long time. But obviously millions of billions of people still want to come here. This is about our government's relations with other governments and what it means for the future. Each of these moves has been designed basically to antagonize critical U.S. allies, which, if you just look from a picture of the globe, you would want to have on your side, as 50% of global GDP arises in Asia. And then who are the countries that are getting the red carpet? Israel and apparently Ukraine, too, by the way. So what are we doing here? I mean, this is the literal opposite of the vision that was allegedly sold, you know, under the 2024 campaign. And I know it's in direct contravention, not only of the things that they said, but of the genuine beliefs of so many of the people who work in the Trump administration. The India fallout might be the most single and consequential, but the Korean one, I. You cannot just walk away from this like, this is a lit. This is a major incident in Korea. Go and use Google Translate. It's not hard, all right? You can go and look at it for yourself. How they're reporting all this. It's big. It's big in the country. They're not gonna forget. And I do think that this will have a big impact on our relations over the next decade.
- [23:25]
Krystal
Well, and this is the perfect story to encapsulate the way that those foreign relationships matter here, because to your point, the whole idea, one of the things that was sold with the Trump administration as well was, oh, we're gonna have this manufacturing renaissance, and that's what the tariffs are about, blah, blah, blah. First of all, that's failing anyway. We've had 78,000 manufacturing jobs lost since the beginning of the year. In the last month. We just got the jobs report on Friday, which was really poor, and in which we lost another 12,000 manufacturing jobs. So we're already going in the wrong direction where all of that is concerned. And then, yeah, if companies feel like they're not going to be able to build plants, if they feel like their workers are going to be humiliated, they're not going to be able to operate. Not exactly a big encourager of investing in America, creating jobs here, rebuilding the manufacturing base. So these relationships that can sound very sort of squishy when you're talking about them in an abstract can have real tangible impacts on people's lives, on jobs, on employment. And that's why I think this story encapsulates that sort of intersection between what we're doing abroad, our relationships with these countries, and what it means for people here at home. Really quick, just as a mention, because we've actually got Weigel standing by, and I want to bring him in to talk about Zoran and abundance and national conservatism and all the rest. But there was a significant scotus. I don't even know if you call this a decision. It was a shadow docket decision. You can put this up on the screen. A5. They lifted the restrictions on LA immigration stops that have been imposed by a lower court. So effectively, the lower court said, what you're doing is tantamount to racial profiling, and you can't do it. You can't just detain people or stop and frisk them effectively based on what they look like or whether they're around a job area that you think is high in immigrants. And the Supreme Court, without giving any sort of window into their thinking, their logic, lifted that restriction. And Sagra, this is very consistent with a pattern we have seen with this supreme court under Trump 2.0, where kind of quietly, I don't know if this has gotten as much attention as it should, the Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration on the shadow docket something like 16, 17 separate times. They've mostly been, I mean, just racking up victories. And the reason it's called the shadow docket is because, as in this instance, it's not a ruling on the merits. So it's not like you get this long brief, here's our thinking and here's what it means, blah, blah, blah. It's not a final decision on it, but in the meantime, they're lifting the injunction, and so the Trump administration can do what they want. We've seen similar things with regard to, like, the ability to fire whoever they want without giving cause at these agencies that are supposed to be independent. We've seen similar things with regard to, you know, they basically dismantled the Department of Education. Previously, you would have assumed that seems like something that Congress has to do, not the executive. Well, the court has allowed that to go forward, and so it truly has allowed the Trump administration to consolidate a massive amount of power without us getting any real logic or reasoning from the Supreme Court about how they're thinking through these things or whether even they would rule ultimately on the merits in this direction. So this is just the latest in what has been an extraordinary series of victories for the Trump administration with the Supreme Court.
- [26:49]
Sagar
Yeah, you're right. To explain on the shadow docket, it's a bit complicated, like you said, because they did not rule on the merits. It was Justice Kavanaugh writing, I believe, for the majority it was 6:3 to come through on the shadow docket to allow the injunction to be lifted without ruling on eventually. It is also a consequence of a lot of the like extraordinary like legal action and extraordinary behavior that's been taken on the part of the Trump administration, but it's certainly something to watch.
- [27:20]
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- [28:19]
Asma Khalid
America is changing and so is the world.
- [28:23]
Tristan Redman
But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [28:31]
Asma Khalid
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.
- [28:34]
Tristan Redman
Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global story.
- [28:37]
Asma Khalid
Every weekday we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.
- [28:43]
Tristan Redman
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [28:50]
Today Show Promo
A new NFL season means a fresh start and fresh styles. @nflshop.com you'll find the latest jerseys, hats and sideline gear to rep your team all season long. From rookies making their debut to legends, NFLShop.com has it all. Score exclusive styles you won't find anywhere else and show up ready for every kickoff and big play. Fan like a pro and shop now@nflshop.com.
- [29:20]
Sagar
Okay, turning now to Epstein, some extraordinary new information being released by the House Oversight Committee. You'll all remember the story about the so called birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein, which included a letter allegedly from Donald Trump. The White House claimed that it was a forgery, that it was a fake, that it didn't exist. The Wall Street Journal was actually sued Rupert Murdoch and others by Donald Trump personally for defamation, claiming that no such letter ever existed. They said that they never even showed them the letter. Well, the letter has now been released to the House Oversight Committee. It is part of several pages now released by the Oversight Committee from the so called birthday book directly from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. So let's make that very clear. This was from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. This so called birthday book that was compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell has a lot of other luminaries and other interesting people, but the allegation from the White House now is that it's a fake letter which was actually planted in the Epstein estate, I guess from the year 2003 and since that time has bubbled up that forgery to where we are right now. So just presenting that and we'll get to some of the White House denials in a second. But let's take a look at the letter, which was described for us only by the Wall Street Journal. Let's go and put B4, please, up on the screen so you can all see it now for yourself. There it is. And I'll remind you kind of the weird cryptic poem that was written there in typeface. VOICEOVER There must be more to life than having everything. DONALD yes, there is. But I won't tell you what it is. JEFFREY Nor will I, since I know what it is. DONALD we have certain things in common, Jeffrey. JEFFREY yes, we do. Come to think of it, Donald enigmas never age. Have you noticed that? JEFFREY As a matter of fact, it was clear to me since the last time I saw you. You, Donald, a pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday. May every day be another wonderful secret. Donald J. Trump with a signature there listed. So B5, please, just to go and show everybody the initial understanding and statement from the White House is quote, time to News Corp to open that checkbook. It's not his signature. Defamation in all caps. That is from Taylor Buttowich. He is the deputy White House chief of staff and a cabaret secretary there over at the White House. A little bit of an issue though, because in the New York Times story in the Wall Street Journal, they've actually released other side by side photos of Trump's signature from that time period and they do appear to look very similar. So not a signature expert, obviously, or any of that. You can judge it all for yourselves. But certainly some of the story about how allegedly this is a fake doesn't pass some of the smell tests, considering that it does come from the Epstein estate itself. By the way, in terms of who leaked this, it's very interesting originally because Crystal, some Of the things that have now come out from the Epstein estate that were released by the House Oversight Committee appear to actually have been a part of some exhibits in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. So that birthday book has probably had access both by US prosecutors and the FBI, some since 2019, but also obviously available to the Ghislaine Maxwell legal team. So still lots of speculation as to who originally leaked, but we can all go read it for ourselves. I was reading some of it this morning. It's unbelievably creepy. And this is like, I'm taking Trump out of this. Trump was one of many included with lewd and creepy disgusting messages from literally some of the world's richest, most powerful people. They're all writing in some sort of secret code. We have little children, cartoon drawings. I mean, I'm not exaggerating. Emily and I will fully go through some of the stuff, stuff tomorrow. But obviously the headline here is specifically about Trump and his denial. And as part of the reason why, you know, immediately they started saying that all the Epstein files themselves were a hoax. But you can see here the story's not going away and it's becoming more inconvenient for the White House and for everybody else who has touched this man over the years.
- [33:27]
Krystal
That was an interesting choice of language there at the end.
- [33:29]
Sagar
I used it correctly.
- [33:31]
Krystal
Well, with regard to who leaked it, I mean, it is worth noting that since Ghislaine Maxwell got her little cushy move to her low security club Fed and she had her nice little conversation with the Deputy ag, we haven't gotten any more leaks now, have we? So that is an interesting thing to note. Can we put the B4 back up on the screen? Because many people are noting this did not look the way that we expected it to look. It is even more disturbing to see in person. And I thought that there's sort of an assumption when you think of like a grown man drawing a female shape, you expect giant boobs. That's what I'm trying to say. Now, listen, I appreciate the inclusivity of the small breasted woman community, okay? However, many are also pointing out this actually looks like a prepubescent girl. So when you have the President of the United States States writing in this creepy ass code about the secrets they have in common and enigmas, et cetera, may every day be another wonderful secret. On this image, it is very hard to come up with what an innocent explanation of what he is referring to is. Especially Sager, to your point, when you put it in context, of the rest of the book, which is. Is fucking disgusting. Can put B8 up on the screen to give you a little taste of what we're talking about in this book. You can see here a cartoon drawing of Jeffrey Epstein handing balloons to little girls in the year they say 1983. And then in 2003, the present day, him receiving massage from girls who are unclothed or barely clothed. And it says, what a great country. So seemingly a cartoon depiction of his grooming.
- [35:31]
Sagar
Literally, I mean, it's a literal cartoon version of grooming, including one of the girls with a je. Tattoo on the face.
- [35:38]
Krystal
Oh, I didn't. Didn't even notice that one on her ass. Yeah, and I mean, if you look at all of these, many of them are indecipherable because they are all speaking in this weird, like eyes wide shut code. So the impression you come away with is a whole friend group of extremely powerful and wealthy individuals. Les Wexner has his contribution in here. Many others besides, who all know what's going on and are at the very least aware, if not directly participating. That is very much the impression you come away from if you spend five minutes looking at this disgusting book.
- [36:12]
Sagar
Yeah, look, it's all public. You can all go read it for yourselves. I encourage you to do. I mean, we'll just pick the craziest image tomorrow. I'll actually collate some others. By the way, some other interesting information that we can connect. We also have the Trump one that you mentioned. B7, please, we can put on the screen. This just goes to show, you know, the kind of the crass nature that all these guys were talking to each other. So here it appeared to be some check, like one of those large novelty checks for $22,500 signed by somebody who signs a DJ Trump for to Jeffrey Epstein. And the letter that was written is Jeffre showing early talents with many women sells quote fully depreciated blank to Donald Trump for $22,500. Showed early people skills too. Presumably in both of these cases, Michael Wolf has pointed to the fact that Epstein and Trump shared a girlfriend, which may be their wonderful secret and. Or their enigma, slash the depreciation. But this is the tone that they're using. Yeah, and that's kind of what I want to highlight is that every person in his orbit, just very obvious, was in on the quote, secret. And look, I mean, many of these girls, like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, in some cases they're pointing to like 18 to 22 year olds, which is Creepy legal. But you know, there is a children's section actually of the book with handwritten notes, literally from children, including one of what appears to be a teenage girl of literally just photos of her like playing the piano. I mean, very, very disgusting to be included in the, in the birth book. I don't know if it was submitted by a parent. I don't know what it is. But like handwritten stuff also written to him in crayon and other types of drawings. So I mean, I don't even have words.
- [38:08]
Krystal
Yeah.
- [38:08]
Sagar
For all of this. It is really, really gross.
- [38:11]
Krystal
It's disturbing. It's so disturbing.
- [38:14]
Sagar
It connects to the political story as well as the Republicans kind of scramble on how exactly to respond to this. My personal favorite was a new claim name by speaker of the House Mike Johnson that Trump was actually an FBI informant on Jeffrey Epstein. Let's play B1, guys. Take a listen.
- [38:34]
Mike Johnson (continued)
He's not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It's a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar A Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down. The President knows and has great sympathy for the women who have suffered these unspeakable harms. It's detestable to him. He and I have spoken about this as recently as 24 hours ago.
- [38:52]
Sagar
That's an extraordinary claim that Trump was an FBI informant. We have not yet ever seen a single document or, you know, a release from the White House about that. By the way, remember, Trump himself said that he was mad at Jeffrey for stealing somebody from the massage or what do you say? From the spa, which we believe is Virginia Giuffre, who is one of the individuals who said she was.
- [39:13]
Krystal
He was asked about it and he said, yeah, I believe so. He said, I believe that's who I'm about talking, talking about.
- [39:18]
Sagar
Okay, so you know, he said it. All right, I'm just taking that away. He's never mentioned being an FBI informant. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, he.
- [39:25]
Krystal
Was a white hat pedophile. Actually.
- [39:27]
Sagar
It's like what? Like B2, please. Because Mike Johnson is now saying, guys, I misspoke actually about that. Let's take a listen.
- [39:35]
Mike Johnson
What did you mean by.
- [39:38]
Mike Johnson (continued)
What I was referring to in that long conversation was what the victim is attorney said. More than a decade ago, President Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar A Lago and he was one of the only people, one of the only prominent people, as everyone has reported, not President Trump, but everybody about him that he was willing to help law enforcement go after this guy who was a disgusting child abuser, sex trafficker, all the allegations, that's what they heard. So the President was helpful in that? I don't know if I use the right terminology, but that's common knowledge, and everybody knows that. So this is much ado about nothing.
- [40:13]
Sagar
Did the President tell you this specifically about his involvement?
- [40:17]
Mike Johnson (continued)
I was recounting what others have said. The President and I have talked about the Epstein Eagles many times. He's as disgusted by it as everybody else. He has long had a history of acknowledging that, and he has said repeatedly he wants everything to come out, all credible information, everything for the American public to decide it.
- [40:34]
Sagar
Was he ever asked to wear a wire or anything like that?
- [40:36]
Mike Johnson (continued)
I have no idea. No, I'm not saying that. I have no information about that whatsoever. I was repeating what has been common knowledge for a long time. The President was helpful in trying to get Epstein for law enforcement. That's always been my understanding. That's common knowledge. It's the public's understanding. I was not breaking news there.
- [40:56]
Sagar
Okay, well, common knowledge. Not to me. And I follow this thing pretty damn closely, don't I? And it literally sounds so. Look, apparently this all stems from the attorney, Brad Edwards, who, quote, confirmed that Trump had offered helpful information during the investigation. But that is a basically side quote from the Epstein victim lawyer. I don't even know what he's referring to. There's no detail or any of that. And Mike Johnson spinned it into some sort of, like, grand gesture. But look broadly, I mean. I mean, I think what this needs to fit into is every time that you think you know, because everyone knows to a certain extent. Oh, of course. Everybody knew around him, knew. But to see it in the cartoon, in the way that these guys all talk to him, it's really sickening. And especially when I pair it. Look, I mean, the pedophile stuff and all the other, and the creepy grooming behavior, et cetera, that Epstein was up to, that's the most salacious part. And that's kind of what everybody focuses on, on. But the part that I focus on is his connections to power, which enabled potentially, you know, the sweetheart deal of 2007. And the heart of it is all in the money and potentially in intelligence connections which remain, you know, totally unexplored by the vast majority of the mainstream media. To their credit, they did actually publish a new investigation here. Can we put B3 up there? I highly recommend everybody go and read this, because this is really what I've been talking about now for several months about the Epstein case. This is the heart of all of it. The New York Times expose B3 please to put it up there on the screen. And what we learn from it is just the. And look, a lot of this was already public. So you know, I knew not much of this was new information to me. But they kind of put it all together and it's quote, how JP Morgan enabled the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. It details. People have heard me reference before the Department of Financial Services Fine. Of Deutsche bank previously and their relationship to Epstein. But the central character is this guy, Jess Staley, former CEO of Barclays, a JP Morgan executive previously who worked hand in glove with Epstein over the years. I mean Epstein was just enormously influential at this bank. He got away with stuff that nobody, not even high net worth individual people are getting away with hundreds of millions of dollars. They process nearly a billion dollars in transactions in and out of his account. He's withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. He's wiring the globe for human trafficking purposes. According to their own internal review. J.P. morgan executives and others who work on a human trafficking squad are like, we need to shut this down. And they're like, no. And the reason why is, you know, at certain points Epstein is enormously influential to introducing them to the highest and most powerful people in the world, including BB Netanyahu. I've, I've released that email before and for reference. But you know, they reference it here at one point. You know, the. Jess Staley is like, hey, we were able to secure a meeting with Netanyahu. This is by the way, after Epstein has been convicted or has had the 2007 non prosecution agreement that he, you know, pleads guilty to. And Epstein is like, surprise, surprise, you know, basically saying that he brokered the meeting. Obviously that also includes his previous relationship with the Israeli Prime Minister Eoud Barak, which is well known and which we have explored here on this show. But this is the heart of everything. And I want to give a shout out to Senator Ron Wyden who has been at the forefront of this and talking about the suspicious activity reports and other documents that are held right now by the Treasury Department. This is the heart of the real Epstein story. Where the money come from? Who is he sending it to? For what purposes? Why did Leon Black pay him $170 million? Why? Nobody can answer that question seriously. And it's the, it's the unexplored nature that potentially holds the key to this entire thing.
- [44:48]
Krystal
Yeah, Wexner had an entry in the birthday book. He said, I wanted to give you, you know, what you wanted for the book for your birthday. And he drew a picture of some, some boobs. So that's, that was his contribution. It could go deeper with Jess Daly too, who. There were many people at JP Morgan who ultimately protected Epstein. I don't wanna say it was just this one dude, but this one dude was one of the. If not, he was central influential. And we've also talked about this on the show previously. These emails between them were revealed. Let me read you the relevant section from the New York Times. They say Staley emailed Epstein while sipping white wine in the hot tub on the island. Quote, next time we're here together, he wrote, I owe you much. Other messages were littered with apparent sexual references. That was fun. Say hi to Snow White. Staley emailed in 2010. Epstein responded by asking which character he would like next. Beauty and the Beast, Staley answered. So it could be that, you know, certainly part of how Epstein is allowed to remain a JP Morgan customer even after, you know, the, all, all of his transactions are being flagged and even after the non prosecution agreement where he starts time in prison, whatever, is because of the money that he's bringing in, he's introducing them to Netanyahu, he's introducing them to Elon Musk, all of these big business deals, Bill Gates, et cetera, that's certainly part of it. But part of it could also be what did Epstein know about Staley, what activities was he involved in? And that could have been part of the modus operandi. And certainly Epstein's collecting of these powerful people, that was another thing is they would say to each other internally within the bank, well, if all these rich and powerful people trust him, then who are we to throw him out on the street? So that actively was used as a protection mechanism. Lastly, just to go back to the Republican Party, the Mike Johnson thing, which is wild, it strikes me as just, they're so desperate to get out from under this to somehow Jiu Jitsu this into like Trump is actually the good guy here somehow, even though he's longtime friends with Epstein and we've got this birthday book thing and he won't release the files and we know his name's in the files. All of this stuff, they're just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. So Mike Johnson put this thing out here. People were like, what are you talking about? That's ridiculous. And then he had to be, oh, I misspoke. I didn't mean it that way. Okay, Mr. Speaker of the House, you don't know what it means to be an FBI informant. Sure. But we also need to recall the way JD Vance originally responded to the birthday book revelations. He was not the only one, but he went particularly hard in the paint can put B up on the screen. This is when the first Wall Street Journal story came out that just described the birthday book. And he says, forgive my language. This story is complete and utter bullshit. The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed for publishing it. Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump? They went hard on this story. Sager, as you'll recall, at the time, adamant that the this was fake, that it was a forgery, that the letter doesn't exist, et cetera. And now we have it. We can all see it with our eyes. And they're desperately trying to go with this. Well, that's not his real signature. It's just unbelievable the way they will lie to people and think that you are so dumb that you will actually believe that this was all invented and it's a plant and it was Hillary or Comey or whatever. And it's just wild to me the brazen nature of the way they will lie and spin and obfuscate and grasp, grasp at straws in order to make not just this story, but any story that's uncomfortable for them go away.
- [48:22]
Sagar
There's only one defense, and it's not a good one, is that they shared a 22 year old legal but creepy girlfriend and that's what all the things were about. And he was aware of it and he was connected to him for many years. And then they fell out over a stolen spa employee and who he then groomed. And you know, according to Virginia Giuffre, you know, obviously was abusive, used for many years. Not exactly a tale of white knight. Exactly. And so, you know, they have to resort their, their highest and best defense is just to release everything because then you're just one of many people kind of caught up in the web. And we can look for all sorts of connections that may or may not just include Donald Trump, but include everybody. But, you know, that's the, that's the tack that they've chosen. A lot of people can see through it. A lot of people who are interested in this story are extremely fed up with the Trump administration's handling it. And they should be. They absolutely should be.
- [49:27]
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- [50:27]
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- [50:57]
Krystal
Ah come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient.
- [51:01]
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- [51:15]
Krystal
Whoa, this thing moves.
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- [51:35]
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