← Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files
Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files
Q&A: Global financial crash, Trump's Mamdani meeting & pardon for Netanyahu?
00:20:25
Loading summary
Transcript46 lines
- [00:03]
Christiane Amanpour
This is a Global Player original podcast.
- [00:06]
Jamie Rubin
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Q and A episode of the X Files with me, Christiane Amanpour and Jamie Rubin. And this is where we answer your questions. So we're going to get started. Joshua, on email, wants to know what do you think about Netanyahu requesting a pardon from Israel's president? He says it would be in the public interest. Is there any merit to that argument?
- [00:25]
Christiane Amanpour
Well, actually there is merit to that.
- [00:27]
Jamie Rubin
Argument, provided he resigns and, and never enters politics again.
- [00:31]
Christiane Amanpour
Yes, this issue came about because he was under criminal investigation. A trial began and he claimed he couldn't resign his office even though he was responsible and in power when October 7th happened. And that has never been fully adjudicated, investigated and examined and considered the consequences. And he said that he, you know, was being falsely accused and this was taking up too much time and blah, blah, blah. And the idea came frankly first, was discussed by various people who wanted to see Israel change its policies for the better so they didn't have this terrible government. Remember what this is about is he's got, he's cobbled together a coalition of the worst elements of Israeli society in a government where the people in charge of the west bank are people who want to annex the west extreme, want to annex the W.E. west Bank. And so he said he couldn't resign because of this criminal investigation. So I would say if the president of Israel wants to pardon him, provided he resigns and doesn't enter public life and eliminates this, this charge, fine, let's move on. Let's have Israel move on from the Netanyahu era. It's going to happen. I firmly believe that all the politicians in Israel are sick and tired of Bibi Netanyahu, whether they agree with him or not. And they're going to get together in this next election, which is going to happen in the next year. But let's get it over, move on from the Netanyahu era, have a caretaker government, go to elections and move on. So this is a, it is in the national interest to pardon Netanyahu if he resigns.
- [02:11]
Jamie Rubin
Well, I don't know about that, but certainly you need to also get him off the, out of the picture if you want to have the US backed two state solution, the EU backed, the world backed two state solution, the Arab backed two state solution, and to move the whole area on from this state of war. And in terms of, as you said, all the Israeli politicians, from whatever strides I had, Prime Minister, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on my program. He said the same thing. We are all going to make sure that this next election, you know, is not one that produces such an extreme version of Israeli politics. So you ask the next one then.
- [02:48]
Christiane Amanpour
CAROLINE ON EMAIL I'm worried by all the talk of a global financial crash. If there is one, what impact do you think this would have on global geopolitics?
- [02:58]
Jamie Rubin
I'm worried too, Caroline, and to be honest with you, this is not my forte, so I'm probably not the best person to ask this question to. But I am reading all these scary stories about how the world is not yet probably taking into account that there are some of the same worrying indicators out there that preceded the 2008 crash. And then everybody else is talking about an AI bubble crash and this and that. So I am, I am worried because nobody's really talking about it.
- [03:25]
Christiane Amanpour
Well, look, it's always important to realize that the financial system has fragility in it, and it's particularly fragile when you have all these crazy new questions being raised about tariffs and billions of dollars having to go back and forth. But I do believe that our central bankers work very, very hard at making sure there is underlying stability. But bubbles happen in capitalist societies. It's one of the downsides of capitalism. I'm a strong believer in capitalism, but you have guard rails, you have to have regulation, you have to have financial regulation so that these speculators, particularly perhaps this whole era of, you know, Bitcoin and that type of money that's not based on the dollar and all of that stuff gets into play. And so it would have a huge impact on geopolitics because, remember, for better or worse, the United States stability and security and confidence in the US Dollar is one of the things that makes the world function properly and the economic system fun properly. And if that confidence is lost, you know, we've seen what happens when people suddenly all at once get scared and they start to behave in ways that seem rational to them, but taken together cause financial crashes to get worse. And that's where you need leaders who can use their authority, authenticity and confidence to bring stability to countries, to help people as, as Franklin Roosevelt did in the greatest depression. We had, the, the depression of the 20s and 30s where he said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Sometimes fear in these situations is precisely what makes it worse and multiplies the danger. So we need confidence, politicians who inspire confidence, not fear. And unfortunately, in too much of the world right now, we have confidence. We don't have confidence, we have fear exactly can't have fear, fear no fear, contagious bumper sticker. All right, I'll ask you this one. Linda in Toronto, I enjoyed your episode on the end of the Bosnian war. However, you did not mention Tony Blair's input in this situation. I forgot the exact details. But is he not lauded by the Albanians and wasn't his relationship with Clinton a factor in Britain's involvement?
- [05:45]
Jamie Rubin
Christiane, I am going to answer and then you can answer. Well, the fact is, Linda, that Tony Blair wasn't in office, had not been elected in at the end of the Bosnia war, which took place in 1995. But when he was elected in 1997, he did get involved with President Clinton in figuring out how to do the best they possibly could for Kosovo. And yes, he is lauded by the Albanians. And I will just add that he then went on to help resolve the terrible civil war in Sierra Leone. Nobody else wanted to do it. It was a former British, I guess, colony. And he did actually do it very importantly. And we also know what he did with with Clinton to end the Northern Ireland war, too, the Good Friday agreement. But Jamie, you talk about him in Kosovo.
- [06:33]
Christiane Amanpour
So note, Tony Blair wasn't involved in Bosnia, as Christian pointed out. But Kosovo, he was crucial. Remember, Kosovo was done more quickly and was done more effectively than Bosnia because we stopped the war early. We prevented a genocide. And I think Tony Blair's partnership with Bill Clinton was absolutely crucial in keeping NATO together. We forget this now because it seems hard to believe, but during those 78 days of war in Kosovo, it was a shaky thing. Many, many Americans and many, many Europeans thought we had made a terrible mistake in caring about the Albanians enough to go to war, that it wasn't worth the trouble, that Milosevic wasn't going to capitulate, and that we were going to have to go in on the ground. Now, here's where Tony Blair's role was important. Although often frustrating, Tony Blair was willing and said he was willing publicly and therefore raised the question of using ground forces midway through the war, say 45 days, 50 days in, and there was a whole discussion created between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair about the ground force and should it be deployed and when should it be deployed. And it may be that that helped end the war because Milosevic realized that if the air didn't work, the ground war was coming. But Bill Clinton didn't want to hear that then he had made a decision to launch the air war on the assumption that it would be sufficient. And it was sufficient. But for a time there, it was a question mark. The threat of a ground war was something Tony Blair was definitely part of and insisted on and I think probably contributed. And I think between the two of them, they really, really changed the world. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In fact, The Economist magazine 25 years later said that they regarded that moment in history in 1999 as the height of European civilization because the European leaders had gotten together and done something for the right reasons and in the right way and achieved an objective, prevented a genocide and helped birth a successful democracy.
- [08:43]
Jamie Rubin
Called Kosovo Independent nation. And I would just say if anybody is thinking about how Milosevic finally did get word that he needed to back down and stop, it was, I think, definitely the threat of ground forces. It was the continued air campaign against, you know, Serbian positions and Serbian forces. And it was also the former Finnish president Mattia Tassari and the former Russian Prime Minister Chernobyrdin, who went together to tell Milosevic the gig's up, stop this. And I think that was a really powerful one, too. And that's the kind of thing that needs to happen. If there's anybody possible who can say that to Putin, but they did to Milosevic, and that is what got him to stop.
- [09:30]
Christiane Amanpour
All right, your next question.
- [09:32]
Jamie Rubin
This is from Gregory on Instagram, who wants to know about the White House meeting between Trump and Mamdani that was last week. Do you think it's possible that maybe Trump's team told him to play this part? If so, what would their motivation have been? And do you think he listens to his advisors? All good questions?
- [09:50]
Christiane Amanpour
Yeah. I don't know precisely the relationship between Trump and his advisors, but I have a view on this. Donald Trump, for all his flaws, and there are many loves New York City. It's where he grew up. And he cares about New York City and he feels connected to New York City. And as Christiane pointed out in last week's episode, he likes to be associated with a winner. And Mamdani was a big winner. He won the mayoral election. And he also cares about New York. So the through line to me here is the love, the almost unconditional love of New York City that both men have. And I think that made this meeting unusual, unique. And it turned out to be a great thing. They met, they talked about New York City. Trump surprised everyone by being supportive of Mamdani, surprised everyone by not telling again and again everything about Trump that he didn't like. And they chuckled in a few places when hard questions were asked. And I think this was a sign that when men in power. These two men cooperate and have a joint motivation that they can put politics aside. Whether that will last, I have my doubts. I'm not sure it will. But Donald Trump loves New York and Mayor Mamdani loves New York and I love New York.
- [11:09]
Jamie Rubin
And I'm just going to say this love and love and love and love is a little bit too schmaltzy for me. I'm sure everybody loves New York, but I think there was some cold, hard politics from Mamdani's side anyway. He did not want to be sworn in on January 1st and have the National Guard be sent in by Trump as he was threatening before to greet his first day in office. He does not want President Trump reducing any further any federal funds for New York and Trump, I guess I'm not quite sure, but I think that he also probably, as I said before, I think it was a masterclass on confounding the expectations. Everybody expected to be a blow up. I don't know why, but the conventional wisdom in Washington is often wrong and it was wrong this time. And I thought that it was a really interesting moment of political theater. And as you say, though, we'll see how it pans out in the future.
- [12:10]
BambooHR Advertiser
When you're an HR pro facing a furious frenzy of tasks and challenges, don't sweat it because it's all bamboo able.
- [12:16]
Jamie Rubin
What?
- [12:16]
BambooHR Advertiser
What Able, you ask? Bambooable. Bamboohr combines oodles of power and a knack for making HR easier so that everything's bambooable. Just name it. Payroll, that's bambooable. Hiring, onboarding, both. Bambooable.
- [12:30]
Christiane Amanpour
Hello, good to meet you.
- [12:32]
BambooHR Advertiser
Performance management, that's bambooable. So if you're losing sleep over compliance, that's bamboo able. Or you're hiring a few dozen people in Ireland, that's bamboo able. Or you want to join our thousands of customers who reported saving an average of over $46,000 a year with BambooHR. That's bambooable too. Whatever people problem, data difficulty or growing pain you have, they're all bamboo able. Want a hundred dollar gift card just for trying a free demo even that's bambooable. All you have to do is visit bamboohr.com giftcard easy as that. That's bambooable. That's bamboohr.
- [13:15]
Christiane Amanpour
So Rachel on email asks, by boycotting the recent G20 summit in South Africa, Trump sends a clear message of disregard to Africa, particularly South Africa. Could this snub drive the continent towards Russia and China?
- [13:28]
Jamie Rubin
Christian it was kind of dumb. I think to boycott the G20 in South Africa was dumb. I think that why not be involved when you could be. What is the value added to being a bit player? I think, you know, President Cyril Ramaphosa said very clearly that, that it's too bad for them because we're all here trying to do all these important things and we're all pretty united on it and we're talking about pretty much most of the consequential powers of the world. I will say, though, Trump did throw a spanner in the works because that G20 was disrupted by President Trump's so called 28 point plan for Ukraine, which exploded all over the place that very weekend. All the world leaders, particularly the NATO leaders, had to pretty much break off from their G20 stuff and huddle to figure out how to respond to Trump and Witkoff and Putin. And that's when they started to pull back essentially Russia's talking points that were presented as a peace plan and try to figure it out. And we're still in that process right now. So I think that, I do believe also that by ignoring Africa, you ignore a massive and important continent with one of the youngest populations in the world, with so many hotspots. I mean, in good ways, economic hotspots, cultural hotspots, financial and all the other ways that will be very, very important as our world develops. And in the absence of America being a partner in Africa, you have China and increasingly the United Arab Emirates jumping in to be partners, which I think are based mostly on, you know, resources and economics and not so much on democracy and, and helping Africans be there, you know, reach their maximum potential in ways that the world has not allowed them to up until now. And I think they're doing so much. We at CNN actually had an African summit here in London with leaders and business leaders a few weeks ago. And it was a remarkable, remarkable event because so much actual stuff happening and so much potential to be unlocked. And I think it's dumb for the US to sit it out. It's my view and I'm sticking with it.
- [15:45]
Christiane Amanpour
You stick with it. Look, the G20 is a bit of an artificial construct. It doesn't really make sense anymore because Russia's part of it, it shouldn't be part of it. Some of the picks of countries are kind of odd and it becomes just a meeting of leaders that then ends up spending its time on whatever the latest issue is. Donald wants to be the center of attention and managed to do it even by not being there, as you pointed out. But I think the basic question asked is very important and that is that the United States had developed A very, very special relationship with Africa. Obviously, black Americans came from Africa originally when they were taken as slaves. There's always been a special connection. And over the years we've spent a lot of money and effort and resources and medical work to, to save African lives with the PEPFAR program. That's the anti AIDS program. And we've been very, very successful. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has cut the, destroyed the Agency for International Development and arguably hundreds of thousands of people's lives have been destroyed or killed by it. Elon Musk is going to have a lot of explaining to do if he ever gets to the pearly gates, if you believe in that. And I think it's one of the great tragedies that all of the soft power that we built up over generations in Africa is being squandered by Donald. But that doesn't mean that Africa is, you know, just a country that's going to take. Africa has enormous things to give and not just minerals, as Christiane pointed out, culture and economic development and democracy. And when America is involved, we at least try to bring out not just the benefits of taking minerals from Africa, but also to contribute to their societies by making the place better after we've been there. That's not what China does. It's not what Russia does. Russia sends in mercenaries, they take money from dictators and they slaughter innocents through their mercenary groups. The Chinese are just interested in the money and the resources, not in democratic development or any of the important elements for Africa. So I think it's a tragedy that Trump administration has downplayed Africa so dramatically.
- [17:59]
Jamie Rubin
I just add something I heard this weekend that yes, it is a tragedy also to have ended USAID with not so much as a how is your father? I mean, literally overnight. And it has cost lives, there's no doubt about it. But I heard an alternate view, rather.
- [18:14]
A parallel view, that after so many years of international American and European relations with Africa being very paternalistic.
- [18:24]
There'S a group of people for sure who are feeling that let us now take control of our own affairs as much as we can. We've been forced into it by being cut off at the legs, at the knees by the Trump administration. Let us try to go our own way.
- [18:40]
Christiane Amanpour
They're making a virtue out of necessity. Do you want to ask the last question?
- [18:44]
Jamie Rubin
I certainly will. I am scared by Trump and would like to know if there's a democratic way of stopping him from completing his four year term. Do you think an American electorate vote of no confidence will be better than impeachment to stop this renegade president. This is by Donna on YouTube.
- [19:01]
Christiane Amanpour
Sorry, Donna, I don't think it's going to happen. I think that the Republicans in the Senate will never convict him in impeachment. And as far as I know, there's no recall election for a president the way there might be, you know, in local elections and governors and votes of no confidence in parliamentary systems. I just don't legally think there is a way in our constitutional system to have a recall or a vote of no confidence or some other way to democratically end the Trump presidency. My fellow Americans, for better or worse, and in this case worse, voted for Donald Trump as president and he's going to serve out his term. You know, and. And so that's that.
- [19:45]
Jamie Rubin
Yes, I think that one thing that some people are saying is that he's already been shown a view from the electorate and by the electorate in these past elections where along the east coast anyway? And actually, even in California, he was delivered a.
- [20:01]
What's the right word?
- [20:02]
Christiane Amanpour
An election pressing down a stinging defeat.
- [20:06]
Jamie Rubin
And many are saying that if he's not a lame duck now, he certainly will be soon. They believe that he will follow, you know, face more of these stinging. What was it? Stinging? Retaliations, defeats, whatever, in the midterms. So anyway, the voters decide. We'll see what they say. And in the meantime, keep calm and carry on. And that's it. Thank you for listening to the Q and A episode of the X Files with me, Christiane Lampour and Jamie Rubin. Of course, if you have any questions, as usual, do please find us on all major social media platforms. Our handle is at amanpod. Or email us because we are at. Well, email us@amanpod global.com now. Our next actual episode is out on Tuesday. Wherever you get your podcast, remember you can listen for free on Global Player. Download that from the App Store or go to globalplayer.com you can also watch all of our main episodes and our bonus Q and a episodes on YouTube. You just search Christiana Moncoour presents and subscribe to that channel so you never miss an episode. Over and out.
- [21:07]
Christiane Amanpour
And goodbye from New York. Over and out. Bye.
- [21:20]
BambooHR Advertiser
When you're an HR pro facing a furious frenzy of tasks and challenges, don't sweat it because it's all bamboo able. What what you ask? Bambooable. Bamboo HR combination. Combines oodles of power and a knack for making HR easier so that everything's bamboo able. Just name it. Payroll. That's Bambooable. Hiring. Onboarding.
- [21:40]
Jamie Rubin
Both.
- [21:40]
BambooHR Advertiser
Bambooble.
- [21:41]
Christiane Amanpour
Hello. Good to meet you.
- [21:42]
BambooHR Advertiser
Performance management, that's bambooable. So if you're losing sleep over compliance, that's Bamboo able. Or you're hiring a few dozen people in Ireland, that's bambooable. Or you want to join our thousands of customers who reported saving an average of over $46,000 a year with Bamboohr, that's bambooable too. Whatever people problem, data, difficulty or growing pain you have, they're all Bamboo able. Want a hundred dollar gift card just for trying a free demo even That's Bamboo Able. All you have to do is visit bamboohr.com giftcard easy as that. That's bambooable. That's bamboohr.
- [22:21]
Christiane Amanpour
This has been a global player original production.
- [22:26]
BambooHR Advertiser
When you're an HR pro facing a furious frenzy of tasks and challenges, don't sweat it because it's all Bamboo able.
- [22:32]
Jamie Rubin
What?
- [22:32]
BambooHR Advertiser
What able you ask? Bambooable. Bamboohr combines oodles of power and a knack for making HR easier so that everything's Bamboo Able. Just name it. Payroll. That's bambooable. Hiring, onboarding, both Bambooable.
- [22:46]
Christiane Amanpour
Hello. Good to meet you.
- [22:48]
BambooHR Advertiser
Performance management, that's bambooable. So if you're losing sleep over compliance, that's Bamboo able. Or you're hiring a few dozen people in Ireland, that's bambooable. Or you want to join our thousands of customers who reported saving an average of over $46,000 a year with BambooHR, that's bamboo able too. Whatever people problem, data, difficulty or growing pain you have, they're all Bamboo able. Want a hundred dollar gift card just for trying a free demo? Demo even. That's bambooable. All you have to do is visit bamboohr.com giftcard easy as that. That's bambooable. That's bamboohr.