
From the heart of Times Square, Independent Americans host Paul Rieckhoff joins Joy Reid, Don Lemon and Jim Acosta live at the massive “No Kings” protest as America pushes back against Trump’s latest war in Iran and the slide toward pre–World War Three. In this raw, on-the-ground episode, Paul shares the energy, creativity and unity in the streets, explains why this is a historic tipping point for independents, veterans and democracy, and lays out how a diverse, peaceful crowd is sending a message to the world that Americans are not “all crazy” and refuse another forever war.
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Paul Rykov
This is amazing. Level of creativity, energy, positivity. So many kids and families. I mean, you got people from all backgrounds here. And I think it's really setting a statement not just to the country but to the world that we're not all fucking crazy.
Host
Other dope guests here, Paul Rykov, our dear friend and independent journalist. Independent period. And a guy whose basketball game I interrupted the other night to get on the Journey beach show. And also our friends, speaking of independent media, terray, host of TerrainWSTV right here on the YouTube. Guys, let's get you guys in. In that order. I want to start with you, Paul. We are in the midst of apparently pre World War three. Is that coming up among the people that you're talking with and where are you?
Paul Rykov
Right. Yes. Right now I am on 49th and 7th joy. And the crowd is huge. I'm under a giant Mario Brothers ad, which is kind of surreal. The energy here is really, really inspiring. I mean there's so much diversity and there's so many fucking people. I mean, this is a lot of people and I'VE lived in New York my whole life. I've never seen something this big. And I think, yes, everybody is supercharged by the war in Iran. I think that every protest has gotten bigger. But now that this Iran war is unfolding, baskets are coming home. I'm seeing a lot more veterans, and I think it's broken a seal for people who wouldn't otherwise protest. So this is a tipping point. I think it's a tipping point also because we're actually unified as a country. Like, we haven't been unified in a long time, but we were unified around ice, and now we're unified against the war in Iran. And I think it's creating kind of a triangulation around Trump, especially with independents and Republicans, that we've never seen before. So this is. This is amazing level of creativity, energy, positivity. So many kids and families. I mean, you got people from all backgrounds here. And I think it's really setting a statement, not just to the country, but to the world, that we're not all fucking crazy and that we don't, you know, there has to be an alternative narrative to the world from America. And this is what it looks like,
Host
thank God, because we're not all fucking crazy. We need somebody to know that. And, Terry, the other project I love that you do is Culture Fries. I want to talk about the cultural kind of moment that we're in a little bit. This is your sweet spot. But can you kind of give us a reset on where we stand right now with all these protests going on globally, not just here in the U.S. oh, my God.
Joy Reid
I mean, the entire world is against the Iran war. The polling in England and in Europe is lower than it is here. About 60% of Americans oppose doing this at all. About 60% of Americans oppose how we're doing it. The numbers in Europe are even lower than that. That's part of why they're not getting involved. The numbers in Asia are even lower than that. That's why they're not getting involved. Nobody finds this war legitimate because it's not legitimate. I hope that we have said on this broadcast multiple times, this is an illegal war against an enemy that was not attacking us and is also now saying, hey, I will stop if you stop attacking us in Iran and in Gaza and in Lebanon, because those are all one struggle to Iran. And those of us who understand the Middle east understand those are all one linked struggle. So stop attacking us in all these different fronts. Now you can imagine how Israel is going to respond to that. So I'm wondering, how do we even get out of this? Because this is not just military now. It's also an economic warfare as far as the Strait of Hormuz and what's going on there. So we are trapped. This is a quagmire of the sort that Trump said we were not going to get into no more forever wars. He saw the Middle east as this potential sort of thing that could grab you and hold onto you forever, like Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. And yet he here we go again. He was talked into this madness by Netanyahu. And here we are again in another Middle Eastern quagmire, another American president who doesn't know how to get out of a war, that Israel wants this very badly. I just looked up this morning, Joy, Israeli Jews want this at a clip of 90%. They are the, the Israeli left wants this at a percentage of like 75%. So they are all in. This is the best thing that Netanyahu has done in years for them. So he is full steam ahead. The people are behind him. The Iranian government wants to continue fighting. Trump clearly wants to get out and doesn't know how. So this, this is a mess.
Paul Rykov
Well, apparently he's bored with it.
Guest Commentator
I mean, that's the reporting is that he's bored. He wants to move on.
Paul Rykov
He wants to move on.
Field Reporter
How do you move on reality TV show?
Paul Rykov
I am so proud of the way
Joy Reid
Jim Acosta has rebounded from whatever happened at CNN to being an independent media star. Listen, star YouTube star, TikTok. I love that. And Joy, I talk to you all the time. Don, I haven't talked to you in a minute.
Paul Rykov
How I was on your show.
Field Reporter
Oh, sorry.
Joy Reid
Not sincere, like, so since you've been inside, like you gave a real man, like, how was it? Thank you.
Paul Rykov
How was the food?
Joy Reid
Do they hold the crips hold you down?
Host
We're going to have a side conversation about Don's, about Don's life outside of CNN on this broadcast right now. Our main job before we get off of this show, and you can help with that, Terry, is we have to come up with a name for Jim Acosta's fans. There is a Jim Acosta thirst revolution that is taking place that no one anticipated when he left CNN and went into independent media. So everybody needs to, we're going to crowdsource the idea of what we're going to call the Jim Acosta superfans because they're out there. But let really quick back out to the streets because we got to get a little bit before we finish. Do we have More people in these streets. Paul, do you have somebody next to you?
Field Reporter
Can I show you something real quick,
Host
Joy, before you do it? Yes, please.
Field Reporter
Yeah, because I'm in. All right. So if you look right here in front of me on the ground. So the guy I told you who lit up Stephen Miller's sidewalk with chalk in honor of that, all of D.C. did it today. So right behind us is Stephen Miller's house. This is where he lives. All right, and if you look at the messages that everybody looks like a prison. Exactly.
Joy Reid
Looks like a prison.
Don Lemon
We don't want to dox a guy. Don't show where. Don't talk about where he it.
Field Reporter
I'll give you his address. I'm kidding. It's a joke. It's a joke. Even right here, somebody wrote, let's read some of this. Stephen Miller's lair. Fire Miller. Free DC fascist. But I found an empty block, and I want to live. A message here from Joy and Reed and Don Lemon and Jim Acosta. So what should we leave it's you guys message? What.
Paul Rykov
What do you want to say?
Don Lemon
You. You leave me out of this one, Don Lemon.
Field Reporter
Hey, Don.
Paul Rykov
He already got a case.
Field Reporter
Lemon.
Don Lemon
Leave me out of this one, Jolly.
Field Reporter
I'm not doing it. Don. Free Don Lemon.
Joy Reid
All right, sign Joy Reid.
Paul Rykov
There you go.
Field Reporter
All right. Sign Joy. I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do a Joy Henry signature. Joy.
LifeLock Announcer
Joy.
Joy Reid
This is literal white splading. He's using your voice, Katie.
Guest Commentator
Miller is going to come after us now.
Host
Or in my nightmares, because he's a bit like. So I might. He might. I might see him in.
Field Reporter
Listen, thanks for having me on here. I have to go. I gotta go to the stage and do some stuff. Thanks for your continued coverage.
Joy Reid
Love you guys.
Host
Thank you.
Don Lemon
Thank you. Thank you, Jolly. Thank you, Charlie. Let's see. Valencia help a brother out. Who? You got anybody out there?
Host
Oh, no. Do we lose Nick? He's adjusting his camera. Let's get a final comment from Paul Reichoff before we end this here, Paul, because you're in the thick of it. So let's get another comment from you. Have you talked. Give us just some sort of feeling and the vibe. Or talk to somebody if you can. If you can, grab somebody.
Paul Rykov
Next, grab a couple things. Number one, what about the accostinators? I think that that's a potential. I'm gonna noodle on that.
Host
I like it.
Paul Rykov
Don Lemon, I haven't seen you since they arrested you, and I just want to give you props and support. And I want to remind Everybody that if they could come after Don Lemon, they could come after anybody. And that's a shock to the. Across the bow of our democracy. And I don't think it's gotten enough attention and respect, but much respect to you, my old friends, for all you've been doing. Look, let me tell you something. It's kind of surreal to be between the Eminem store and, like, Platinum Dolls strip club and then a giant cannabis sign. But. But in reality, when men and women are in harm's way right now getting shot at and killed. Yeah, right.
Host
Yeah.
Paul Rykov
Like, we have to always ground it in the reality of the fact that right now, young men and women are in harm's way, over 50,000 of them. Right. And by the time this weekend is over, he could put tens of thousands on the ground. And I think that's really, really important to understand, because I've said this before to you, Joy. He's all gas and no brakes. It's not just about Iran. It's about a forever war. Iran is just number nine on a long list, which could include Cuba and could include Colombia. I mean, he's telegraphing his punches. So a lot of people are out here today to oppose forever wars, and that's very, very important as a galvanizing for America. Yeah, so true.
Don Lemon
And, Paul, look, that is the. The 50,000 that matters, not the Dow. The Dow is at 50,000. That's not the number that matters. And I'm glad you're bringing that into perspective.
Joy Reid
Can we also note that 1,500 Iranian civilians have been killed by us in this? And there are actual combatants who are fighting against them. And then there are civilians, including 170 girls were at school in hospitals. So, I mean, we have. They bombed their basic infrastructure.
Grainger Announcer
Cool.
Joy Reid
Hospitals, buildings, not stadium installations.
Host
Yeah, absolutely.
Paul Rykov
Something else, too, guys, that I just want to. You know, I'm not a big fan of, like, the term no kings, just because I think it requires too much explaining. I think if this was just called no Trump, we might have 3x the number of people that we have right now. And if it was no forever wars and no ice, we'd have even more people. And it's growing. Right. Because people don't care what it's called anymore. They're coming out to say, hell no. And especially when it comes to war, this is a unifying moment, and I think that's really important. We've never had everybody together, and we're kind of together now. So now we got to turn it into change.
Host
Yeah. Maybe it should be called no dummies because the stuff we're doing is dumb. There you go.
Paul Rykov
There you go
Don Lemon
in the background to try to get us together for. For a while now. So I hope to see you either on my show or I'll come do some stuff for you.
Joy Reid
But thank you.
Paul Rykov
I really appreciate it.
Host
Thank you.
Don Lemon
And as a veteran, I just want to know, as someone who served this country, what do you think of how our. How our Defense Department is handling this or our War Department?
Host
There's no such thing as a Department of War.
Field Reporter
I don't.
Don Lemon
I know.
Poet/Performer
No.
Paul Rykov
I think it's really important. You know, Joy and I have talked about this before. He's not the Secretary of War. He's the acting Secretary of Culture War. He is a culture warrior that's been installed in the most important position in the cabinet. And this has always been the plan. So I would urge everybody to understand that. The plan was to send a radical culture warrior into the Pentagon to wage culture war within the Pentagon. They have succeeded. They have captured the Pentagon. Now they are turning the Pentagon on the world. Right. So 2025 was really about taking over America. Now they want to dominate the Western hemisphere and use the Pentagon as the vehicle to do that. So Pete Hegseth is obviously disqualified. He's rattled. And I just would say, you know, don't cheer for his demise because our enemies are celebrating and we are all less safe. We're lucky right now that so many cops and first responders are out here protecting our right to protest. But we've never been less safe. And it's in large part because of his failed leadership. Any Republican or Democrat who hasn't already tried to remove him, it's wrong. I'm an independent. 45% of this country is independent. And a lot of that is because we're fed up with both parties, and we think that they both failed us. So this is gut check time, right?
Field Reporter
You can't.
Paul Rykov
For everybody, you got to stand up and be counted.
Joy Reid
I'm curious how Paul feels as a military man, seeing we are not winning this conflict. And part of America has always been. We have the baddest military in the world, and we can accomplish anything militarily very quickly. And that's just not a Trump thing. That has been always part of the subtext of America. We hit them with as much as we possibly can. We have dropped more Tomahawk missiles on Iran than in any conflict in the last 19. And they're still fighting, and they're still on their feet, and they're still blocking Hormuz. They're still dropping bombs on Tel Aviv. They've destroyed all our bases in the Middle East. This is a military failure for us. How do you rectify that? How do you feel about that? How do we even make sense of that?
Paul Rykov
Well, you know, I don't know if I'd necessarily call it a failure, because here's the thing. It's so far from done, right? I mean, there's an old saying that when you upset the hornet's nest, the hornets decide when it's over. And that's what's happening right now. The lid is blown off on Iran. And even if we pulled out tomorrow, there's still going to be death and destruction across the region. So we've got to just appreciate the fact that the missile attacks are daily, the drone attacks, and the drone threats are regular and rising, and they don't just stop at our water's edge. Drone attacks on US Soil are something we definitely are underprepared for. We've seen drone operations over military bases in the US and we are really, really less safe than ever before. And that's what you got to call them on, because Iran seems so far away. But the war is very real for the people in Ukraine, very real for the people in Tel Aviv, and it could increasingly become real for us. So we've got to always hold them accountable to that lack of safety and the waste of our military. Right? Our blood, our treasure, our men and women who are in harm's way right now. And there are a lot of vets here. I'm walking about a block ahead of a giant Constitution, which is pretty damn inspiring because that's why a lot of people are here, because they understand the Constitution. And when it comes to war. Thank you, man. When it comes to the Constitution, you know, the Congress is supposed to decide. And he's just blown past them. They're not even a speed bump. So it's long past time for our Congress to try to reel in what has become a forever war. And if they can't, the people need to do it. They shut down the government over ice. They shut down the government over, you know, DHS and over health care. How about shutting down the fucking government over a never ending illegal war that's killing sons and daughters? Gut check time, America. Where are you at? Let's go. Come on.
Host
Yeah.
Guest Commentator
Well, unfortunately, right now we don't have a Congress with any spine in its leadership that is willing to take on Donald Trump when it comes to this war. And Paul, you're absolutely right. And the other thing that I think is very concerning to me and should concern a lot of Americans is what Pete Hegseth said the other day when he was with Donald Trump. He said that he, he, he would like the Pentagon to be a partner when it comes to domestic law enforcement, when it comes to dealing with things in the United States where the United States military should have no place.
Joy Reid
Right.
Guest Commentator
And I'm telling you this, these are sneak previews of coming attractions, folks.
Paul Rykov
And I, this is, this is the most, this, this is the most important story in America. I'm going to keep saying it. He can do anything he wants for the most powerful military the world has ever seen. That includes putting them in US cities. They are right now extended in DC until 2029. He said out loud yesterday he wants them in New York City and he wants them in Chicago. ICE is giving you a preview of what they want to do to interrupt the election. Steve Bannon said it this week. They're good at checking IDs. They're doing it at the airports. That is a warmup for what they want to do to disrupt the election. So especially to all the Democrats who think we can just wait till November, he can invade three more countries between now and November and have troops in U.S. soil and invoke the Insurrection Act. That is the plan and they are on plan. And imagine how much farther ahead of plan they would be if Hegseth and Gnome weren't up all the time.
Host
If they weren't incompetent, we'd be in far worse shape. You're absolutely right. We're only being Paul by their incompetence.
Don Lemon
Thank you.
Paul Rykov
Thank you.
Don Lemon
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Paul Rykov
People out here
Poet/Performer
tells me the left and right are dreams for those without a clue and when you wait it's time to grow and it's not cool to believe in school but if I can say one thing I've seen the children of the revolution and the good trouble they can bring he says the red and blue identity dependent is an attitude an island in the sea of rhetoric and I can probably go he tells me the left and right our dreams but those without a clue and when you wait it's time to grow
Paul Rykov
power by Righteous media
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My refund though.
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Don't worry, I can fix this.
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manage procurement for multiple facilities. Every order matters, but when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
Paul Rykov
If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.
Episode: LIVE: No Kings, No Forever Wars. Paul Rieckhoff Live from Times Square with Joy Reid, Don Lemon, Jim Acosta and the No Kings Movement
Date: March 30, 2026
Broadcasting live from Times Square amid massive anti-war protests, host Paul Rieckhoff leads a spirited panel featuring Joy Reid, Don Lemon, Jim Acosta, and others to explore the “No Kings” movement, the evolving American response to the Iran war, and the deep desire for an end to “forever wars.” The episode captures the protest’s atmosphere, dissects the war’s geopolitical and cultural consequences, and critiques the political establishment from an independent’s perspective.
[01:20–03:44] Paul Rieckhoff describes the on-the-ground energy in Times Square:
[04:01–06:16] Joy Reid analyzes international sentiment:
[11:44–12:19] Rieckhoff and panel debate what unites people:
[06:26–08:09] Lighter banter and reflections:
[11:17–11:40] Joy Reid draws focus to casualties:
[12:54–16:38] Rieckhoff assesses defense policy:
[16:39–18:06] Panel discusses militarization in American cities:
[18:13–18:45] Inspirational message and protest art:
This special live episode captures a pivotal moment of American protest, uniting voices from the independent media and political spectrum. The panel delivers piercing analysis of the Iran war’s illegitimacy, critiques militarized domestic politics, elevates the independent movement, and calls for urgent people-powered change. It’s a raw, unscripted glimpse into the energy driving the “No Kings”/anti-forever-wars movement—grounded in the lived experiences of veterans, families, and media figures who refuse to accept business as usual in American politics.