CNN Panelist CRASHES OUT When Confronted With Iran War Facts!

Summary

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The Jimmy Dore Show

Episode: CNN Panelist CRASHES OUT When Confronted With Iran War Facts!

Date: May 11, 2026

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Episode Overview

Jimmy Dore and co-host Kurt dissect a recent, fiery CNN debate over the current Iran war, focusing on a dramatic clash between conservative pundit Scott Jennings and young panelist Adam Mockler. Dore critiques how establishment media and political elites use old, debunked war narratives—likening today’s Iran rhetoric to the run-up to the Iraq war. The episode features robust mockery of mainstream media panel dynamics, trenchant criticism of war hawks, and a secondary exposé of Howard Lutnick’s misleading testimony about his Jeffrey Epstein ties. The show concludes with Scott Ritter analyzing U.S.-Iran conflict realities and a satirical segment of political impersonations driving home the absurdity of the current discourse.

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Key Discussion Points & Timestamps

1. CNN Iran War Panel Showdown

[01:22–06:36]

• Players Identified:
  • Scott Jennings (establishment conservative)
  • Adam Mockler (young, fact-driven “whippersnapper”)
  • Jimmy Dore and Kurt (commentary)
• Exchange Highlights:
  • Jennings claims, “they have been at war with us for 47 years” [02:12].
  • Mockler skewers Jennings’ warmongering and past support for Iraq (“defending prior endless war ... this war is failing” [02:15]), referencing the panel’s previous debates.
  • Jennings dismisses Mockler’s criticism, calls him immature: “You have the attention span of a gnat” [02:32].
  • Mockler rebuffs, demanding accountability for failed promises about “weeks” to victory.

Memorable Quotes:

• Mockler:
  “You're making condescending remarks because you can't defend the fact that this war is not going your way.” [02:33]
• Dore:
  “That's what happens when you're getting your ass kicked by a college kid on national television and you're humiliated. So you try to bully him and try to change the subject.” [02:58]
• Kurt:
  “It was a reverse Ben Shapiro. It was a kid humiliating a grown man.” [03:15]

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2. Media’s “47 Years of War” Narrative Debunked

[04:49–06:36]

• Dore ridicules the claim that Iran’s been at war with the U.S. for 47 years, retracing history to the 1953 U.S.-backed coup against Iran’s government:
  • “They don't go back to 1953, that's when the United States overthrew their democratically elected ... So we're the ones who's been at war with them since 1953.” [05:02]
• Kurt expands, linking U.S. meddling to Iran’s foundational instability:
  • “It wasn't enough to install one dictator. They put the Ayatollah in. That was us our doing as well.” [06:03]

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3. Finger-Pointing Fiasco & Mainstream Spin

[06:36–10:00]

• Jennings accuses Mockler of being aggressive; Jimmy and Kurt replay the footage, showing no finger-in-face, just a rattled pundit.
• Dore interjects with Glenn Greenwald’s note (via tweet) on the real source of Jennings’ rage: being reminded of his Iraq war record.
  • Greenwald (quoted by Dore):
    “What's most notable is that Scott Jennings became enraged at exactly the moment when his history of working in the Bush Cheney administration was raised ... The DC swamp is so accountability free that they all think they're entitled to have everyone just forget ... that they've deceived the country into a historically disastrous and criminal invasion of Iraq, only to now return to use the same exact mentality, ideology, tactics and narratives to sell this new war against a country bordering Iraq, all as if none of it ever happened.” [08:17–09:47]

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4. Media Culture: Ageism & Panel Format Ridicule

[11:11–13:22]

• Kurt: “This is like an episode of Comics Unleashed ... they're supposed to just say their little stupid hack lines.“ [11:11]
• Dore laments media’s hackneyed approach to debate and the expectation young critics “stay in their lane.”
• They lampoon Geraldo Rivera for calling Mockler “a dick” for confronting the panel, and mock legacy TV presenters for missing the real issue: accountability for war policy.

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5. Generational Divide & Critique of U.S. Middle East Wars

[15:26–17:07]

• Adam Mockler delivers a scathing indictment of endless Middle East wars:
  • “For my entire life, the United States has been at war with some country in the Middle East, and young people have constantly been told that this will make us safe ... we are less safe and we are worse off.” [15:36]
  • Notes the hypocrisy: “the same people who defended these first two failed wars go on television and defend another failed war ... I don't trust the same people who got us into the prior wars, amassed trillions of dollars in debts, and are not putting America first.” [15:36]
• Media panel and establishment figures respond defensively—accusing Mockler of lacking gratitude (“immensely ungrateful [to] Americans who keep us safe every day after 9/11” [18:12]), rehashing talking points about threats to national security.

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6. “Ungrateful” Troops Charge & U.S.-Iran Mythology

[17:25–24:07]

• Dore and Kurt stress, criticizing war policy is not being ungrateful to troops—real blame lies with war profiteers and neocons.
  • “You know what's ungrateful to the troops is sending them into a meat grinder for fucking Israel and for oil and lying to them that somehow Iraq is a threat to the United States.” [19:46]
• Mockler pushes back: “I am incredibly [grateful] for our service men.” [21:18]
• Debate shifts to Strait of Hormuz: establishment panelists stoke Iran-nuclear fear; Mockler demands evidence (“Where’s the enriched uranium?” [22:08]). No one provides specifics.

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7. Congress, War Authorization, & Systemic Cowardice

[23:36–24:07]

• Dore points out Congress’s dereliction:
  • “If it's such a justified war, how come he didn't take it to Congress and the American people and have them vote on it?” [23:36]
  • “They're so owned by AIPAC and the Israel lobby ... they just let Trump do whatever he wants so they can wash their hands of it when they go to get reelected.” [23:36]

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8. Howard Lutnick, Jeffrey Epstein, and the “Cover-up”

[26:25–44:54]

• Dore breaks down Howard Lutnick’s shifting stories about his relationship with Epstein, showing evidence he had contact with Epstein long after claiming to cut ties.
  • Lutnick: “I was never in the room with him socially for business or even philanthropy ... he's gross ...” [28:29]
  • Dore: “All that stuff—is what a great liar he is. He's a theatrical liar ... I just showed you a video of those misstatements. I just showed you the lies.” [38:15]
• Rep. Yasmin Ansari’s post-hearing statement:
  • “...Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover up in American history.” [33:14]
• Rep. Ro Khanna and others reiterate Lutnick’s testimony was evasive, full of “contortions and lies,” with underlying concern over why closed-door interviews are allowed for such figures.

Memorable Quotes:

• Rep. Khanna:
  “He made a farce of the English language ... he would not see Epstein alone, but be totally fine with having his wife and kids. Kids. See Epstein. It made no sense.” [41:11]
• Dore:
  “Your country is run and protecting PDF files that are being blackmailed.” [44:54]

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9. The Iran War Debacle: Scott Ritter’s Analysis

[46:55–54:48]

• Ex-UN weapons inspector/Marine Scott Ritter is brought in to analyze the real status of the U.S.-Iran conflict.
  • Ritter: “Iran is in complete control of the Strait of Hormuz and the United States Navy is powerless to change that equation.” [50:21]
  • Ritter calls the CIA’s estimates of Iran’s vulnerability laughable: “Iran can last indefinitely ... they have more missiles today of a more modern variety than what they started the war with.” [51:48–54:48]
• U.S. media, military, and intelligence agencies painted as out-of-touch and incompetent, still depending on flawed sources, easily misrepresented in the mainstream debate.

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10. Satirical Parody Section: Trump and Netanyahu Calls

[54:54–60:35]

• Dore (with impressionist Mike McRae) spoofs Trump and Netanyahu congratulating themselves on a fictitious “victory” in Iran, lampooning official “spin” and geopolitical incompetence:
  • “Spinning the Iraq debacle may be our biggest challenge yet, but we are up to the task. And here we say, by accomplishing nothing, have we really accomplished everything?” [56:04, Donald Trump impersonation]
  • “The United States is now officially willing to go to war for literally no reason, to accomplish nothing. Do you realize what a statement of strength that is?” [56:32]

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Notable Quotes by Timing & Attribution

• Adam Mockler (to Scott Jennings):
  “You're making condescending remarks because you can't defend the fact that this war is not going your way.” [02:33]
• Jimmy Dore (re: Iran war narrative):
  “No one's bombed America. What. What. What is this? 47 years of war with us? They've been at war with Israel because Israel [has] been trying to wipe them away...So we're the ones who's been at war with them since 1953, not 47 years since they eventually kicked out our dictator.” [05:02]
• Glenn Greenwald (via Dore):
  “What's most notable is that Scott Jennings became enraged at exactly the moment when his history ... was raised.” [09:47]
• Kurt:
  “This is the Hangover 2 of war propaganda. All they changed was one letter from Q to an N, from Iraq to Iran.” [11:37]
• Adam Mockler:
  “For my entire life, the United States has been at war with some country in the Middle East ... when we look around ... we are less safe and we are worse off ... I don't trust the same people who got us into the prior wars...” [15:36]
• Rep. Yasmin Ansari:
  “Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover up in American history.” [33:14]
• Scott Ritter:
  “Iran is in complete control of the Strait of Hormuz and the United States Navy is powerless to change that equation.” [50:21]

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Overall Tone & Style

• Dore’s language is profane, acerbic, irreverent, and deeply cynical about the Beltway, media, and war establishment.
• The show is laced with ridicule, parody, and righteous anger at the lack of accountability among war hawks and politically connected elites.
• Frequent use of parody—both as comic relief and as trenchant satire.

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Summary Takeaways

• Main Theme:
  The episode highlights how establishment figures and media continue to use discredited war scripts—now repurposed for Iran—and viciously reject young, fact-based criticism.
• Media Dynamics:
  Dore demonstrates the toxic pageantry of mainstream panels, where age and gravitas are weaponized to dismiss substantive challenges from younger voices.
• Systemic Cover-Ups:
  The Howard Lutnick/Epstein saga exposes how the powers that be protect their own—even in the face of blatant falsehoods and public-record contradictions.
• War Policy:
  Real war outcomes are ignored by mainstream media, even as U.S. adventurism and sanctions are doomed to repeat prior failures.

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For those who missed the episode:
The clash between Jennings and Mockler is emblematic—a new generation challenges the old, exposing uncomfortable parallels between Iran and Iraq. Dore et al. argue, with caustic humor and supporting evidence, that the war machine (and its media defenders) are still running the same swindle, unrepentant and eager to silence dissent. And, as shown in both Iran policy and the Epstein cover-up, the system protects its own at any cost.

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Transcript

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[Scott Jennings]

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[Jimmy Dore]

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[Adam Mockler]

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[Benjamin Netanyahu]

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[Jimmy Dore]

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[Howard Lutnick]

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[Jimmy Dore]

Bullshit.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

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[Ro Khanna]

Watch and see as his jack off

[Jimmy Dore]

the medium speeds and jumps the medium and hits them head on. It's Jimmy door show. I wanted to cover this when this happened. I think it's happened. Like when was this? April 30th. So Scott Jennings is the conservative on the panel and this is a young whippersnapper, Adam Mockler. So he's the young whippersnapper and he's very annoying because he comes with facts and that that's always that always going to kill your grift. And Scott Jennings sometimes has some really good things to say. And here he shows that he's also has the ability to be the ayatollah of supreme douchebags. And so let's just get to it, shall we?

[Scott Jennings]

I mean, honestly, they have been at war with us for 47 years.

[Adam Mockler]

We all know that Scott Jennings is more than happy to defend a war with a country that starts with the letters IRA that we are currently failing that is gonna put us trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt. I was only a few years old while you were in the administration defending prior endless war. This war is failing.

[Scott Jennings]

Eight weeks is endless to you.

[Adam Mockler]

Okay, you said it was going to six weeks.

[Scott Jennings]

You have the attention span of a gnat.

[Adam Mockler]

I debated you on TV four to six weeks ago and you said we were weeks away. From it. Now you're making condescending remarks because you can't defend the fact that this war is not going your way. Wait one more time.

[Scott Jennings]

Not going.

[Jimmy Dore]

Not going your way.

[Adam Mockler]

One political concession.

[Scott Jennings]

Honestly, I'm not going to have this guy's.

[Moderator/Host]

Everybody hang tight. Honestly, no. Everybody calm down. Okay?

[Adam Mockler]

You're.

[Moderator/Host]

We're having a debate. You can respond to the points that he's making.

[Jimmy Dore]

I didn't see his finger go in his face, did you? Well, that's what happens when you're getting your ass kicked by a college kid on national television and you're humiliated. So you try to bully him and try to change the subject. Is that what you saw happening, Kurt?

[Kurt]

It was a reverse Ben Shapiro. It was a kid humiliating a grown man.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's a reverse Ben Shapiro. So this. Yeah. So when Ben Shapiro goes out and debates college kids, he usually dominates them. But here's a college kid completely wiping the floor with Scott Jennings. Because Scott Jennings on the wrong side of history, just like he was on the wrong side of history with Iraq. And it was great that he brought that up right in his face. And he pretended that it was his finger in his face. Now, this would be somebody putting their finger in their face. Someone over here. That is not even close. But let's leave. There's a little more to this clip.

[Adam Mockler]

A political concession that we've got.

[Scott Jennings]

We're going to flashback to the war

[Jimmy Dore]

the skinheads had in my studio.

[Adam Mockler]

I would be mad if. I would be mad if I defend Scott.

[Moderator/Host]

You can respond.

[Scott Jennings]

We have a very simple. We have a very simple goal to keep terrorists and a terrorist regime from having a nuclear weapon that can threaten the United States, our interests in the region, our allies in Europe. Anybody else?

[Adam Mockler]

You can't answer the question. I would get mad, too.

[Kurt]

That kid sucks. And he's trouncing this guy.

[Jimmy Dore]

That threaten America or our interests in the Middle East? They can already do that without nuclear weapons. Scott.

[Kurt]

That's right.

[Jimmy Dore]

The only reason they haven't bombed Israel out of existence already is because Israel has nukes. That's. Anyway, so let's see. There's more to this.

[Moderator/Host]

We're going to leave it there, guys. Next for us, the President suggests abc.

[Jimmy Dore]

So they had to leave it there. I just want to show. I just want to play this one more time. Watch him kick his ass. And watch the kid watch that guy freak. Scott Jennings freak out.

[Scott Jennings]

I mean, honestly, they have been at war with us for 47 years.

[Adam Mockler]

We all know that Scott Jennings is more.

[Jimmy Dore]

First of all, I Like how these. There's. There's this new thing. They've been. Iran has been at war with us for 47 years. It has been the most secret war I've ever seen in my life. Nobody. No I haven't. Nobody's bombed America. Nobody. What. What. What is this? 47 years of war with us? They've been at war with Israel because Israel been trying to wipe them away. And by the way, why do they go back 47 years? Because that's when they don't go back to 1953. That's when the United States overthrew their democratically elected. They wanted to keep the oil for their own people. And we said no, that's our oil, you son of a bitch. And we had the CIA go in there and overthrow Mosaddegh in 1953. And then what did we do? We installed a dictator. A Shah of Iran. A dictator. A brutal dictator. And the people finally pushed back 47 years ago and overthrow that dictatorship. The CIA calls that blowback. They aren't. They have a name for what we did. So we're the ones who's been at war with them since 1953. Not 47 years since they eventually kicked out our dictator. What do you want to say, Kirk?

[Kurt]

No, that's the thing. We also installed the Ayatollah. That was Jimmy Carter and Zerbigner Brzezinski's big play. That was the Trilateral Commission. What they did because they thought it'd be a better deal for some pacific treaty. And then that's the blowback. Is that like how Castro screwed him over? Legendarily. You know that that's what happened. But they. It wasn't enough to install one dictator. They put the Ayatollah in. That was us our doing as well. That wasn't just. So think of doing that. Screwing the country twice like that twice. And then being mad when it blows back in your dumb fucking face.

[Jimmy Dore]

So let's. Let's watch the finger moment. I want to watch this again.

[Adam Mockler]

Than happy to defend a war with a country that starts with the letters IRA that we are currently failing that is going to put us trillions and trillions of dollars more in debt. I was only a few years old while you were in the administration defending prior endless wars. Now this war is failing.

[Scott Jennings]

Eight weeks is endless to you.

[Adam Mockler]

Ok. Said it was going to be four to six weeks. I debated you on TV four to six weeks ago when you said we were weeks away from it. Now you're making condescending remarks because you can't defend the fact that this war is not going your way. Wait, one more time.

[Scott Jennings]

Not going.

[Jimmy Dore]

Not going your way.

[Adam Mockler]

One political concession.

[Kurt]

Oh, wait.

[Jimmy Dore]

So let's see how far away his finger is from his face. It's not even close. It's that. It's. He's got his arm bent. It's not even close. And now let's. So he's getting embarrassed. And this is what an immature bully does when he's getting beat on the facts. So let's watch. Here it comes.

[Scott Jennings]

I'm not going to have this guy.

[Jimmy Dore]

I'm not going to have this guy finger in my face. Okay, Dan Harpel, what do you say, Kurt? Hang on.

[Kurt]

He had his finger.

[Jimmy Dore]

He had his finger.

[Kurt]

The other guy was. The only aggressive finger I saw was this guy.

[Jimmy Dore]

Here it is. He's doing the Bill Clinton. He's not even. He doesn't even have his finger out.

[Adam Mockler]

One political concession.

[Jimmy Dore]

He doesn't even have his finger up. Who has his finger up? This guy. That's the guy with the. He's doing the Bill Clinton. He does.

[Adam Mockler]

Wait, wait, one more time.

[Scott Jennings]

Not going.

[Jimmy Dore]

Now let's watch it one more time. Let's watch when he snaps. He's not even. Doesn't even have his finger up.

[Adam Mockler]

One political concession.

[Jimmy Dore]

So here's what Glenn Greenwald, friend of the show, Glenn Greenwald. And if you're a fan of Glenn, it breaks our heart he's not coming on our show anymore. It's a painful. I don't know what happened, but anyway, he says, leave aside your views of the Iran war or the CNN melodrama of Scott Jennings yelling, get your effing finger out of my face. What's most notable is that Scott Jennings became enraged at exactly the moment when his history of working in the Bush Cheney administration was raised. And it was pointed out that he and his all sold the Iraq war to the American public based on the exact arguments and scripts that Jennings is now using to sell the Iran war to Americans. WMDs, terror state, oppress their own people, can't wait for a mushroom cloud, etc. Etc. The DC swamp is so accountability free that they all think they're entitled to have everyone just forget and not hold that against them that they've deceived the country into a historically disastrous and criminal invasion of Iraq, only to now return to use the same exact mentality, ideology, tactics and narratives to sell this new war against a country bordering Iraq, all as if none of it ever happened. Hey, by the way, why are there Any Bush, Cheney people being asked their opinion at all. Anyway, how did Scott Jennings ever even get out of this?

[Kurt]

Scott Jennings, what is happening?

[Jimmy Dore]

Glenn goes on. That Jennings and countless media and political elites are using the same arguments to justify the Iran war that they use for Iraq. Doesn't of course by itself prove that the new pro war arguments are wrong. But of course that should be a vital factor in determining the credibility of these people and their assertions. And it should be the main metric for determining whether these are the people who should be presented as experts and listened to when advocating the very war policies that disgraced them when they defended them 20 years ago. In no other profession or subculture would such catastrophic error or deceit be deemed irrelevant. But because this basic standard would reputationally harm and disqualify the bulk of D.C. political and media class on a bipartisan basis, they all unite to pretend it never happened. Or at least implicitly agree that it's irrelevant. The CNN guest violated that implicit self protective taboo against raising it. And that's what sparked Jennings race. It wasn't his finger in his face, because he didn't have his finger in his face. It was the fact that he just beat the shit out of him with facts and reminding him of how stupid and what a tool he was of the last failed war.

[Kurt]

It's rude, Jimmy. It's downright rude. This is like an episode of Comics. All these news panels. It's comics unleashed. So you know how Norm MacDonald say they're the most leashed comics? Because it's a fake conversation with your rehearsed jokes.

[Jimmy Dore]

They're very leashed.

[Kurt]

Yeah, that kid is being rude because they're supposed to just say they're little stupid hack lines. Because they're all hacks.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes.

[Kurt]

And so that he's rude by making his hand into, you know, a vagina hole while the guy's pointing Big Lime

[Jimmy Dore]

says, amazing how all the propaganda is literally exactly the same. Not even an attempt at being creative. This is the Hangover 2 of war propaganda. All they changed was one letter from Q to an N, from Iraq to Iran. That's exactly right. I hate the wars, but I could never root for anyone from Midas touch. Oh, is that kid from Midas touch? Oh that. Yeah, that is too bad. Hey, maybe get over high school. Anyway, so now I'm gonna show you that I was watching do dissonance and they found these two clips. This is Geraldo now pretending that somehow that kid making salient points was being a dick. Let's listen Chris, the kid Was a dick.

[Scott Jennings]

I mean, he smart, eloquent, had his argument together, had obviously debated Scott before,

[Jimmy Dore]

and he was really being a dick.

[Scott Jennings]

I mean, it was like, shut up.

[Jimmy Dore]

You know, go out.

[Scott Jennings]

Go out and get some life experience.

[Francisco]

How many different ways

[Kurt]

he just told you his life experience of watching us. Never win a war, you idiot.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, maybe go get some. So that's the. Hey, you're right. But. Go, go. The pesky kids. Oh, these meddling kids.

[Kurt]

It's what should he open an Al Capone safe for no reason with nothing in it? That kind of experience.

[Jimmy Dore]

No kidding. Hey, not to be a dick, Geraldo, but why are you still around? Haven't we all had our fill of Geraldo by now? Hey, Geraldo, great job focusing on the important part of the story, not the fact that Scott Jennings is a complete fucking fraud and that the kid wasn't even pointing at him. But talk about how the kid's being a dick and he's just not old enough to have an opinion yet. That's what Geraldo's saying.

[Kurt]

Yeah, we'll see if he's got real talent if Midas Touch keeps him or not, you know, because everybody's got their first job and they like when you got a cool, snappy comeback at first. But let's see if he holds to it. He might be Geraldo one day.

[Jimmy Dore]

Let's. Let's hear what Fredo has to say.

[Francisco]

Do the three of us. So you have one of the best broadcasters in history, right? Mr. Mediocre in the middle, and Governor Sununu, who's one of the most celebrated public officials in his state, period. All of us have at least six ways. Dusty just said what? My favorite governor ever.

[Howard Lutnick]

There you go.

[Francisco]

And she knows my brother's gonna kill her for that. But that's okay. We all have at least six ways to deal with somebody trying to get our goat, right? You would never allow yourself to act that way or the way you would with your brother.

[Scott Jennings]

Right?

[Francisco]

I'm telling you. Here's my concern, is that what you represent, Chris, is being lost right now. I believe the majority wants it. I believe the majority wants somebody who shows their character by how they react. Geraldo, you have never meant more to the country than you have, I'd say, in the last seven, eight years. With your.

[Jimmy Dore]

Okay, I can't even listen to this guy. I can't even listen to Francisco.

[Kurt]

I mean, they're all such slowpokes. Who watches this?

[Jimmy Dore]

What is this tongue bath he's giving Geraldo Rivera? Well, it certainly wasn't the prior seven years. Geraldo did one great news report when he exposed the mental hospitals in upstate New York that that made his name. And then the next thing he did was Al Capone's vault. And I was old enough to remember because I watched it.

[Kurt]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

And it was what they. What Joe. Joe Scarborough would call a nothing burger. They opened his vault. There's nothing there. And there was, like, 40 hours of buildup to it.

[Kurt]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

Anyway.

[Kurt]

Yeah, he talked about bravely getting hit by a chair on his dumb show.

[Jimmy Dore]

So here's Mockler. So he comes back. I got accused of being ungrateful for our troops for simply questioning Trump's Iran war. Watch it backfire on him instantly. Let's watch. Here we go.

[Moderator/Host]

So this generational divide, I think, when it comes to war, has always been a thing in America, but it seems particularly acute right now. Adam.

[Adam Mockler]

Yeah. For my entire life, the United States has been at war with some country in the Middle east, and young people have constantly been told that this will make us safe and safer and make us better off. When we look around at the world today, we are less safe and we are worse off. Millennials grew up watching all these headlines saying that Iraq had been defeated, that we had taken out Saddam Hussein and we had killed all the bad guys. Well, that turned into a grinding counterinsurgency that cost us trillion. A trillion dollars, and it was a catastrophe. The same thing happened with Afghanistan, and now Gen Zers are going through the same thing with Iran. We are watching the same people who defended these first two failed wars go on television and defend another failed war. This war is failing. We have not gotten any political concessions. And I'm sorry, I'm not buying this trust the process line. I don't trust the same people who got us into the prior wars, amassed trillions of dollars in debts, and are not putting America first on the global stage.

[Jimmy Dore]

Wow, what a total dick he's being. By dick, I mean that, you know, he's being a dick to the evil institutional warmongers draining us of our. Our children and our money. Yeah. What a dick he's being. What do you want to say, Kurt?

[Kurt]

Because here's why. He's a dick. They all know that. Oh, you don't think we want to say that? Kid, you're not supposed to say that. Seriously. That it's because they're all performative, this is just more wrestling bullshit, but that he's being a young upstart. Oh, it's like the politician that thinks they're going to Change things. Oh, look at this guy. He's going to come in and make a difference. Like that's what they're mad at.

[Jimmy Dore]

Let's keep there's watch. It gets worse.

[Moderator/Host]

So putting aside just for a moment, even the politics of this current moment, I mean, is it fair for young people to have that level of distrust of the people, to Adam's point, who maybe defended the last war and were wrong and are defending this war too?

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, you gotta be kidding. That's not a legit question. Is she trolling or something? How is that a real question? Is it fair for a person who has, who's old enough to be drafted into these stupid wars to have an opinion on it? Is it fair?

[Kurt]

Why wait for this closeted man to answer that?

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

I don't think so. I think honestly, I don't think so.

[Jimmy Dore]

It's not fair for that kid who, by the way, all the people in the military are his age. It's not fair for somebody of his generation to actually have a correct opinion about it. Holy effing F. All right, here we go.

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

Immensely ungrateful to Americans.

[Jimmy Dore]

He's ungrateful. Wait, I gotta. Let me back it up.

[Moderator/Host]

And we're wrong and are defending this war too.

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

Yeah, I don't think so. I think, honestly, Adam, that's immensely ungrateful to American service personnel and the people who keep us safe every day after 9 11. It was by no means guaranteed that there would be no mass casualty terrorist attack on American soil in the immediate aftermath of that attack. Especially since we had events in Madrid, in London, et cetera. And after the attack on Iraq and the elimination of Saddam Hussein's regime, we took a terror supporting enterprise off the map. We don't talk about Iraq anymore as a threat to a national security because it isn't.

[Jimmy Dore]

Well, it never was a threat to our national security, you dipshit. We don't talk about Iraq anymore because guess what, we're allies with ISIS and Al Qaeda and we just installed the chief head chopper from Al Qaeda as the president of Syria after we did another Iraq to Syria. That's why Iraq had never done anything to us. They had never attacked. In fact, we were the one who gave the chemical weapons to Iraq so he could then gas the Kurds. We were the suppliers of the weapons that first time. Yeah, and the first time it was for Kuwait.

[Kurt]

Kuwait was slant drilling. They were drinking a milkshake.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right, they were. Kuwait was taking. Stealing the oil from Iraq. And Iraq went in and said, f you and so we pretended like we were the good guys anyway. That. That is just. Again, this is why babies have been

[Kurt]

thrown on the ground since then, Jimmy.

[Jimmy Dore]

This is why nobody watches CNN because it's full of garbage like this. And. Wow.

[Kurt]

They're all auditioning. When they do their little part, like a page, they're all like. You know, many pageant girls are on these shows, like, a lot. And they're all like little pageant boys and girls. And they say their little thing.

[Jimmy Dore]

You know, him, him, him, saying that. It's. It's. It's not. What is it not. It's not grateful. It's ungrateful being ingrate to the troops. You know what's ungrateful to the troops is sending them into a meat grinder for fucking Israel and for oil and lying to them that somehow Iraq is a threat to the United States.

[Kurt]

And not getting the oil.

[Jimmy Dore]

And not getting the oil.

[Kurt]

We did. Nothing good with oil happened.

[Jimmy Dore]

No one's blaming the soldiers. No one's blaming the soldiers, you dipshit. They're blaming the neo cunts.

[Kurt]

Yeah, that's what I would have said. That's why. I guess they would have called me a dick, though.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, you probably would have been called a dick. Let's watch a little more of this. This is amazing.

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

And those who would pretend as though Iran is not a national security threat pretend. And are just frankly dismissive of the extent to which American service personnel get up every day to stop these people from executing the attacks on American and their allies that they plan.

[Jimmy Dore]

Can you. Can you name all the attacks in the last 47 years that Iran has made on the United. It would be zero. Zero attacks.

[Kurt]

Israel. I know. They're less than Israel's direct terror attacks on it.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. Exactly. Zero.

[Kurt]

In terms of publicly accepted history,

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Iran

[Kurt]

is not even close.

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

Every single day. This is a thorn on our side. It absorbs a lot of American taxpayer dollars, to say nothing of the energy of our service personnel. And I just think it's just ungrateful.

[Adam Mockler]

I am.

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

So say that the service personnel are not keeping you safe when they are.

[Adam Mockler]

No, I feel less safe due to the actions of our leaders. I am incredibly GR for our servicemen.

[Scott Jennings]

And you're doing your feelings. Don't make. Listen, you are doing feelings the way you feel you are doing remorse.

[Adam Mockler]

Hold. Let me finish. He was talking to me. He was talking to me.

[Moderator/Host]

Hold on a second, Hal. I'll let you respond.

[Scott Jennings]

No one was talking about this problem.

[Adam Mockler]

You are doing the exact same thing that I just laid out. In the opening, you are telling young people they shouldn't be asking questions. They shouldn't be questioning the people that

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

ask questions about the nature of the.

[Adam Mockler]

Okay, then what was ungrateful about what I said? I said that the leaders are making us less safe. And I can prove that right now. Iran has control over the Strait of Hormuz and that is a weapon they didn't have control of two months ago.

[Howard Lutnick]

Of course they did.

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

They shut down the straight up in

[Adam Mockler]

the 80s and we opened it up

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

in the 80s, by the way.

[Scott Jennings]

You think, you think gas prices are high right now? Iran with a nuclear weapon? We'd have unlimitedly high gas prices. They would take control of the Strait of News and they would blackmail the world.

[Adam Mockler]

And how much farther away are they from having a nuclear weapon? Where's the enriched uranium right now?

[Scott Jennings]

They're not.

[Adam Mockler]

Where's the enriched uranium?

[Scott Jennings]

We're going to get the enriched uranium.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Where is it?

[Scott Jennings]

It's buried right now.

[Jimmy Dore]

But you don't know.

[Adam Mockler]

Where is it buried? You're asking me.

[Scott Jennings]

I'm not in the class wide briefings and neither are you.

[Adam Mockler]

So just where.

[Scott Jennings]

Let me finish.

[Jimmy Dore]

Okay, Adam, we are.

[Scott Jennings]

We are more safe than we were before we took out Iran. Iran's nuclear capabilities. Absolutely more safe. The Strait of Hormuz is going to be open and Iran's not going to control it. It is. That is totally going to happen. It doesn't. It doesn't matter if it's two weeks or two months.

[Adam Mockler]

It does actually matter because economists are saying if it's closed for a few more months and we're going to go into a recession. So it does matter.

[Scott Jennings]

No one's predicting that because. Because the markets that are all. No one's predicting that the markets that are at an all time high. The markets aren't predicting it. With the oil markets, the inflation rate has stayed where it is.

[Adam Mockler]

And by the way, what was inflation? By the way?

[Scott Jennings]

Unemployment has stayed low.

[Adam Mockler]

To expand on my framework, I gave a very good faith criticism of this war and of the history of these types of wars. And I had one person say that I was ungrateful and then another invoke the weapons of mass destruction that Iran could potentially be developing. What I was trying to say is that getting military successes, if you want to call them that, doesn't always translate to helpful outcomes for the American people. We've seen this. We killed Saddam Hussein. We took out the bad guy and it hurt us. It's arguable that this is the most

[Scott Jennings]

justice since World War II, because Iran has killed thousands of Americans. Saddam Hussein hadn't killed thousands of Americans. Afghanistan hadn't either.

[Adam Mockler]

But he ran on no new worst.

[Scott Jennings]

I'm saying he ran on no new worse.

[Adam Mockler]

He should have ran on it. It's a 47 year war.

[Jimmy Dore]

I thought Congress and the American people, if it was. That's a great point. If it's such a justified war, how come he didn't take it to Congress and the American people and have them vote on it? And because Congress is the only actually are supposed to be declaring war, but they're such cowards and they're so owned by AIPAC and the Israel lobby that they don't want to have their hands dirty. And so they just let Trump do whatever he wants so they can wash their hands of it when they go to get reelected.

[Kurt]

Well, they didn't say no to the Ukraine thing. Why would they say no to this?

[Scott Jennings]

Ultimately he may do that, but ultimately

[Adam Mockler]

120 days in

[Jimmy Dore]

anyway. Now you know why people don't watch cnn? Because it's filled with jag offs like that. And whenever somebody comes along with an actual idea, they tell, shut up, kid. You get, you need to go grow up.

[Kurt]

Okay, the blonde guy, this, this like golden potato right here. Unbelievable.

[Jimmy Dore]

He looks like, he looks like. Keaton said this. He, he looks like the WEF version of Donald Trump. If you went to like a community theater, he'd be the guy playing Donald Trump in the community theater production of the war. That'd be that guy.

[Kurt]

He looks exactly like. That's the best wig. They're like, that's close.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, that was. Keaton said that. All right. I just wanted to show you that. Hey, you know, here's another great way you can help support the show is you become a premium member. We give you a couple of hours of premium bonus content every week and it's a great way to help support the show. You can do it by going to jimmy dork.com clicking on join premium. It's the most affordable premium program in the business and it's a great way to help put your thumb back in the eye of the bastards. Thanks for everybody who was already a premium member. And if you haven't, you're missing out. We give you lots of bonus content. Thanks for your support. So this is Howard Lutnick. Now he's the Epstein class. So much so that he went to Epstein Island. He hung out at Epstein's apartment because they live next door to each other. Epstein sponsored dinners in his name and he lied about it. All so he's the quintessential. He's like Dr. Fauci. They're really good at lying and they over explain stuff. So that's how you know they're lying. They give you way too much information than you need. And here he is trying to talk about Jeffrey Epps. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because he just recently had to testify a course behind closed doors, and everybody's calling him a creep and a liar. Well, let's watch. Before I get to what the. What the congress people who were at the hearing said, let me just remind you of what a liar he is. Jeffrey Epstein was your neighbor. I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about him. East 71st Street. He was your neighbor for 10 years.

[Howard Lutnick]

How well did you know him? All right, so we are in number 11, and he lives in number nine.

[Jimmy Dore]

Right.

[Howard Lutnick]

So we renovate, we buy our house, and our house is pigeons and mice. Right. Okay, that's. It was derelict.

[Jimmy Dore]

Right.

[Howard Lutnick]

So we build, we rebuild our house. We move in in 2005. Okay. Jeffrey Epstein is arrested in, like, a way down there. Something.

[Jimmy Dore]

Right? Right.

[Howard Lutnick]

So knock on the door. His assistant on like a Saturday, says, Mr. Epstein, your neighbor would like to invite you over for coffee. So my wife and I go next door. You know, we walk seven steps. Yes, right. To the next house for.

[Unknown Politician (possibly Republican)]

For coffee.

[Jimmy Dore]

We share a wall, by the way. Is coffee code for pizza?

[Kurt]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

And jerky.

[Kurt]

Beef jerky and coffee.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Howard Lutnick]

Right, right. So it's in New York City. So he invites us in, we have coffee in this. And he says, do you want a tour? He said, great interest, that. Really big house. Every room you went into that he's got it. Well, I'll tell you. So his house is like super big, really wide. And so he gives me a tour in the living room. Big living room. And then across from it is double doors. I assume it's the dining room.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Howard Lutnick]

And he opens the doors, and there's a massage table in the middle of the room and candles all around and stuff. So I ask very insightful, cutting questions. I say to him, massage table in the middle of your house. How often you have a massage? And he says, every day. And then he, like, gets like weirdly close to me.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Oh.

[Howard Lutnick]

And he says, and the right kind of massage. Oh. Now my wife is standing here. So she looks at me and I look at her and we say, I'm sorry, we have to go. And we left. And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house. My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again. So I was never in the room with him socially for business or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn't going because he's gross. And so I look back at it as a gift.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes.

[Howard Lutnick]

He gave me a gift.

[Yasmin Ansari]

Yes.

[Kurt]

Of a voice.

[Howard Lutnick]

So, yeah, that's my story. A one and absolutely done.

[Jimmy Dore]

Right. So I. I mean, that's an incredible story that you could pick up that

[Howard Lutnick]

he was a pervert. It's gross. The guy's gross. With my wife, he's grown. The guy's gross. This was.

[Jimmy Dore]

Now, when she says, that's an incredible story, what the literal interpretation of that is, is that's a not believable story. Because it's not believable because he's lying. All that stuff is what a great liar he is. He's a theatrical liar, just like Dr. Fauci.

[Kurt]

It's not that good of a lie.

[Jimmy Dore]

And how do I know that he's lying? Because there's Jeffrey Epstein files that show him asking to go to his island. And he actually did go to his island. And he took his kids.

[Kurt]

They brought the kids. Each of us has how many? Four children.

[Jimmy Dore]

He says, hi, Jeff. We're landing in St. Thomas early Saturday afternoon and planning to head over to Saint Barts on Monday at some point. Where are you located? What's the exact location for my captain? Does Sunday evening for dinner sound good? I've got another couple, Michael and Marcy Lehrman, with me, with my. On my boat. And each of us has four children. Two sixteens, two fourteens, a 13, a 12, an 11 and a 7 year old.

[Kurt]

Why is he doing that?

[Jimmy Dore]

So here he was before he had to testify. He just recently testified in secret. So now you know he's a liar. Not only that, he was in business with Jeffrey Epstein. Okay.

[Kurt]

Brought a bushel of kids to him.

[Jimmy Dore]

Right.

[Kurt]

And it sounds very weird how he's talking about his own kids.

[Jimmy Dore]

So let's. And he was asked about this once before. But, Nick, I think you understand the root of concern here. It's the way you described very emphatically your first encounter with him in his apartment said you were disgusted, would never have any contact with him again. Did you, in fact, make the visit to Jeffrey Epstein's private island?

[Howard Lutnick]

I did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation. My wife was with me, as were my four children.

[Jimmy Dore]

So everything you said in that interview was a lie. Everything you said about he's a creep. But we never got. We had to excuse ourselves. Oh, my God, he's a creep. He's gross. That's. That was all a lie because you actively sought out eating lunch, going to his island. And you went, by the way, he was that gross.

[Kurt]

And you're like, we got to get our kids and another couple's kids to this guy's island immediately.

[Jimmy Dore]

And also, he was in business with him. Lutnick and Epstein were in business together. And as Thomas Massie wrote, it's all one big club and you ain't in it. Epstein sponsored an event held by John Paulson to honor Howard Lutnick. John Paulson also appears in Epstein's black book, the Kicker. John Paulson has given $250,000 to defeat Thomas Massie. Literally every fat cat is after Thomas Massey. And this. Okay, so there you go. All right, so now what? So now let's get back to most recently. So most recently, they had a. He testified in secret, behind closed doors with no video. And why does the Epstein class. Why do blackmailed pedos get to testify behind closed doors about the Epstein files? Well, it's because your country is run by blackmailed pedos who get to testify behind closed doors because your country is run by blackmailed pedos.

[Kurt]

Yeah. And they're not just pedos. I mean, don't limit their. They do every evil thing you could imagine, such as the mass bloodletting they're doing right now over in the Middle East. Perpetually.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Right.

[Jimmy Dore]

They're constantly slaughtering people for profit, literally killing people for profit. They're like, they're like a Manson, a Ted Bundy, and pedal parts, they're better part of them. And a Jeffrey and a Jeffrey Dahmer all put together. That's what that. That's who the class of people is who are ruling over us. And I don't, I don't mean congress people, because they're not the ones actually ruling. I'm talking about the people who rule over them, the puppet masters, the people who control Trump.

[Kurt]

So here can't abide even one Massey left.

[Jimmy Dore]

So I hope I didn't bury the lead. Here is Representative Yasmin Ansari after she was at the hearing quizzing Glutnik about this. Here's what she said.

[Yasmin Ansari]

After what we have seen so far in this transcribed interview, I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover up in American history. We have now gone through the timeline of events with him in, in detail and excruciating detail from when they met in 2005. This is Howard Lutnick and his wife meeting Jeffrey, Jeffrey Epstein. He described it himself in great detail on a podcast last year where he said that they went to his home, they took a tour and allegedly were so uncomfortable after seeing the massage tables in Jeffrey Epstein's home that Howard Lutnick went on, on this podcast to tell the American people that he himself and my colleagues referenced the, the definitions he tried to change of what he meant there. But he said that he would never socially or professionally be involved or be in a room with Jeffrey Epstein again. Then in 2012, he took his family and his staff to Jeffrey Epstein's island. I focus my questions today on how he could have done that if him and his wife were truly so uncomfortable. Especially when in 2008 we know that Jeffrey Epstein was accused and the sweetheart deal took place for soliciting a minor. Howard Lutnick tried to tell us in that room that he essentially didn't know any of that. I asked him how did I, as a child at the time, see this all over the media about Jeffrey Epstein? And you, an adult who was this person's neighbor who had engaged with him before, how could you possibly not have known? I mean, the level of the lies that are taking place inside that room without video is unbelievable. And part of this egregious cover up. I recommend that every single American, when this interview is released, read the document in full.

[Jimmy Dore]

That they're not going to read the document in full. That's for. That's what newscasters are for, according to Fredo Cuomo. Anyway, so here's the story. There's. That's Lutnick. And you see that look on his face? That's the look of a man. That's the look of a man, Kurt, who knows the corrupted system is going to protect him no matter what he says or no matter what he does. He is not going to pay a price. He's not going to even. I bet, I would bet money that he's not going to be even asked to leave the administration because he, as a lot of people have theorized, is Trump's actual handler.

[Kurt]

Yeah, and his son in law probably too. I mean, he's surrounded by people that you see Trump looking like. More like Biden every day of when he just babbles nonsense.

[Jimmy Dore]

And why does your. Does a government that's run by blackmailed PDF files allow a guy like that. To testify in secret, behind closed doors, without video, because your government is run by blackmailed PDF files who allow people to do. That's why I wonder if Letnick's wife would be also subpoenaed to talk. Because I'd like to know why she thought it was a good idea to take her. No kid. No kid. That'd be great idea.

[Kurt]

Are you sure he has a massage table in his living room? That might be too gross.

[Jimmy Dore]

For reasons he said were inexplicable, Howard Lutnick acknowledged visiting Jeffrey Epstein's island seven years after he claimed to have severed his relationship with the convicted offender, according to lawmakers present for the Commerce Secretary's closed door testimony. I'm sorry, but inexplicable means you're not capable of explaining something right, rather than you just don't want to explain it. The acknowledgment, however, did not satisfy Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee participating in Wednesday's interview with Lutnick as part of the panel's ongoing investigation into Epstein's crimes and the powerful people in his orbit. He was a vase. So. Okay. They just. Okay. Lutnick appeared before lawmakers Wednesday for a transcribed interview, not a deposition, meaning he did not need to take an oath of honesty. And the proceedings were not recorded on video. What is this? George Bush and Dick Cheney after 9 11? Because that's exactly how they testified. They testified in secret. No video. Not under oath. And only. But with each other.

[Kurt]

Right. So everything's going. They had a meeting.

[Howard Lutnick]

Basically, yeah.

[Kurt]

Everything's going according to plan.

[Jimmy Dore]

So. House Oversight Chair James Comeber said, if we find that there were any misstatements by Lutnick, it's a felony to lie to Congress and you'll be held accountable. What testimony? What? You can't. What? James Comey says if we find there were misstatements by Lutnick. You haven't found any yet. I just found a whole three minutes full of them. I just showed you a video of those misstatements. I just showed you the lies.

[Kurt]

You have to think I would tell you if there were any. Jimmy, I'll be cash. Don't you think I would tell you?

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, it's. Dude, we're out there. This guy. I'm out there. I'm out there. Framing shooters and busting cooters. Maybe. Come on. If only. The. If only. If only a few. It's a felony to lie to Congress. But only. And if. When Congress isn't made up of liars who also don't want to be found out. So Comer also defended his decision not to require Lutnick's interview to be videotaped. So this guy who's saying, hey, if we find out that there was any misstatements. Of course. What are you talking. If we find out he's the guy who let him testify in secret.

[Kurt]

Comey, you're the best.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. So saying he said the panel would release a transcript to the public, and it will end up. It will be up to the American people to judge. Why not have a video of it?

[Kurt]

Oh, Comer. I keep thinking it's Comey.

[Jimmy Dore]

Like, no, it's Comer. So Lutnick has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection. Of course, nobody has. What are you talking about? Nobody?

[Kurt]

I'm accusing him now. I'd like to accuse him if I could. Jacques Hughes.

[Jimmy Dore]

Why did they just hire Matt Taibbi and Michael Tracy to run this hearing?

[Kurt]

Maybe Shellenberger can tell us why we shouldn't jump to conclusions.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. But he has been under scrutiny from members of both parties since federal materials in the Epstein matter revealed the Longtime Cantor Fitzgerald CEO visited Epstein's now infamous retreat in the US Virgin Islands in 2012. He had originally said he broke ties with them back in 2005. But the stakes are high for Lutnick, the first cabinet secretary to testify before the Oversight Committee with the congressional majority of the same party in recent history. Prior administration officials were ousted by President Trump soon after. Politically damaging appearances before lawmakers on Capitol Hill, notably Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and Pam Bondi. I don't think that's why Pam Bondi was let go around the time that Lutnick and Epstein became neighbors, Lutnick and his wife. So we already went over this. But Lutnick admitted he and his family and friends had a short lunch. Right. He recalled being unsettled that Epstein's assistant had found out he was in the US Virgin Islands to extend the invitation in the first place. Committee Democrats told reporters that Lutnick ultimately could not explain why he went to Epstein's Island. And Ansari saying the Cabinet officials described the decision as inexplicable and their interactions were meaningless and inconsequential. So here's Ro Khanna. Here's what he said.

[Ro Khanna]

We know why that interview was not videotaped. If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick. It was really embarrassing. He was asked very straightforward questions about whether he regretted misleading the American people. I mean, he said that he would never see Epstein again in 2005. And everyone knows that he took his wife and kids to see Epstein in 2012. And yet it was just contortions and lies and no acknowledgement that he misled the American public. And if you saw the exchanges that my colleagues had with him, you would see he made a farce of the English language. I mean, he was trying to define I as if saying that what he really meant is that he would not see Epstein alone, but be totally fine with having his wife and kids. Kids. See Epstein. It made no sense. And then he's raised even more serious concerns about the investigation. He originally had said that Epstein engaged in blackmail and recorded videotapes. Now he's saying, well, he was wrong. He was just speculating. And Epstein actually didn't engage in black blackmailing. This raises the question of what the COVID up is. Did someone tell him to say that? I've not heard that he is that Epstein never engaged in blackmail. Why is Howard Lutnick changing his testimony, changing his story? He's lost all credibility. And really, it's a shame that the American people don't get to see what he did there. Total lack of truth and lack of honesty.

[Jimmy Dore]

Here is a guy named Waukesha. So he's the guy standing behind Ro Khanna. And he's wearing glasses, not because he needs them to see, but he needs protection from all the finger pointing that's coming his way because they all these people actually know what the real deal is here. So here's what he said, that he

[Waukesha]

hadn't seen any evidence of wrongdoing by Secretary Lutnick. And that's actually the problem with the Trump administration, this Republican majority in Congress, because lying to the American people is wrongdoing. And Howard Lutnick lied to the American people. I hope today that we would have heard some remorse, some contrition from Secretary Lutnick for flat out lying to the American people. Instead, what we've heard thus far is hours of testimony.

[Jimmy Dore]

Testimony.

[Waukesha]

He's attempting to redefine the meaning of the word I. He claims that when he said, I would never be in a room again with Jeffrey Epstein, he meant only him and Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was so gross to him, so disgusting that he wasn't willing to be in a room with him. He was perfectly okay with his wife and family being in a room with Epstein.

[Jimmy Dore]

He's lying.

[Waukesha]

And today's transcribed interview is part of the ongoing cover up because the American people deserve to see the video of what's taking place in there. They deserve to see the sweat on the secretary's brow as he struggles to answer basic questions about his lies to the American people. We're going to continue to listen and ask tough questions, but unfortunately, it appears that Secretary Letnick is not going to take any responsibility.

[Jimmy Dore]

I think it's amazing that this Waukesha guy is incredulous that someone who would even consider going to Epstein island is capable of lying. Right? That's like being shocked that Jeffrey Dahmer didn't tidy up after eating a runaway. Oh, my God. His kitchen's total a mess. No better. Oh, my God. So anyway, now you know what's happening. Your. Your country is run and protecting PDF files that are being blackmailed. What? Kurt.

[Kurt]

Okay, so this. That's exactly right. We just said this fake little pageant here because this is Midas touch again. So that's the meiseless brothers. Who are those fakes who tried to ruin Rogan, as you recall.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Kurt]

For during COVID that they're. They're connected to the Diddy thing, which is also connected to the Epstein thing. So this is one big pageant. Oh, how are the Democrats ever going to come back? Right? Because they suck so bad and Trump now sucks so bad, they're going to swing the pendulum back. Oh, look. Midas touch wants to get the truth out, Jimmy.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Kurt]

Oh, look at that.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Kurt]

Be invested in the system, assholes.

[Jimmy Dore]

Now that Biden isn't president, they want to get the truth out about the Epstein files. So there you have it again. They get to testify in secret, behind closed doors with no video, because your country's run by blackmail PDF files who allow people to testify in secret behind closed doors with no video because your country's run by blackmailed PDF files. It's a circular thing. I'm here with one of our favorite guests, Scott Ritter, One time Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements from 91 and 98. He served as the chief inspector for the United nations in Iraq, leading the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Didn't find any. He was later a vocal critic of the American decision to go to war in Iraq. He's also the best selling author of nine books. His latest, highway to Hell, the Armageddon Chronicles, 2015 and 2024. Welcome back to the show, Scott Ritter.

[Scott Ritter]

Thank you very much for having me.

[Jimmy Dore]

Thanks for being on, Scott. I always appreciate you accommodating our schedule. It's always nice to. This is my Judge Napolitano impersonation. I hope you appreciate, you're always very kind and generous. You know, we always appreciate your insights. It sounds amazing, Scott. So I wanted to get right to it. I saw this tweet by our friend Ferkin. He says the Pentagon is an absolute panic mode. Al Jazeera completely exposes US Central Command for dodging basic questions about massive damage to American vessels. The Trump administration recklessly fired on a tanker and sparked a retaliation. Trump is hiding a massive failure. Let's listen.

[Al Jazeera Reporter]

Well, that's right. And I should point out that we here at Al Jazeera have reached out to U.S. central Command to try and get the U.S. take on what exactly occurred in the Strait of Hormuz in the last couple of hours. Our response was that they had nothing to offer us. In other words, they didn't confirm it nor did they deny it. And we should point out that when it comes to Iran's state broadcaster, there have been reports of damage to US Vessels before. The United States has always denied or minimized that. And so it's really unclear right now exactly just what has occurred. But as you reported at the start of the bulletin, this escalation has come on the heels of the United States firing on Iranian tanker just one day earlier. And so there is certainly an incident that potentially has prompted the Iranians to now retaliate against the United States. But again the United States Central Command not confirming, nor is it.

[Jimmy Dore]

Okay, so Scott, do you have any, this is from yesterday. Do you have any information that could confirm or deny this report?

[Scott Ritter]

No, I don't have a hotline to central Command so I, I wish I did, but if I did, they, they probably wouldn't tell me anyways. You know, I, I would err on the side of the Iranians being over optimistic. I do believe they engaged our ships. Our ships have some very sophisticated, you know, self defense capabilities. The important thing here isn't whether or not they, you know, actually hit a ship and did damage, although that would be a very big story. It's that they made the ships turn around and run away. You know, that they, the, apparently the attacks overwhelmed the defenses to the point that they had to use the close in weapon system, Basically the Phalanx 20 millimeter Gatling gun in a desperate effort to stop the Iranian missile from hitting the ships. You know, and the Gatling gun only has a finite amount of ammunition. It burns, it can cycle through that ammunition in 30 seconds. So had a second wave been launched and broken through the missile defense barriers, the ships would have been helpless. And so they had to leave. And this just again underscores the fact that Iran is in complete control of the Strait of Hormuz and the United States Navy is powerless to change that equation.

[Jimmy Dore]

Well, speaking to that point, the Washington Post reports that the US Intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump's Hormuz blockade for months. And John Hudson did a nice summary of this confidential CIA analyst delivered the policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the US Naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship. Finding that contradicts those hailing an imminent collapse. The US intel also indicates that Iran retains about 75% of its pre war inventories of mobile launchers and about 70% of its pre war stockpiles of missiles, per a US official. The regime has also been able to recover underground storage facilities and repair damaged missiles. And here is from the report. One of the US Officials said they thought Iran's capacity to sustain prolonged economic hardship is far greater than even the current CIA estimate. The leadership has gotten more radical, determined and increasingly confident that they can outlast US Political will and sustain domestic repression to check any resistance inside Iran. The official said comparatively you see similar regimes lasting years under sustained embargoes and air power, only wars. What's your, what's your response to this report?

[Scott Ritter]

Well, I would say that the CIA doesn't have good insight into Iran to begin with. You know, we've burned through three human intelligence networks over the years and when I say burned through, that means that they were compromised and all of our spies on the ground were captured and killed. So we've been relying upon Israeli intelligence. That's what got us in this war to begin with, bad Israeli intelligence. So what we're looking here is a CIA assessment of open source information. No spectacular insights. And the CIA is prejudiced against Iran. The even though these assessments are, you know, show Iran to be in a better position than the White House has spun it, I would say that Iran is in a better position than the CIA is reporting. It's not three to four months. Iran can last indefinitely. People tend to forget that Iran has been laboring under, you know, U.S. sanctions and restrictions on its oil economy for 47 years. This isn't their first rodeo, their first fluctuation in market realities. They know how to deal with this. It also ignores the fact that, you know, a great deal of Iran's oil production is consumed domestically, that they, they aren't necessarily held hostage to, to, to the, you know, the, the closure of the strait. As much as people might Think they have other ways to. To get oil to market. Right now, the Pakistani Iranian border looks like something out of Mad Max with all the oil tankers going back and forth. You know, and you know, the Iranians have mastered oil smuggling routes. They're not panicked at all. The Iranians I have spoken to say that there is no panic in Iran about their or the people that are panicked are the Gulf Arab states. Kuwait, for instance, who shipped zero oil last month. They're the ones running the storage problem. Same thing with Saudi Arabia. Same thing. United Airmen. They're the ones that face, you know, oil field closure and maintenance issues. So the, the CIA is wrong on the missiles. I would just refer to Foreign Minister Iraqi's response. He said we're not at 75%, we're at 120%, meaning that Iran has far more capability today than they had when the war started. That reflects the reality that the United States hasn't destroyed anywhere near what we claim to have destroyed and that Iran took their missile production underground. They've been building missiles during the war, and they're building missiles now. They have more missiles today of a more modern variety than what they started the war with.

[Jimmy Dore]

Hey, this is Jimmy. Who's this?

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

What's up, Jimmy? It's your favorite US Vice President calling.

[Jimmy Dore]

Wow, we have Hubert Humphrey on the line.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Oh, very funny. Okay, very funny. You got me. Wait, do I sound like him?

[Jimmy Dore]

For real, though, I got no idea, buddy. How are you, Mr. Vice President?

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Oh, I'm doing great, thanks for asking, Jimmy. And things are going great too, Jimmy. I'm happy to announce we are on the verge of wrapping this whole Iran thing up.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. Is that so?

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Yes. And it's glorious to see all that we have accomplished with sheer American will and American military might.

[Jimmy Dore]

What do you mean you haven't accomplished literally anything? None of your objectives.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

I know. No regime change, no solid end of the nuclear program. They still have enriched uranium underground.

[Howard Lutnick]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

You've established Iran has complete control over the Strait of Hormuz.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

And our actions have marginalized moderates and the government and neutralized civilian opposition. Mission accomplished.

[Jimmy Dore]

Okay. How on earth is this a win, Jimmy?

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

We win in the Trump administrator. We in the Trump administration know how to spin massive fuck ups in the positives. Spinning the Iraq debacle may be our biggest challenge yet, but we are up to the task. And here we say, by accomplishing nothing, have we really accomplished everything?

[Jimmy Dore]

And here I say no.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Well, yeah, that's your opinion. We, needless to say, have a different one, which is Think of the message that this sends to the world. The United States is now officially willing to go to war for literally no reason, to accomplish nothing. Do you realize what a statement of strength that is like? Who in their right mind would mess with us now?

[Jimmy Dore]

We've come a long way from the Donald Trump who was pining for a Nobel Peace Prize.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Well, there again, I think you're wrong, actually. To that end, think of all the countries we haven't invaded, which is like most countries. So considering how frivolously we can go to war, you know, that shows President Trump in a very restrained and peaceful light, if you want to think about it a certain way.

[Jimmy Dore]

What an amazing disconnect from reality, sir.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Thank you. But, yeah, it's pretty great. There's really only one loose end that we haven't been able to wrap up yet, but.

[Jimmy Dore]

I'm sorry, Mr. Vice President, I'm getting a call on the other line. Hello, this is Jimmy at the Jimmy Dore show speaking. Who's this?

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

Jimmy, this is Benjamin Netanyahu. Is J.D. vance there?

[Jimmy Dore]

Hey, B.B.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

tell him I'm not here.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I can hear you.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Oh, hey, man. What's up, dude? How are you doing?

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

Don't give me that. Why is no one at the White House taking my calls? What is this I hear about a peace deal being brokered without me?

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

B.B. just calm down. Everyone is going to get their fair share. You just need to be patient for a little while That.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I want to talk to Trump. I demand to talk to him now.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

You can't talk to him right now. He.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I'm the one who put this war together, God damn it. Without my connections, none of this would have happened. I demand my concessions. I want my concessions right now. J.D.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

will you keep your voice down? You're gonna get your concessions, I promise you. But you have to wait until the heat of this whole thing blows over. Have you ever known Trump to desert an ally? You just need to lay low and be patient for a little while.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

Oh, J.D.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

j.D. What?

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

Oh, J.D. boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling.

[Jimmy Dore]

Wow, that got tense for a minute there. But then everything now is clearly going to be okay.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I don't know what I'd do without this kid. I really don't for the life of me get Trump. But JD can always keep through to him.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Well, that's part of my job.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I feel better already. I don't even know what I was so worked up about. Time for me to pass on the good news to others. I bid you gentlemen farewell. Shalom.

[Jimmy Dore]

Bye. B.B.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

that dude's deader than a doornail.

[Jimmy Dore]

What?

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

Yeah, dude. Trump told me if he starts raising a stink about this peace brokering, he's going to withdraw his support for him. So he gets toppled and prosecuted within the Israeli government.

[Jimmy Dore]

Whoa.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

So that chaos will solve the whole Israel slash Lebanon slash Gaza problem for us once and for all. So, anyway, yeah, I got to go set that in motion. Personally. I do enjoy personally stabbing people in the back, so this will be a good one. Anyway, what can I say? These breaks out peace in our time. And all thanks to the great peacemaker Donald Trump himself. Oh, my chest hurts. I gotta go.

[Jimmy Dore]

Hey, become a premium member. Go to jimmy door comedy.com sign up. It's the most affordable premium program in the business. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. All the voices performed today are by the one and only, the inimitable Mike McRae. He can be found at mikemcrae.com that's it for this week. You be the best you can be and I'll keep being me. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Do not freak out. I'm not kidding.

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[Jimmy Dore]

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[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I'm not.

[Jimmy Dore]

I'm not.

[Donald Trump (Impersonation)]

I'm not. I'm not.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I'm not. Don't freak out.

[Jimmy Dore]

Don't freak out. Do not freak out.