← The Joy Reid Show
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- [00:01]
Joy Reid
Lifelock.
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Abbas Alawiyeh
How can I help?
- [00:02]
Joy Reid
The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't.
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
One in four tax paying Americans has paid the price of identity fraud.
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Joy Reid
What do I do?
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
My refund though.
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Joy Reid
I'm freaking out. Don't worry.
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Abbas Alawiyeh
I can fix this.
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Joy Reid
Lifelock fixes identity theft, guaranteed and gets
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
your money back with up to $3 million in coverage.
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Joy Reid
I'm so relieved. No problem. I'll be with you every step of the way.
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
One in four was a fraud paying American.
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Joy Reid
Not anymore.
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Save up to 40% your first year.
- [00:27]
Joy Reid
Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply. Okay. Yeah. Well, well, well. Happy Wednesday, everyone. Welcome to the Joy Reed Show. Big ups to everybody in the chat. So we can see you guys jumping in I. The lemon heads are always early. They're like the teacher's pet. They're like, we're here first. We want to let you know. We throw the lemons up. We let you know that we're here in the chat. Big up to all the lemonheads. Welcome. Thank you for popping on over from the Don Lemon Show. Big up to everyone in Substack, our fabulous stackers that are in and piling in even as we speak. Everybody on Facebook. Hello. And our twitchy Twitch. Twitch, Twitch, Twitch. We appreciate everybody that's also listening on an audio podcast. Oh, LinkedIn. The LinkedInies. Let's not leave them out. If you're on LinkedIn, what's up? Hello, LinkedIn, folks. And if you're on Apple, Spotify, wherever you're listening, we just, we're just happy that you're here. No matter where you are, be sure to hit that like and that share button. Help us spread the word and also help us out with the algorithm. You know, we need help with the algorithm. I'm not too proud to beg. Please hit like and subscribe. Don't just be a lurker. Who wants that become. Hey, family. Just want to say good evening. Have a good show. Talk to y' all later. Jason, chiming in from the very cool studio. So anyway, fam, gotta go. We love it. Don't come back. Have a great show. Come back anytime. Jason Reed, you. You feel like you're at home, make yourself at home because it is also your company. So make something. Everybody's big enough. Jason, also in the chat. Thank you all for doing that. Reminder, if you're a Substack Premium member, we do have the second in our series of Joyce House Insider live chats tomorrow at noon. So if you guys are an insider, big up to all you guys. Big up to the readers who are both members here and on Substack, big up to the team TJRS folks as well. So I've picked up everyone. I've note that I will have my tea. You see, I have a. I have both. I have a hot tea because my throat is, is dinging me a little bit. And I also have my wa. So for those of you in the chat that are my voice police that are like, you need to drink more water. No, I'm doing it. I'm having water and tea tonight. All right, so I'm that I'm all together. We have some great guests on tonight as well. But we're going to start with our, our top story, which of course is our forever war, our new forever war in Iran. Black rain has been falling over Iran, which means we're likely poisoning the civilians in Iranian cities in order to fight Bibi the Butcher and his sidekick, Donald the Dumb, their pointless war. Take a look. For about a minute and a half of some brief news reports,
- [03:19]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
There have
- [03:19]
Joy Reid
been apocalyptic scenes in Iran after Israel bombed major oil depots in Tehran. We have seen toxic thick black smoke
- [03:26]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
engulf parts of the capital and paramedics have warned of acidic rain, telling people
- [03:31]
Joy Reid
to stay indoors and wear masks as this was unfold. Waking up to this morning, the sky above the city is covered in very thick black cloud. You can see that everywhere. That's the west of the city over there. And this is the north of the city. Normally, if you look to that direction, you could actually see the Alborz Mountains. But now all of that is also covered in clouds. That comes after major airstrikes in the south and the west of the city happened last night, where oil installations were hit. Oil storage facilities, apparently also a refinery might have been hit as well. And now you can see this morning that the sky is still very dark. We saw thick black plumes of smoke in the sky. Yesterday, there were massive fires in the south of the city. But I want to show you something else because it's also raining. But you can see that the rain, the rain water is actually black, also saturated, it appears, with oil. And then if we look over there, you can see that the water that's running down here also is black. So that's what's coming down this morning. The black rain and the
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Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
acidic rain
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Joy Reid
coming with it is indeed a danger for the population, respiratory mainly, and it could be acidic, depending, of course, what context you have. We are in touch with the hospitals and with the.
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
We are with the authorities and the Iranian authorities have issued an alert advising
- [05:03]
Joy Reid
people to stay indoors even in light of the attacks on oil warehouses especially. It's despicable. And again, a reminder that there's no reason why we're doing this. Now. Iran has said that it will not participate and cannot participate in the World cup, which is going to be of course, in the Americas, United States, Canada and Mexico due to the war on them that's being waged by us in Israel, which as we're going to get to later in the show, is also committing war crime after war crime, including dropping white phosphorus on civilians. And that's not the first time they've done that. And the fact that we too are committing what sure do look like war crimes in Iran, just as we did in Iraq where we tortured people 20 years ago when George W. Bush was the dumb Republican president duped by Bibi and his pro Israel fanatics in this country into going to war in the region, formerly Mesopotamia and the former Ottoman Empire. What you're seeing once again, just as we saw in Vietnam and Iraq and in the gulag we built in Guantanamo Bay after starting our other 20 year war in Afghanistan, is the complete breakdown of rules of engagement that US Forces are supposed to abide by. Now do you see why those members of Congress and senators made that video telling servicemen that they do not have to follow illegal orders? Bombing oil refineries and creating black rain, which is poison, is something that the Hague might normally investigate. The bombing of that girls school in Iran that is so egregious that it's actually starting to hit home among Americans. Even some maga are disgusted by it. And Trump, of course, has lied about it, trying to pin the strike on Iran, despite all the evidence, even in our own investigations on this side of the pond, pointing to our own troops performing a targeted double tap airstrike on the school during school hours and killing 165 elementary school girls between 7 and 11 years old and injuring scores more. This says we're dropping about $6 billion worth of munitions every two days. Not helpful to our economy, but also obviously deadly to Iranian civilians. And while we've seen much more of the US Media kind of collapse under the authoritarianism of the Trump regime, there are still some good journalists out here that are asking the right questions. Here is one of them. You just suggested that Iran somehow got
- [07:27]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
its hands on a tomahawk and bombed
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Abbas Alawiyeh
its own elementary school on the first
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Joy Reid
day of the war.
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Abbas Alawiyeh
But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was at standing over your
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
shoulder on your plane on Saturday.
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Joy Reid
Why are you the only person saying this?
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation. But Tomahawks are, are used by others. As you know, numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly whatever the report shows. I'm willing to live with that report.
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Joy Reid
Yeah, plus you don't know enough about it. You are the commander in chief, right? Sometimes you really do wonder who is in charge over there? Is Stephen Miller just running everything? Is Marco Rubio in charge? Who is in charge, sir? You don't know? You really don't know. Now look, Trump can play dumb, which clearly is not hard for him. But Iranians and people with a conscience all around the world are not letting this go. The Tehran Times front page this week featured pictures of the slain girls. They put their pictures on the COVID of the children. And the UN has condemned the strike and posted this friendly reminder on its website. Schools are civilian objects and children are expressly protected under international humanitarian law. The experts underline directing attacks against civilian objects, including schools, unless they become military objectives is prohibited under treaty and customary international humanitarian law. And indiscriminate attacks are strictly prohibited. International attacks on educational buildings that are not military objectives are war crimes listed in the Rome statute under Article 8. It's not just them. According to Reuters, as many as 150 US troops have been wounded in the 10 day old war with Iran. And that is according to Reuters who spoke to two people familiar with the matter. That has not officially though been acknowledged by the United States government and it has not been previously reported. Before Reuters did it, the Pentagon pushed back on that reporting though they have disclosed the eight US military personnel they say were seriously injured and they say it's only 140 wounded and said that the vast majority of the 140 who were wounded were minor. They pushed back on Reuters saying that 140 ain't great either. Even if you give them the benefit of the doubt. 140 injured Americans and eight seriously injured also. That adds up to 148. So that means Reuters is probably. They're pretty spot on. 140 plus 8 is 148 and we know that seven US troops have been killed. Let's put up their pictures as well. You can see them there. They have been identified. And this is from left to right. Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor, Sergeant Declan Cody, Captain Cody Cork, Sergeant First Class Noah Teachens of the 103rd Sustainment Command. They were killed during an unmanned aircraft system attack on a commercial port in Kuwait. And then the three on the other end are US Army. Sorry. US Army Reserve Command Sergeant William Rivers, Specialist Brianna Moffett and Specialist Kennedy Sanders, who were killed in a drone strike in Jordan that the US Is blaming on Iran backed militia group Hezbollah. Note that Iran is responding to the attacks on its cities by hitting US bases anywhere and everywhere. 19 countries are now at risk. So US troops, no matter where they are, no matter where they're stationed, are now at risk. And Trump cannot even be bothered to take responsibility for that. I want you all to listen to him passing off responsibility for this war. Hold on a second to his real. I'll tell you who they are. His real estate developer son, Jared, son in law, Jared Kushner, who happens to be so tight with Bibi the Butcher that he once gave the Prime Minister his bed to sleep in when Bibi and his family were in town visiting his family, his real estate developer friend, Steve Witkoff, who's partnered with Jared to turn the blood and bones of Gaza, people killed by Israel in that genocide, into the foundations of a real estate extravaganza. And secretary of everything, Marco Rubio. Okay, there it is.
- [11:48]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
It's very quickly approaching the point of no return. And the United States found it intolerable, in my opinion, based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me, Marco so involved that I thought that they were going to attack us. I thought they would if we didn't do this at the time we did it. I think they had in mind to attack us.
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Joy Reid
And yeah, I'm sorry, he also blamed Pete, but who listens to that guy? He also said it's, it's them. They said that this was the right thing to do. I don't know what you want me to do. Pete and, and Steve and Jared and, and Rubio and them, they said we should do it. What do you want from me? Now, one of the goals of authoritarianism is that the regime will cultivate a sycophant press corps and try to make them the only voices that you hear. Luckily, that is not universally true as of now. We did hear that reporter in the top of the show actually ask a real question. But on the other end of the spectrum, here is longtime Republican state media, Fox News. The news is in scarecrow, owned by the oligarch Murdoch family, Rupert Murdoch and company lying on Trump's behalf regarding something actually pretty important, the dignified return of the troops who laid down their lives apparently for Israel and for Trump's billionaire donors.
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President J.D. vance and Secretary Lady Usha Vance attending a dignified transfer to honor the final homecoming of the six U.S. service members killed in Kuwait. The solemn ritual returns the remains of troops killed in action. It is considered one of the most somber duties of a commander in chief. President Trump promising the nation that they will all be remembered as heroes. Very sad situation. Before we move on, we want to acknowledge a mistake made earlier on our program. During our coverage of yesterday's dignified transfer, we inadvertently aired video from an older dignified transfer instead of the ceremony that took place yesterday. We deeply regret the air and extend our respect and condolences to the service members families. We honor the sacrifice of those six American heroes. They are Captain Cody Cork, Sergeant First Class Nicola Moore, Sergeant First Class Noah Tchens, Sergeant Declan Cody, Major Jeffrey O', Brien, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan. All American heroes.
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Abbas Alawiyeh
We'll be right back.
- [14:12]
Joy Reid
First of all, he named six people, not including the three that I named in Jordan. So that means that, that means if they're naming six and then I showed you three others, it's really nine. Maybe we don't have our numbers right here, but yeah, they said they accidentally, inadvertently aired the wrong footage. Y', all, you work in a news organization. You didn't accidentally do it. Let me show you the actual footage of Donald Trump receiving the bodies of our dead troops. There he is. You see what he's wearing? That trucker cap? It's a campaign trucker cap that he refused to take off throughout the entire dignified return. You can see him there. You can see Marco Rubio there. You see Melania there. And that is what Trump looked like. And Donald Trump has gotten hammered for this. People who have served in the United States military, something he did not do because he welched out. He got out of going to Vietnam saying he had bone spurs and he didn't serve. And this is the way that he presented himself. This is embarrassing. An American president standing there in a trucker cap that he refused to remove. Maybe he was afraid the wind would take his wig and make it go amiss. But keep in mind that President Obama did a 45 minute return for troops in Afghanistan and stood there for 45 whole minutes. He didn't have on a trucker cap. It's just disrespectful. It's just absolutely disrespectful what Donald Trump did. He does not look like a dignified person. You can see J.D. vance there. We haven't been seeing J.D. vance too often, but this is horrific. Now, I want to remind you all how Rupert Murdoch's main print page, besides the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post reported on President Biden checking his watch during a dignified return. Yeah, there's Trump. This is how they treated President Biden during COVID He checked his watch for a minute and got hammered as a dishonorable disgrace. But even Fox cannot hide what's happening to this country, to oil prices. Iran has said that the world better get ready for $200 a barrel oil. That's twice what it is now as it continues to attack merchant ships in the blockaded Straits of Hormuz. Let me show you a chart that shows you just how dramatically traffic through the straits has dropped. It's dropped to almost nothing, which is why your gas prices are way up and your heating prices, thank God it's not the dead of winter anymore, but all of the prices, your air conditioning, that's going to go up. And Trump's answer to that is to relieve sanctions on Russia. Get this. So that Russia can put more oil into the market. Russia is one of the largest oil producers in the country and profit from it, which will help them to better afford to keep fighting, to annex Ukraine on the opposite side of us in that war. And also they happen to be friends with Iran. And the regime cannot seem to answer whether they are helping Iran and giving US intel to help Iran fight US And Israel. Now, with extra money from the unsanctioned oil sales, that Trump is okay to try to force gas prices down. Does that make sense to you? No. Well, your president is headed to Ohio to try to lie about the economy and get people to look away from that, while demanding Republicans pass the Save America act to try to save the midterms from the fallout from all of these disasters that he's caused by deploying massive voter suppression. He's saying that he will not sign any more laws until the Save America act is passed. And someone should maybe inform him that if Congress, let's say, was to pass a bill, not the Save America act, but something else, and he refuses to sign it. He has 10 days, per the Constitution, to sign it or veto it. Otherwise it becomes law anyway, without his signature, unless Congress is adjourned. And if they did adjourn, that would be a pocket veto. But as long as they're adjourned, dude, if you don't sign the bill, it's going to become law anyway. And all of this while his inept Defense Secretary, who styles himself a Secretary of War, is basically announcing to the world that war crimes and unfettered violence, including against civilians, apparently is now US policy.
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Clear objectives with maximum authorities on the battlefield. The dumb politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we're doing here. They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement.
- [18:56]
Joy Reid
No more.
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Our authorities, his authorities, centcom's authorities, through the President and myself, are maxed out.
- [19:05]
Joy Reid
This is repulsive. There are reasons. There are rules of engagement and the military generally welcomes them because what we don't want to do is go out there hell bent and committing war crimes. But he's apparently said, yolo, you're the Hague. I will also note that the Defense Department, it's still called the Defense Department, has barred photojournalists from briefings on the US Israel war on Iran because Pete Hegseth's staff said that media released photos that were unflattering of him. So photographers can't come in. They have to give them a day pass to get in. So he's trying to restrict who can get in because he doesn't like looking bad. We have a lot more to report regarding the Israel, Iran, the Israel US war on Iran, including where that thing is metastasizing in the Middle East. But real quick, I wanted to make a shift to the other scandal, you know, the one that the Iran war is supposed to make you forget, namely the Epstein cover up. One of the many disgusting aspects of this cover up is the question of what Jeffrey Epstein was doing at his fourth hangout. Besides the Florida and New York residences and that creepy island in the Virgin Islands, that fourth residence is called Zorro Ranch. It's in New Mexico. I want you all to take a listen for a moment to New Mexico Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry talking about it.
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Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Properties that Epstein held was his Zorro Ranch here in New Mexico. He purchased that property in 1993 and already by 1996, there was an allegation of sexual abuse at that property that was reported to the FBI. But why did the FBI never fully investigate it then? Subsequently, there were multiple other allegations made to both state authorities, to Santa Fe police, to the FBI, and for whatever reason, they were never investigated. There was never a warrant issued to investigate that property. And when I went to go view the unredacted files last week, I specifically went in to see if there was additional information in Zorro Ranch which was not public. And the answer is there is absolutely information in those files. There are pieces of those files that are public that are redacted. And certainly I encourage the public, reporters and anyone to look at those files. But there are also allegations not only of rape and assault of women and girls, but also men and boys in the files that I viewed. And the allegation which had been on, you know, kind of circulating on the Internet of the potential of two women who had been trafficked in New Mexico being strangled during a sex act and buried on the property that was reported to the FBI. And I viewed the FBI information on it, and I absolutely believe it needs to be investigated.
- [22:06]
Joy Reid
And joining me now is Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry. She currently serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Committee on on Oversight and Accountability. Very important. She is a leader on those committees, serving as the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Congresswoman, thanks so much for being here.
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Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Of course. It's great to be here.
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Joy Reid
Thank you. What do you know about, I mean, Zora Ranch obviously is in your state. What has been uncovered, to your knowledge, about what Jeffrey Epstein was doing there? And is there corroboration that at least two women were killed there?
- [22:40]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
So at this point, there is an active investigation. As of Monday, New Mexico's attorney General and Department of Justice has physically begun their investigation of the ranch site itself. But as was mentioned in the clip, what is so strange about this case is that not only did the FBI and Department of justice ask New Mexico to end its investigation into Zorro Ranch and 2019, there was never a warrant issued to search that property. And so Monday, the New Mexico Department of Justice's physical examination of the property is the first time that we know of that those crimes have been investigated. But you have to remember, the first of those crimes to be reported to the FBI that we know of was in 1996, which is 30 years ago. And so the likelihood that they will find physical evidence of crimes is not very high, but certainly needs to be investigated. And so New Mexico's Department of Justice is taking this very seriously. And we're the only state in the country to pass a bipartisan truth commission at the legislative level that is also investigating these crimes.
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Joy Reid
There are some files to your point about the FBI, which, as you said, under Cash Patel has said they've declined to continue investigating. But some of the declassified files that we have seen emerge. I'm putting them. I put, I put one up on the screen here. And some of this involved members of the public who came forward to say that there was something about the ranch that made them uncomfortable. This person, whose name is redacted. So they live in a neighborhood, live in the neighborhood of a property owned by Jeffrey Epstein. The property, which is Zora Ranch Road, Stanley, New Mexico, has recently had a large barn constructed. The barn is suspicious as there is a garage door that appears to be a sally port, and if there is a chimney. This person is concerned that the property could potentially have an incinerator concealed within the Barn. An old 1970s mobile home has recently been put right behind the barn, which this person believes is. Does not follow Santa Fe county regulations. It says there's been a lot of high profile people seen frequenting the property. This person has heard rumors that the property was used for recruiting girls to visit with Epstein, but he has no factual evidence to support the claim. They've heard rumors that girls from Albuquerque and from the Moriarty area were recruited for Epstein. And Jason, if you could go to the next slide here. This person then adds that there are cameras, sally ports, and other security measures. They explained that the barn that was constructed does not look like a barn that you would use for ranching. They wanted to report the information because they're concerned evidence could be being destroyed here. Is there any evidence that that barn ever contained an incinerate or that that property ever had an incinerator?
- [25:47]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Well, like I said, the property was never investigated by authorities. What we do know is that part of why Jeffrey Epstein chose this property is that it is in a very remote site. As I understand it. I personally have never physically been there, but it was, you know, fully surrounded by security. They were very careful about who was allowed on the property. And that is part of what makes it so, so strange that both federal, state and local authorities never investigated the property, knowing that there were multiple FBI reports and other reports at local police levels of crimes potentially occurring there. And I think this raises the bigger question that is really at the heart of this case, which is why was justice never pursued? Right. I mean, many people are familiar with what happened in Florida because of the documentary, and many people know about the miscarriage of justice that happened there, but the same things were happening here in New Mexico in the 90s. And in fact, just on Sunday night, I talked to a local survivor who was recorded, excuse me, recruited through a local massage school. And so the exact same patterns of abuse that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were ultimately arrested for elsewhere were happening here in New Mexico, but nobody held them accountable, literally for decades. And so clearly, the abuse was coupled with tampering with the justice system. And that's part of what we're trying to get to the bottom of.
- [27:18]
Joy Reid
I will note just for the audience that the man who now owns this property, his name is Dan Huffeens, his family owns that ranch now and he happens to be running for comptroller in the great state of Texas. So he's trying to.
- [27:33]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
And his son works for Donald Trump in the West House.
- [27:37]
Joy Reid
Of course.
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Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
I mean, Justine. But also, you know what makes this story even weirder.
- [27:42]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [27:42]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Is that he is reportedly trying to transform this ranch into a Christian retreat. And what I want to know is what parent on planet earth would send their child to that property after knowing what happened on that property? The whole thing is so bizarre.
- [27:58]
Joy Reid
It, that that is beyond weird. Right. Like why would anyone. I mean, but, but. And yet I think we both know that people who are in that far right Christian belief system would send their girls there. And that's what actually scares me the most. But I think there are people who would do it. It makes me very uncomfortable. Let's talk about what's in those unredacted files. You posted a very, you know, you could see the emotion on your face, your response. Having seen the unredacted files in some cases that contained girls faces uncovered girls who maybe had not even ever come forward. But in one case there was a 15 year old Jason, if you could just play B4. CNN went and uncovered a lot of this stuff and they did redact them for their broadcast videos of young women
- [28:47]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
that CNN has censored. Here are among the millions of Jeffrey Epstein related files released by the Justice Department.
- [28:55]
Joy Reid
An extensive CNN review of the the
- [28:57]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Epstein files uncovered at least seven videos featuring unredacted women.
- [29:05]
Joy Reid
Hi from Jevil.
- [29:07]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
This girl dressed in a bikini and heels, seemingly doing a model walk says
- [29:11]
Joy Reid
she is just 15 years old.
- [29:13]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Hello, my name is.
- [29:15]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
I'm 15 years old and my meter
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Joy Reid
is 78 cm long and I'm from Ring Latvia. It was only after CNN inquired about them that a Doj Square spokesperson said, third, those girls sounded Eastern European. I'm not an expert on accents. When you went and looked through those files, did it appear that one of the things, among others that Jeffrey Epstein was doing was sort of presenting himself almost like a modeling agent and recruiting girls from overseas on the promise of them becoming stars or models?
- [29:46]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Yeah, I mean we know that that is part of his system of abuse. I personally did not look at those specific files. I was concerned with looking at the Zoro Ranch files and frankly the Redacted files concerning the current president and his administration, who are named many thousands of times in those files, including files of allegations of the President himself committing acts of sex crimes against a minor. And so, you know, these files are vast. They. There's over 3 million documents. And, you know, you're given a couple of hours inside the Department of Justice to look up specific files, so you can't look at the entire body of work. But what I can tell you is that what we know is that Jeffrey Epstein used both his proximity to Les Wexner, who owned all the L brands. So, you know, he owned Victoria's Secret and Amber, Crombie and Fitch, and that Epstein would tell young women and boys that, that he was a recruiter for, for those brands. We know that was part of what he did to lure people into his sphere. We know the Ghislaine Maxwell part of why she was convicted is she was one of the primary perpetrators and actually recruiting especially young women, she would go to massage therapy schools. She went to Mar a Lago, to the massage, you know, on site spa and recruited people like Virginia Giuffre. And so they were. And she would literally drive around New York City, city and recruit girls from high schools. So, I mean, what is clear when you start to dig into this story is that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were super predators on a scale that I have never heard of in my entire life. And they were using every tactic they could to bring underage girls into their sphere, to abuse them. And then they were offering them as a kind of currency to their friends, to entertain their friends. And we know that they were, especially towards his later life, using these modeling agencies to recruit women. And so Jean Luc Brunel owned this modeling agency, which, by the way, was in association with Trump's modeling agency, as well as the modeling agency owned by the guy who's running the Kennedy center for him right now to recruit women from Eastern Europe. And Melania was recruited through that network as well. It's all out there. It's public knowledge. And they were brought here. Many of them were provided false visas and then they were brought in and in many cases, abused and became a part of that network.
- [32:25]
Joy Reid
Did you see any evidence in the files that Donald Trump's pageants, he owned both the modeling agency and for a while, the Miss Universe pageant? The teen, I guess Miss Teen Universe. Any evidence that those entities were also used to recruit girls for Jeffrey Epstein?
- [32:43]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
It's a piece of the files that I haven't tried to investigate. And So I couldn't tell you if there's documentation. You know, there's been reporting of parties that were held at Mar a Lago and that Trump attended in which girls were brought in for modeling parties or modeling activities. But I don't know to what extent that, that that's how it happened. But I will say this. You know, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were best friends for over a decade. And not only is there the, you know, now very well known allegation against Donald Trump, that the files, the FBI investigation was just re released a couple of days ago, but there is also a lawsuit that was filed against Donald Trump that's in the files for a whole separate person, another young woman who was a minor when it happened. And you know, I go to what Hillary Clinton said during her deposition when asked about whether or not Donald Trump should be deposed. He has a pattern. And when you see a pattern of abuse, you should be asking questions. And so we know that Donald Trump was associated with these people. We know he was accused of abuse. I think he needs to come and answer.
- [33:55]
Joy Reid
Yeah. And it's very unusual for more than one person to accuse you of sexual assault on them when they were 14. And Donald Trump has been now accused by more than one person, including some women who've also accused him. So, you know, as you said, that's an unusual thing. Most men don't have to deal with that exit question to you. I have to just pivot really quickly and ask you about your colleague Andy Ogles of the state of Tennessee. He had some pretty disgusting things to say. Muslims do not belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie. I don't know if he's taken it back, but I will note that he has quite a background. He's quite a rap sheet. Apparently raised money for a, I guess a funeral fund for his family member or child and the money kind of went away. We're not sure what happened with that. He's definitely taking lots of APAC money. Lots of very interesting background. Is he somebody that even in this House of Representatives might be censured for that?
- [34:51]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
The problem is that the Republicans aren't holding any of their members accountable. They're not holding Donald Trump accountable. They're not holding Ogles accountable. They're not holding fines accountable. Who also made racist, anti Muslim comments a few weeks ago. I mean, what is very clear is that Mike Johnson, who's the speaker of the House, has made a deal with the devil. And that deal is that any of his members can do or say whatever they want without sanction because they're part of the coalition that is ultimately supporting whatever it is they want to get done. But my opinion is if you are making the those kind of statements against members of our community, you should not be serving in Congress. And ultimately it will be up to the people in November and I sure as hell hope they take them out.
- [35:36]
Joy Reid
I 100% agree. You know, protecting pedophiles and racists seems like a bad look for a party, but then again, you know, that's not my party. So I guess I don't understand. 26 yeah, indeed, indeed. May it end much more peacefully and joyfully. Representative Sansbury, thank you so much. You're welcome to come back anytime.
- [36:00]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Thank you. Have a great rest of the day.
- [36:02]
Joy Reid
Thank you. You too. You too. I love making sure that you all see that there are representatives who are really doing great work and important work here. So there you go to pivot right back to our friend TV Pete when he's not frat boying around the place pushing the troops to praise God and commit war crimes. Apparently Peter is busy maxing out the Pentagon credit card. A nonprofit watchdog called Open the Books has run the numbers and found that hegseth's Department of Defense, whether not banning reporters or bullying members of the Pentagon for being too fat, and yes, it is still called the Department of Defense when the Department of Defense is not doing those things, it's apparently blowing through $22 million on lobster and ribeye steak as part of a wild September 2025 end of spending spree. That's one month. Open the Books found that Hegseth's DOD spent $93.4 million on grants and contracts in September 25th alone, nearly 50% of which was expended in the last five business days of the month. So the way it works is that the defense officials typically enter the end of each fiscal year with at least one goal in mind for the organization, which was founded in 2011, and that goal is to spend the rest of the military's budget by any means necessary. Otherwise, use it or lose it. Funding rules force the Pentagon to forfeit its unused money and potentially see reduced funding the following year, which kind of sounds to me like the taxpayers ought to be getting a refund instead. But anyhoomst, per this report, Open the Books has tracked the annual September spending bonanza for nearly a decade. Military spending has spiked every year, regardless of which party controlled the White House. However, there has never been anything quite like September 2025, when $93.4 billion was spent on grants and contracts. Since at least 2008 and presumably in history, no federal agency has ever spent so much money on grants and contracts. In a single month, the Department of defense spent 225.6 million on furniture, the most since 2014. Nearly half was labeled as office furniture. The purchases included $60,719 on Herman Miller chairs, very fancy, including at least one order of their luxurious Aeron chair for $1,844. Another 12,540 was spent on three tiered fruit basket stands. Remember last September when Hegset told the military in a speech that it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon? Well, turns out military personnel spent that month dining in luxury. To fatten themselves up further, The Pentagon spent $2 million on Alaskan king crab in September. It's the fifth time the Pentagon under Donald Trump has spent $2 million or more on king crab in a single month, twice during his first term and three times in 2025. It has only happened one other month in history, which is February 2021. Also, Trump Fortune magazine recently declared that king crab has taken caviar's place as the hottest luxury ingredient. One seafood merchant explained that king crab isn't a budget buy due to its remote harvesting and labor intensive handling. The military also bought $6.9 million of lobster tail that September. Again, it was not an isolated incident. It's been a theme of Hegseth spending so far. In 2025, the Department of Defense spent more than $7.4 million on lobster tail in four separate months. May, June, March, and October. It previously only happened. That had only happened once before in October of 2024. Nice work if you can get it. Joining me now is Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of the great state of Rhode island. And he frequently uses his voice in his position to combat corruption on the Supreme Court and in the White House. Senator, welcome. I was in a deep wormhole on this spending and I'm just gonna give you a few more bullet points before I ask you a question. 15.1 million on ribeye steak, a million on salmon. 272 orders of donuts for 139,000. 124,000 for ice cream machines, 26,000 for sushi preparation tables. 3.5 billion for tech support and cable TV. 2.4 billion in IT goods, including laptops, software licenses, 3.5 million on Apple devices. They got themselves 400 new cool iPad, Air M3s, $315,000, $4 million for Samsung. They got paid too. They got 98 inch monitor with a crystal UHD display. I could go on and on. They got $1.8 million, sir, in musical instruments, including a $98,000 Steinway grand piano for the Air Force Chief of staff's home. And I'm going to go last thing. Training classes, janitorial work from foreign companies. And the Pentagon also dropped 111,000 on foot rests and stickers featuring Dora the Explorer, Frozen and Paw Patrol. What is happening?
- [41:10]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Well, what would be happening if this were a Democratic administration is that people would be looking into it and demanding answers. I don't think that Republicans want to look very closely at this kind of behavior by their own administration. So all the more reason why we need Democratic oversight so that real constitutional oversight can happen for $93 billion worth of rush it out the door spending. I think it's also a signal of how when these Trump people come to town, they want to take care of themselves. The talk is we're going to look out for the taxpayer. The walk is we are going to look after ourselves. Whether It's Kristi Noem 70 million dollar bedroom jet or whether it's Steve Miller living in fancy official quarters or whether it's this 93 billion or whether it's the Kennedy center board members looting the Kennedy center for contracts for their buddies, it is always, always taking care of themselves.
- [42:24]
Joy Reid
Yeah, it feels like what the goal of this administration, at least one of the goals is, is to live rich, to live fancy, to have fancy cars and I mean, Cash Patel with the fancy SUVs and the fancy jackets they're driving in fancy SUV. I mean, all of it does feel like a grift. Are they getting any actual work done or are they literally just stuffing cash and prizes into their pockets?
- [42:50]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Well, Cash Patel's use of the FBI jet to go to the Olympics in Milan to party with the hockey team didn't seem like a very productive use of government resources. And the fact that he set up a meeting while he was there to provide cover, I think just makes it look sleazier. And among the many problems of this is that real FBI agents, really distinguished men and women who are trying to defend our country against terrorism, who are trying to solve complicated criminal schemes, who are kind of the best and the brightest of law enforcement, have to look at their own leader behaving that way. And for the men and women of the FBI, it is humiliating and they can't say anything about it because this is such a gang of thugs that they'll come after anybody who crosses them. It's sort of equal parts gangster and Gong Show.
- [43:57]
Joy Reid
Yeah. And this while people are not able to afford their medicine, while Medicaid is being gutted, while we're told we don't have enough money for preschool programs and Head Start and we're supposed to be on Doge, cutting the budget, finding savings. We can't do usaid. It feels like we're in bizarro world.
- [44:21]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
My particular favorite is the electric utility costs going up because the Trump administration is blocking cheap, clean energy from getting onto the grid. So the costs on the grid go up. Regular ratepayers pay billions and billions of dollars more, and those extra billions go to polluting fossil fuel plants that wouldn't otherwise be running if the clean, cheap electricity was on. So people pay more, but Trump's big fossil fuel donors make more. It's a pump for pumping money out of people's pockets into Trump's big donors coffers. It is a corrupt racket and they love running it.
- [45:09]
Joy Reid
And by the way, one of the most corrupt parts of the corrupt racket are these AI and tech companies that are polluting our communities with these AI, you know, sort of, you know, giant sort of AI factories. Yeah, the data centers, but also surveilling us. So chat GPT, their chief robotics guy just quit because he objects to chat DPT, ChatGPT technology being warped in order to kill people more efficiently in war. You've had the same thing happen with Claude. Another of these AI systems that anthropic, they were threatened by the Pentagon. They must allow their technology to be used. How much is any of this regulated at all? Because it does feel like were simply being surveilled and these technologies are being used to kill more civilians around the world.
- [46:02]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Very little. We've got a lot of work to be done on AI and it ain't easy. I just saw a clip on YouTube that looked like Rachel Maddow and it looked like she was exposing a scam in Florida. And I sent it to my staff saying, well, I haven't heard anything about that. And they sent back to me because it's fake. It's not Rachel Maddow, it's not real. It's all AI. But it was a four or five minute segment that looked like her. She spoke, you had the pictures on the side. They'd set it up to look like her show. So AI is really creeping into the disinformation world and that's really dangerous because the Big money people behind the Republican Party who specialize in their disinformation. Really, there's no check on their behavior. There's nothing honorable about those people. And what they will do with AI to corrupt democracy further is a real concern.
- [47:04]
Joy Reid
Right. And I can't function without massive amounts of data. Right. To train it. And ideally for if you're a tech oligarch, what you want is maximum data on the American people. It now appears, at least there seems to be circumstantial evidence that Doge, this whole pretend program to save the United States money, clearly it didn't have anything to do with that. But one of these allegedly Doge members got a hold of our Social Security data, put it on a thumb drive, allegedly, in order to take it to his new job, his new job at a company unnamed. This is reporting that the Washington Post has done. It does appear now that Doge did steal our, our data from the Social Security Index. Right. And they've got it all. And it's potentially being used by a private AI company.
- [47:59]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
I warned about that over and over. I asked my colleagues to put a requirement into legislation about that. I got a promise from the head of Social Security that he would do a proper audit so that we'd know whether any data got exfiltrated. And now we finally found out that, yep, that appears to be exactly what happened. And so we've really got to police that and investigate that. The problem is because it's Doge, they report to Elon Musk. Elon Musk runs a big platform X that caters to Republicans. He's a huge multi hundred million donor to Donald Trump. And so what do you think the chances are of anybody in the maga, Department of Justice looking into any type of misconduct related to that charge? They're just not going to do it. It's a MAGA doj. They don't follow where the evidence leads. They follow where the narrative leads.
- [48:59]
Joy Reid
Do you believe that this is the reason, or at least the ability to take our data, our personal data, and use it against us and use it against our democracy? And is that, in your view, what's behind this Save America Act? Because one of the provisions in it is that every state would have to turn over its voter rolls to Kristi. Well, now, not Kristi Noem's office, to the Department of Homeland Security, which is now under Mark Wayne Mullen, of all people. That sounds to me like there's a desire to do something underhanded with that information.
- [49:30]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Well, it definitely is an underhanded piece of legislation. It would probably be more accurately entitled the Save Our Sorry Asses at the Election Booth act because it tries to prevent people from coming in and voting and in ways that are really offensive. Like you have to prove that your married name and your birth certificate not adding up is. You got to go and like, sort that out and get permission to be able to vote in your married name. If you are a married woman who's taking your husband's name. If you haven't thought to do that and you show up to vote and then they say, nope, sorry, you are not qualified. You didn't do all this work first. It's purpose built to suppress the Democratic vote. And when you look at what they've done to the economy, when you look at the wars that they've started, when you look at the appalling corrupt behavior that you're seeing, like the $70 million bedroom jet, then you can see why voters are going to feel that way. And so they're trying to overcome voters with trickery through the Save Our Sorry Asses Voting Booth Act.
- [50:55]
Joy Reid
Yeah. Speaking of the bedroom jet, do you think Mark Wayne Mullen is going to be an improvement? I mean, he did get lots of money from PPP loans. There are a lot of questions about stock trading on information he might have had. I don't feel like we've improved our lot with him, do you?
- [51:10]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
I think there's going to be a lot of inquiry made through his Senate confirmation hearings. That department is enormous, extremely hard to manage, and in some cases requires some really expert knowledge of areas of the law and areas of law enforcement. And I'm not sure that this particular colleague brings the skill set to be able to do that effectively. Hopefully anybody would be more honest than Kristi Noem. But we're gonna look very, very carefully at that because there's a lot that's gone wrong at dhs. And he's gonna have to make a heck of a lot of promises and then prove that he can make the repairs. And if he can do that, God bless him. I don't see that yet.
- [52:05]
Joy Reid
Well, I hope he at least doesn't make an ad featuring himself in a cowboy hat. Let me let you listen for just a moment to Doug Burgum, our Interior Secretary, saying something that actually really alarmed me. And I think anyone who heard it because it speaks to the goals of
- [52:19]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
these multiple wars signed the first licenses for critical minerals to start flowing and precious minerals. On Friday, there was $100 million of gold that came from Venezuela to the United States that's for both industrial purposes as well as other commercial uses. Venezuela's got $500 billion of resources of gold, but they've also got other critical minerals, bauxite for aluminum, which we need for defense and for consumer goods. They've got coal resources that can be used to help generate power again to help us win the AI arms race with China. So they're rich, rich, rich in minerals. And just like they passed an amazing hydrocarbon law back In January, in three weeks, their legislature did that in response to the U.S. that's creating opportunities for investment, for human capital and financial capital in their country. Haven't seen. And now on Monday in tomorrow, they're introducing a similar kind of change in regime, the laws for all of the critical minerals in mining. And so when we were down there this week with both oil and gas executives from the US and the top mining executives, these folks are excited about getting back to Venezuela. They were often there before in the past. They see great opportunity. And I tell you, the people of Venezuela, they are going to be putting up a statute of President Trump as a great liberator because he has opened up their economy again after more than two decades.
- [53:42]
Joy Reid
Okay, it sounds to me like there is a desire to have control over Venezuelan minerals. And your colleague Lindsey Graham has threatened. Cuba is next. And Donald Trump has made noises about controlling the oil in Iran. Is that what we're doing? We are back to being an imperialist nation stealing people's minerals and resources, to put it mildly.
- [54:02]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Gunpoint colonialism to extract resources is not the American brand. The American brand is freedom. The American brand is decency. The American brand is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And so when you damage America's brand, that is not a great outcome. Yeah, that's assuming that this is all honest. If behind the gunpoint, colonialism is a lot of sweet deals for Trump cronies. And there's every reason to believe that the purpose of this is to extract wealth for Trump's cronies, then it's going to look even worse. And of course, when they control the House and the Senate and when the Department of Justice is doing the president's bidding and won't do its work of investigating for potential corruption and fraud, then they feel that they've got a license to go ahead and grab whatever they can, while the grabbing is good. Back to our earlier conversation about they come to government with the idea to take care of themselves.
- [55:15]
Joy Reid
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the stalwart defenders of the idea that you should be Able to be in government without plow, you know, plumbing the government for corrupt ends. We gotta have you come back and talk about the Supreme Court. That's a whole different conversation that we have to tap about Clarence Thomas and those guys. And you, you do keep your eye on them. Thank you so much, Senator. It's always a pleasure.
- [55:35]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Thank you, Joy.
- [55:36]
Joy Reid
Thank you very much. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the best out there. Honestly, I wouldn't be mad at him as Senate Majority Leader. I'm being honest. If they were to get back the Senate, I wouldn't be mad at that, because he at least sticks it to the corrupt and he keeps his eye on the prize when it comes to corruption. He's been one of the leading voices on the corruption of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. And, you know, I wouldn't be mad at it because he's. He definitely keeps his eye on the ball. So that is our first hour of the show. Jason, what do you think? I don't know. People love him. I think people are giving him some love in the chats, because I think what we need right now is we need to have a serious conversation about what it is that MAGA actually is, because I'm not sure that I see evidence that it is even. It is even a government. I think they've forgotten about maga. They're onto stealing everything for themselves. MAGA was just a vehicle to get there. Now they're just gonna steal everything. I think even Nick Fuentes's of the world, the Nicola Fuentes of the world, they are onto it now. I think finally those who are paying attention to have finally figured out that all the talk of mass deportation and making white men great again and appeasing their anger over immigration, all of that talk was just to get them on board. And it turns out that Donald Trump's actual agenda is no different than George W. Bush's agenda. Wars for oil in the Middle east and hegemony and imperialism in our hemisphere. You remember back, it's a crime syndicate. Remember back when you first said probably about a month ago, that this whole process is literally about enriching themselves? Forget everything, just literally. Grab as much as you can grab
- [57:27]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
while you're here, and I'll pardon every
- [57:30]
Joy Reid
single last one of you. Do what you want to do, and that's it. I'm going to go play golf. It's very clear that Donald Trump's goal in getting back into the White House, he saw it as his last chance to rake in as much money as possible to become as wealthy as possible to get as close to being a billionaire, which he now is, as possible to enrich his family. His son Don Jr. Has just invested, I think, in a company that is in the drone business. They're literally raking every single policy and agency for as much cash as they can stuff into their belt buckles. They're just stealing. At the end of the day, this is not an administration or. Or even a regime. It's just a crime syndicate. Doge was just an opportunity for the AI billionaires led by Elon Musk to get by theft what they could not purchase, which is the personal data and information of 350 million Americans, which they can now feed into Grok, feed into chat, GPT. And that is what makes AI stronger. It has to have data. And they needed. The ultimate bag is all our data. And they have it now. This is Die Hard. This is Die Hard on a mission. At the end of the day, the only plot at the end of the plot was everybody was thieves. They just want to take all the money for themselves and distract everybody. And that's what it is. They're a bunch of thieves, thieves. And they're just taking what they want. Die Hard is a perfect analogy because at the end of the day, all of these sort of elegant crime that appears to have some deep meaning, it's. It's just. It isn't deep. They just are stealing. All of these people are just. It's just like the members of the Supreme Court. At the end of the day, Clarence Thomas, he just wants to be rich and have rich fancy vacations and fancy cars and fancy things. These people are all just stealing. They just want money and they use this whole ruse of make America great again. Got particularly white Americans all hopped up and angry about immigration and promised them they were going to deport 2 million people. Know that the deportation rate in the Trump regime is lower than the deportation rate for Biden to this day. Because what they're doing is they also promised the lock them up people, the private prison people who gave Trump money, that they would give them bodies for their private prisons. They need bodies in order to make money. Deporting people ain't making the money, baby. The way you make the money is lock them up and maybe make them go and work for cheap. This is all. None of this is real. None of what MAGA was is real. It turns out the agenda of Trump's no more dumb Bush wars regime is literally the same as George W. Bush. Same donors, the Marian Adelsons of the world. The same people, the Bibi. You know that Jared Kushner again, is so close to Bibi Netanyahu that Bibi has slept in his house, in his bed. When he was younger, when he was still living at home, Bibi Netanyahu visited the family home. These people are what they the genocide in Gaza is just a way to flip that land for a development that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two of the people Trump blamed for the war, he said, well, they told me to do it. And they are literally preparing to steal the land in Gaza with the dead bodies under the ground and put a real estate development on it. And it turns out that's all that was about. It's all that. But over here on the Joy of each show, we are about information. We're about trying to make sure that you guys are informed, that you guys know the deal and that at least you can call a lie a lie and a spade a spade. And that is our goal. And honestly, we could not do that. We would love to be able to just do that on our own and we would love to do it, but we cannot do it without sponsors. And we appreciate our sponsors. 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And so if you would like to give it a try, this fabulous piece here, or any piece that you would like to try, don't wait to build the wardrobe that you actually want. If you go to quince.com/joyread, you will get free shipping and 365 day returns. That is a full year to wear it and love it. If you don't, you can return it for a full refund and you will love it. It's now also available in our favorite country, Canada. Please take me, Canada. Do not keep settling for clothes that don't fit and don't last and aren't fabulous. Go to Q I n c e.com joyread for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com thank you all very much. Welcome to our due duh. Our duh of the Joy Reid Show. Want to remind you all that we have grown. I'm looking at the counter here. We are edging up on 430,000 subscribers on YouTube, nearly 210,000 on the stack. We've got more than 400,000 on Facebook. And all of our little sites are growing. All our twitchies are growing. They're stalwart. They're in there. Our LinkedIn fam. All growing. But do you know that most people who watch, particularly on YouTube, most viewers, are not subscribers. Only about half of the people who regularly watch and enjoy the show are actually subscribers. About 45% of the lovely folks out there who are watching the show are not subscribed. So if you could please do Jason and I a little fave and subscribe right now, that would be absolutely amazing because it would make you a literal, legitimate part of the family and you wouldn't be a lurker anymore because who wants that? All right, let's go back to talk about Israel's war with the United States underfoot on the Middle East. But I want to go back before we get there. Israel's war on Gaza, right, and their ongoing settler violence in the West Bank. But Gaza, really, more than anything, it really now feels like a preview to what we're seeing now in Iran. And it demonstrated the preference by that government, that regime under Bibi Netanyahu, for just cruelty, the preference for cruelty over restraint in the way that it wages war in order to demoralize the population that they're fighting and demoralize them into being too devastated and too morally devastated to fight back. That also does seem to be the plan for Bibi the Butcher and Donald the Dumb in their war on Iran. I want y' all to take a look at this. Let's put up D1. This is the Azadi Stadium. This is what's left of it in Iran. It's one of the most popular spots in the country. It was a beautiful historic landmark that is now a pile of rubble. It's heartbreaking just to see it, but let me let you read what one of my favorite writers, Dave Zirin, who writes for the Nation, this is what he wrote about Israel's bombing of that stadium. Quote the Israeli state's genocidal assault against the people of Gaza now appears to be the first installment in an ongoing series. The next episode is what the United States and Israel are doing to Lebanon and Iran. It's not just the relentless bombings and missile launches with little regard for civilian life that's so reminiscent of the war on Gaza. It's not just the slaughtering of children followed by easily debunked denial. The casual mendacity of both governments is jaw dropping. It's not the assassination of governmental and religious leaders. It's the attempt to kill hope. A source of hope and joy in Iran, as in Palestine, has always been organized sports in Iran. Soccer, wrestling, where Iran has achieved global acclaim, and volleyball are three of the main sporting ventures in which Iran competes internationally. Yet it's difficult to play and by extension impossible for a child to to have dreams of athletic glory when the sport's infrastructure is destroyed. As I've pointed out for over a decade, Israel has long targeted sport facilities and athletes in Gaza. The logic is that if you kill the joy that comes with leisure pursuits and extracurricular activities, you kill the will to resist. And yet another echo of Gaza. On March 5, one of the first bombing targets in Iran was the historic Azadi Sports complex in Tehran. Perhaps the most iconic sports facility in the Middle East. Azadi has played host to many of the most storied moments in Iranian athletic history, including a 1998 World cup qualifier match against Australia played in front of 128,000 people. The Azadi Indoor Facility, which holds 12,000 people and is a central locale for basketball, martial arts and volleyball, is now a smoldering the attack on Azadi Stadium was not a stray bomb or an isolated incident. The New York Times has reported that several sports and youth facilities have been hit since Israel and the US launched this war. This includes a bombing that was initially denied by the United States but was confirmed by the Times, in which a strike killed 18 boys and girls in a volleyball match in the southwest city of Le Maire. That same hope killing ethos is being used now by Israel in Lebanon, which they are also bombing, apparently with highly caustic, dangerous and illegal White phosphorus. Please take about a minute and a half to watch this report from Francis 24 News. Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of unlawfully using white phosphorus over residential parts of the southern Lebanon Lebanese town last week. The chemical substance which ignites upon contact with oxygen is harmful to humans by
- [69:07]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
all routes of exposure.
- [69:09]
Joy Reid
It can also set civilian areas like homes and farmlands on fire. The Israeli military has said it is currently unaware and cannot confirm that use of shells that contain white phosphorus in Lebanon as claimed. Emerald Maxwell has more
- [69:25]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
through geolocating and verifying social media pictures like this one showing Yahmah village in southern Lebanon.
- [69:32]
Joy Reid
Human Rights Watch has concluded that Israel
- [69:34]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
fired white phosphorus over residential areas on 3 March, just hours after the Israeli military told residents to evacuate.
- [69:43]
Joy Reid
Civil defense workers later responded to fires
- [69:45]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
in at least two homes and a car. White phosphorus is a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs and rockets that
- [69:53]
Joy Reid
ignites when exposed to oxygen. The Israeli military's unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and and will have dire consequences for civilians. The incendiary effects of white phosphorus can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering. It's not the first time Israel has
- [70:13]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
been accused of using the substance unlawfully.
- [70:16]
Joy Reid
Its widespread use across Lebanese border villages
- [70:18]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
between October 2023 and May 2024 has
- [70:22]
Joy Reid
also been documented by NGOs and open source intelligence. Human Rights Watch has confirmed the use of white phosphorus, which again is illegal under international law. They have condemned it. So between that and the bombing of a stadium and the killing of multiple young athletes, teenagers, children, the girls in that elementary school who were between 6 and 11 years old by the United States, the US and Israel are now jointly conducting a war that is already being it is already triggering the same kind of disgust that the genocide genocide in Gaza did. And as this war pulls in multiple European Countries other than Spain, many of the European nations in NATO are hedging on whether they're going to be pulled into what really could become World War three. But this use of white phosphorus openly, this is not the first time that the Israeli government has done it unsanctioned by the United States, defended by the United States, and now partnered with the United States. And note that Lebanon is a country that Israel occupied for quite a long time because it is in their vision of the far right in Israel, of Eretz Israel, southern Lebanon, they would like to annex the way they have annexed the west bank, the occupied west bank, the way they would like to fully re annex Gaza. And so now, because Lebanon is home to Hezbollah, which is an organization sponsored by Iran and which is one of the many organizations that formed itself after what they call the Nakba, after Palestinians, more than 700,000 were forced off of their land and in many cases pushed into Gaza upon Israel's creation. And following the 1967 war, Iran has backed up Hezbollah in being one of the militant organizations like Hamas also, which has gotten Iranian backing. And so now Lebanon is catching bombs that have now displaced something like 700,000 of them. So now you're seeing mass displacement inside of Lebanon because the US Decided to help Israel go to war with Iran. Today I heard one of the most sobering analyses of what's going on, which raised three questions that really speak to where this nightmare could go. And by the way, for those of you who enjoyed that piece by David Dyren, I am very excited. I'm just looking on my flack here to find out that he will be on with us on Monday. Very excited. We're going to talk to him about the World cup and more. But we need to really think about these three things in this moment and think very seriously about them. And thing number one is will the United States ultimately put boots on the ground in Iran? Because if we do, then those very same Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon will rightly begin to see US Troops as legitimate target. If US Troops go on the ground, we're no longer in a war we can back out of easily an air war, which is what we're doing right now. You can back out of a ground war very hard to. You're in Vietnam territory. That is thing one. Question number two is Israel, which is also getting hit. Their iron, iron Dome, which is supposed to be impenetrable, is turning out not to be 100% impenetrable because bombs are falling in Haifa and in Israeli cities, too. And again, Iran Can Fire Unlimited $20,000, you know, using unlimited $20,000 drones, while the US is using $2 million missiles and burning through them at an incredible burn rate. It's taking, you know, three and four and five of our very, very expensive, you know, billion dollar missiles to shoot down some $20,000 drones so they can keep this going. They're like, we can do this all day. And they're expanding the war into multiple states in the Gulf and making the pain spread out. And so they are doing a strategy that is how a smaller power holds off a larger power. There's a reason we didn't win the Vietnam War. So thing one is, do we end up solving what could be a stalemate situation by putting boots on the ground? Lindsey Graham said in an interview that he's telling his constituents in South Carolina to send their young men and women to send their sons into the Middle East. And so he wants Arab and Gulf countries to do the same and put boots on the ground. So he's very enthusiastically signaling he'd like to see it. So that's number one question. Number two, does Israel get so desperate that they can't get out of the stalemate that they use their nukes? You do know they have nukes, right? They started their nuclear program with the Dimona nuclear reactor under President Kennedy. And Kennedy said, you cannot have nukes. And they said, we're getting them anyway. Ben Gurion, who was their prime minister at the time, defied the United States and gotten and they have nukes. Do they end up the last country to nuke another country? And the only country to do it is us, the United States, who nuked Nagasaki and Hiroshima to try to put a coda on World War II, which we were already winning. So do they use nukes? Do we put boots on the ground? Do they use nukes? And then the third possibility, which is the one that this piece that I was listening to, his name is Dr. Jiang, who was putting out the game theory questions of what are these three, the three sort of most important questions to ask. And the thing three is, does Israel attack the Al Aqsa mosque, which is one of the holiest sites in Islam? Given that what you're seeing in this country, our apparent attempts to turn this into a holy war, military commander saying that Jesus sent Donald Trump to trigger Armageddon. The fact that Megidda itself, where Armageddon, that is Megidda is a real place. It's a place in Israel. Bombs are falling in Megidda. If a battle takes place in Megidda, that is what is described as Armageddon in the Bible, in Revelation. If they, if, if there is. And you're seeing people like, what is this, Jake Lang, these MAGA pro Israel influencers going and trying to trigger Muslims and say things and do things and going around with, you know, a pig and, and doing protests. You've seen that incendiary nail bombs thrown at the mayor in New York's house. All of these things seemingly to try to trigger a response from Muslims that could then both cause a national emergency Donald Trump could take advantage of, but which might trigger, right, the US to go all in with boots on the ground. And what could trigger that? Any harm caused to the Al Aq Sabahs, which is one of the holiest sites in Islam, which would mean that 2 billion Muslims on this earth would then be involved. We have to think about these things because all of these things are possibilities that are on the table. And we have a regime in this country that is treating this as a holy war, or at least some of them are talking about it. We have some news coming across the transom here that one of the ships on fire right this moment, as we speak in the Persian Gulf is the US Owned Safe Sea Vishnu, according to Tanker Trackers. The other one is a Greek owned ship named Zephyros. Two oil tankers right now on fire after being attacked in the Persian Gulf off of Iraq, according to Reuters. It is unclear who carried out the attack. Anything like that so disrupts oil flows at the oil market that it's, it's hard to. I cannot overest, overestimate or oversell how dangerous that is. But the metastasization, the me, the metastasis of this war into Lebanon, given the fact that the far right in Israel would like to annex much of Lebanon and much of Jordan and much of the Arabian Peninsula. And the rhetoric, the anti Muslim rhetoric, including from some members of Congress, which feels like they're trying to trigger a response and people like this Jake Lang character who I won't show what he does, but trying to trigger a response and the vulnerability of these Muslim holy sites and then just the out and out carnage against children and against people in Lebanon, none of this is good. This is all bad news. This could all go south real quick. Senate Democrats have sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seeking answers about the airstrike on the Minab Girls School and other civilian casualties in Iran. All 47 Democrats signed the letter, with the exception of one, and you can guess which one. John Fetterman. The attack on that girls school, which again is not, it is not being let go. People are not letting it go, nor will people let go of what's happening in Lebanon. Let me show you all a video that was posted by Abbas Alawiyeh. He is a candidate for Michigan State Senate in that state's District 2. He's also a longtime political organizer and a former congressional chief of staff. He posted and sent me, he posted on social media but also sent me this video yesterday. Let's post that. That's D3. So this is he posts about his 91 year old grandmother's home and now the billowing smoke and what's left of the home, which isn't much. His home is in Lebanon. That home is in Lebanon. That home is now, as you can see, a heap of rubble. And Abbas Alawiya joins me now. Abbas, it's so good to see you.
- [81:23]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Joy, it's so good to be on with you.
- [81:26]
Joy Reid
We're gonna put that video back up and I apologize not to trigger you, but tell us about this home and I can't imagine that it would have been a legitimate war target.
- [81:42]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Joy, first of all, thank you so much for having me on. My grandmother is 91 years old. Her name is Hajim Zohar. If she's capable of terrorist activities, I'm not sure what they could be. Maybe sometimes she prays terrorists too hard for the people she loves. But unfortunately I come from a region of the world where the average everyday civilian is presumed to be a threat. My grandmother again is 91 years old. Unfortunately, the video that I shared with you and of course that I did not post that, that was a Joy Joy Read exclusive. So everybody should know this is a Joy Read exclusive. And I'm it's an honor to be here with you talking about this Joy, because this is a very difficult thing to talk about. My grandm mother's story. This is the third time her home has been destroyed in her lifetime. You know, during the Israeli military occupation of southern Lebanon, my grandmother's home was destroyed twice before. I had the privilege of being a 9 year old child in the year 2000 when we went to southern Lebanon and saw my grandmother and my late grandfather go to the place where their home once stood and said we're going to rebuild it again. And they rebuilt it. They rebuilt a beautiful home that had a life of its own. Joy, I wish I could have invited you to join us there someday. Maybe one day we will rebuild and you will join us there. But it was the Kind of place where it would be maybe 2am 20 people are still sitting around singing and dancing. Most of them don't live there. Half of them will probably stay the night. That's the kind of joy that unfortunately the Israeli military, with the help of the United States government has, is trying to kill, is trying to destroy. Unfortunately for them, unfortunately for the people who make a lot of money off of every additional bomb that's dropped, working people all around the world, including working people here in the United States and right here in Michigan, In Senate District 2, where I'm sitting, we understand that actually, you know, we have real needs here at home. We've got elders who need access to health care here at home. We've got elders who are subject to one vulnerability after another here at home. And so I'm running for state senate here in Senate District 2. And I'm trying to make sense of the elders that I'm sitting across from who are telling me what their needs are and tell, telling me what our government is denying them in terms of what their needs are. I'm trying to make sense of. Oh, wait, but our government is sending money abroad to destroy my grandmother's home. This doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. And unfortunately it's not a new thing. Again, this is the third time my grandmother's home has been destroyed. But it is something that I believe we have the obligation to every, every regular degular person, every working class person here in this country and around the world who's harmed by a never ending, perpetual cycle of investing in violence. We've got an obligation to change this stuff. We can't keep going down this road. It's not right.
- [84:54]
Joy Reid
Yeah, I mean, we talked earlier in the show, Abbas, about the Pentagon spending money on Steinway pianos and Dora the Explorer stickers and expensive lobster and steak. They're living high on the hog while funding a partner in this war, Israel, that is dropping white phosphorus over Lebanon. That is illegal. That is a war crime. And they're doing it openly and it's not the first time. And our tax dollars are being used for that.
- [85:25]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Right, right. And it's a scandal on multiple levels. It's a scandal because on one level there are really rich billionaires who make money off of every additional bomb that's dropped, every white phosphorus bomb that's dropped, who are making a killing off of all of this stuff. And the other part of the scandal is that while we are trying to get our basic needs met here at home, while people are being taken off of their Medicaid, living in an. In the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not Social Security will even exist in the future, while folks are having a hard time affording just the life that they need to live, their rent, their car payment, etc. Our government never ceases to amaze us in creating money out of thin air to send abroad to destroy homes like my grandmother's. And so, you know, one of the really beautiful things about southeastern Michigan, Joy, is that fortunately we live in a really beautiful and rich in its diversity, a community that has a very specific and quite frankly, unfortunate level of expertise. I belong to an immigrant community where a lot of us are survivors of the very wars that our country unfortunately continues to fund to a seemingly never ending extent overseas. And what we know very intimately, what I know very intimately, having survived one of those wars myself when I was a kid in Lebanon in 2006 and narrowly made it out alive thanks to, you know, thanks to the, you know, the United States military evacuating Americans out of that situation. I remember very clearly the prayer that my grandmother prayed at that time when we were stuck. She would say, may God protect everyone so that we may be among those who are protected. She didn't say, God save us. She said, may God protect everyone so that we may be among those who are protected. And so it just so happens that I belong to a community here in southeastern Michigan. I'm from Dearborn, Michigan, and I have a specific expertise. It's that actually our needs are great here at home. We've got to invest right here at home. Stop sending the bombs to kill my grandmother. You're not gonna, I mean, don't, don't, don't kill my grandmother. First and foremost, it's really upsetting to me that they destroyed her house, Joy. But you know what? We are resilient people will rebuild her house as soon as they stop this nonsense. But the way we're going to stop this nonsense is we've got to stand up as Americans. We've got to stand up as Americans and say, hey, any working class person being subjugated or destroyed or otherwise harmed in any part of the world on our dime, we're not down with that. And that's what we're trying to do from right here in Dearborn, Michigan.
- [88:10]
Joy Reid
Yeah, I mean, Tupac said they got money for war but can't feed the poor. I mean, it's almost comical how the grifting that's taking place at the top is contrasted with the pain they're Meeting out on people at the bottom. I mean, they're literally saying, we can't afford Medicaid, we can't afford Medicare for all. We can't afford health care, preschool, universal preschool, too expensive. They laughed at Zorhan Mamdani when he said he wanted to make buses free. They even demand that people have to pay for a bus ride to a job that underpays them and doesn't give them health care. You know, they demand that you put a coin in for everything because you have to earn it, but they're just floating on a tax cut for the super rich. It is quite obscene. I wonder, for you, as somebody who is running for office, it makes politics feel very grimy, doesn't it? That it seems like the people in power aren't there to serve at all other than to serve themselves.
- [89:14]
Abbas Alawiyeh
That's right.
- [89:15]
Joy Reid
Well, or so many of them, I should say.
- [89:17]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Right, right. So I, I launched this campaign and I'm, you know, so I'm running for state senate here In Senate District 2, that includes Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, Allen Park, Melvindale, Taylor, a little bit of Detroit. And, you know, I launched this saying I want, I'm running to make sure that everyone in this district is taken care of as if they're family to me, because family is everything to me. And that's how I think, that's how hard I think our elected officials should be fighting for us. One of the things that I was told when I started telling people that this is my message is, Abbas, you know, we know you've got a good heart, but maybe politics isn't for you, man. Like the politics is dirty. It's grimy. But the reality is there is power there on the table for working people for us to go and grab it. Of course we're up against big moneyed interests, but if we all organize together, if we link up and organize together, we can change some stuff. We can stop some harm. I learned that not just being an organizer here in this community, I also learned that being a chief of staff to Congresswoman Cori Bush, who is a working class individual who went to Congress and did some really big stuff like during the pandemic, extending the federal eviction moratorium to make sure that 11 million people stayed housed, that would not have happened if it weren't for people power. And so I'm sitting here, you know, on the screen with you, Joy, right behind me is this portrait of my grandmother, this very portrait. And my grandmother, may she be protected among every civilian in the region who's now in danger because of Trump's reckless and illegal war. But this portrait of my grandmother hung in the United States Congress even after I left Congresswoman Corey Bush's office. She left this up until the end of her term. And so hopefully, you know, with our hard work, you know, if I win the Senate seat, and we're working really hard, and I need everybody in State Senate District 2 here in southeastern Michigan to support, hopefully this will hang up in a legislative office one day again. And more than. More importantly, you know, the. The level of pain that's being experienced right now in this community that I'm running to represent. Joy, you know, I. I counted to a million before sharing the story of my grandmother's home. I almost feel embarrassed to share it because it's just a home. It's just rocks. Of course, it's memories, but we can rebuild it. A lot of people here in southeastern Michigan have lost loved ones. Not just one or two, but many. And so we're keeping them in our prayers right now. And hopefully this nonsense ends. It doesn't serve anyone but the people at the very top who make money off of this violence, who make money off of this nonsense. And so I'm, you know, in this moment, more than anything, I felt compelled to share this story, even though, you know, the. In a community like MindJoy, with all of the added scrutiny and, and attacks that immigrant communities across this country are facing from. From ICE and. And from Trump, from a Trump administration that's looking to vilify our very existence. I had a lot of folks who I consulted tell me, Abbas, you don't want to say your grandma's home was destroyed? They'll say. They'll say, maybe, you know, maybe. Maybe there's some terrorism happening out of that home. You know, maybe, maybe, you know, your. Your. Your existence is presumed to be threatening. Opez, don't. Don't do it. But too many people I know and love here in Dearborn, Michigan, have innocent loved ones abroad who have been killed for existing. And so I've got to speak up. I've got to speak up. And thank God. Thank God for platforms like yours, Joy, where we can show up as our authentic selves and tell our stories because we're not afraid. We are who we are. We are people who love people. And we insist that this government get off of its relentless, relentless track of funding war to an unlimited amount. It's unacceptable. Our needs are too great at home. And we've got people right here in southeastern Michigan who are organizing to make sure that this president and that our federal government understand that very clearly. And right now, you know, there's reporting that, you know, even our senators, Senator Slotkin and Senator Peters, both of whom voted for the War Powers Resolution last week to reign in Trump's war. War. You know, there's reporting that maybe they haven't made up their mind yet. If Trump were to, if the Trump White House were to request an additional $50 billion for this war. I'm hoping, you know, engaging with their offices directly and hoping that they stand firm, stand up against this, this administration's desire for just, you know, a bottomless well of funding for Trump's reckless war. It's got to stop. It's got to end. And so we're urging Senator Slotkin and Senator Peters here, we're organizing on the ground to ensure that they hold true and hold strong. We need their leadership right now.
- [94:06]
Joy Reid
Well, we will stand with you in that. And we have no problem holding Democrats accountable. It's kind of our brand over here at the Joy region. Because this is the thing, is that that's what we are sort of asking for, sort of the minimum. We're asking for our elected leaders to protect people here economically and to protect people. Hear from the ignominy of funding genocide. You know, and, you know, maybe Bibi Netanyahu's far right allies have an interest in annexing Lebanon, but that isn't what we have an interest in, in the United States. And we don't want to be a part of that. We don't want to be a part of it. And never apologize for sharing your story. First of all, your grandma seems like she would be mad cool. I want to hang out with her now. I want to go over. Yeah. And I'm assuming there's gonna be amazing food. So if she's cooking, I'm there, I'm eating. I'm gonna be right there. Grandma sounds like she'll be a hoot. And she's been through so much and has, I'm sure, so much wisdom and so many stories. Our elders are so precious to us and they are so important. They are our link to our history, to our past. And the idea of, you know, you having to worry about your grandmother being inside that home when they decide to try to destroy it again, it is so heartbreaking to me. And this is the reason, you know, people ask, well, why do you care so much about this region you've never been to? That's why it's people like your grandma. It's that it is sickening to me that anything, any of my tax dollars, that a penny of my tax dollars will go to threatening your grandma. It's. It's insane. It is not what we're supposed to be doing with our money. So I'm super proud of you. You've been a voice of reason, of kindness, of care, and I think you're an amazing person. So I hope that the people in your district are wise enough to allow you to lead because you certainly are asking to lead in a moral with a moral voice. And I want to also tell you, my friend, we have a pretty good track record here of winners. We have a pretty good track record of people coming on the show and going back and winning. So I want you to give your website one more time, tell people where they can support you, how they can support you and what you need in this moment.
- [96:20]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Thank you so much, Joy. And I know you've never been to the region, but hopefully after I win this election, the war will be over. You're invited. We'll go to my grandma's grandmother's house as she's laying the foundation for her new home. I'm sure there'll be a lot of good fatouche and kibby and shish kebabs that will be awaiting you.
- [96:37]
Joy Reid
Let's take Cori Bush because we're believing on God. We're taking Corey Bush. Okay? Corey doesn't even know we've recruited her to a cow.
- [96:47]
Abbas Alawiyeh
We're gonna go call after this and tell her she's invited.
- [96:50]
Joy Reid
Let her know if he's invited.
- [96:52]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Official.
- [96:56]
Abbas Alawiyeh
So much joy. So my website is Abbas4m I that's a b b a s f o r m I that's also my Instagram handle, my social media handle on any of the Instagram, you know, Facebooks, etc, a boss for mi I'm running to take care of every single person in this district. That includes Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Allen Park, Melvindale, Taylor and a little bit of Detroit. I want to take care of everyone like their family. To me, I'm running. I'm running on a care agenda. That means fighting for child care, fighting for health care, and very importantly to me, taking care of our elders. I think any society is only as decent as how it treats its elders. I think we should invest in our elders right here at home. Don't send the money abroad to destroy their homes over there. We've got to get our priorities straight. And I'm really grateful to you, Joy, for the opportunity.
- [97:44]
Joy Reid
And listen, if you weren't in politics, you have a radio voice. If you have a future, you could you have an announcement. So many.
- [97:50]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Last time I was on your show, my. My mic setup was wrong. And so my team told me, if you're going to go on Joy's show, you better get a mic. So I got the mic going this time.
- [97:59]
Joy Reid
You got the mic and you got the voice for the mic. I love you. I'm going to make sure that I pronounce your name right. Make sure you guys know Alawiya. Yes. And you are one of the best out there in terms of just your, your center is in the right place, your. Your heart is in the right place. And I truly, truly hope that the folks in your district will be wise enough to elect you. Thank you so much.
- [98:20]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Thank you, Joy. Appreciate you.
- [98:21]
Joy Reid
Thank you. Thank you. If you're in Michigan, y', all, please go to abbas4mi.com Do I have lipstick on my teeth? I need to get off. Yeah. Make sure that you go to abbas4mi.com and vote for him. Vote for him. And listen, I talked about our track record. Let me just tell you, I meant it. Just a little housekeeping announcement. Two more of the candidates that we featured on this show. That's why I'm feeling good about Abbas race. Two of the candidates that we featured on this show also won their election. So I'm just saying. I'm not saying coming on the show makes you win, causes you to win, but it doesn't hurt because we tend to scope out good people, candidates who have good hearts, good souls and good platforms and who actually care about human beings, about people. Now, we're not going to win every race. Nothing is perfect. We're not going to win every time. But I'm just saying that we have a pretty decent track record. We don't have defi. That's okay. I'm just going to tell you all that Scott Colum, remember Scott was on our show recently, like the day before the primary in Mississippi. He won and he's going to advance to the November general election to face Cindy Hyde Smith in November. In addition, retired Brigadier General Sean Harris, who appeared on the show the day before his primary. He's won his primary and is going to face District Attorney Clay Fuller in a runoff which happens next month in Georgia's 14th district to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. So that's not in November. That's on April 7th. On April 7th. So if you are in Georgia's 14th district or if you have friends or family that are in that 14th district. Every vote counts. I see it right there. Every vote counts. And know that these races, in some cases, there they are, there's our winners. We have, we have a pretty good track record, guys. Scott column is there in the upper right hand corner, the serious looking general that says that the leader with the leadership matter sweatshirt is in the lower left hand corner. And that's his opponent that you can see in that race with him. Clay Fuller is a Trump endorsed, also military veteran who is a district attorney, he's a DA endorsed by the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, the vote suppressing governor of Georgia and our guy. And people are saying it's unlikely anybody can get elected if enough people vote for them. Don't say, because it's a, you know, it's a conservative Republican seat. There is no Republican seat. None of that. There's no Republican seat and there's no Democratic seat. There's just a seat where X number of people vote on this, on this side and X number of people vote on that. Any state can be a red or a blue state, depending on who votes. Georgia was considered a red state like six years ago. All of a sudden it's a purple state. Boom. Virginia was a blue state. Then it had a red governor, then it has blue. They shift back and forth. Louisiana not long ago had a Democratic governor. It depends on who votes. The state of Alabama had Doug Jones. He was the senator from the state of Alabama. Democrats took their eye off the ball, let him lose, and now they're stuck with Tommy Tuberville. The point of politics is power. And it's a real question of who you're willing to give power to. Abbas Alawiyeh is a good person. Give good people power. That's the strategy. It's all about power. It's not about who you like, who you don't like. It's all about strategy and power. If you're in Mississippi and you're like, well, Scott Collins can't win, well, I don't know because the last time there was a statewide Senate race in Mississippi, the difference between the Democrat and the Republican and the Republican won was about 150,000 votes. That's not that many votes in a state that's got millions of voters, basically. SCOTT COLUMN in order to beat Cindy Hyde Smith, the lady who said she would be first in line at a lynching, that lady who's done nothing for the state of Mississippi, nothing, she's up for reelection at least. Roger Wicker, the other senator, at least has done some stuff she hasn't done Anything, she doesn't show up in Mississippi. And in order, in the last time there was a statewide race in Mississippi, Senate race, the difference between the Republican and the Democrat was less than 150,000 votes. It was like a million something votes to like 800 and something thousand votes. It's not that many votes. Mississippi's a pretty small state. It's also not an expensive state. You could put relatively little money into a state like Mississippi. You just need to find 150,000 voters, register them, and get them to vote. Yes. People are saying Texas has to get itself together. Yes, they do. But I don't write off any state. And Democrats have to stop writing off the south because the south is where half the black people are, which means you just have to register them and get them back. That is how Georgia flipped. It has two Democratic senators because Stacey Abrams was so efficient at voter registration that it triggered the then Secretary of state, the current governor, to suppress as many of those votes as he could as she was registering them, really. Since 2014, she starts this massive voter registration push. Stacey Evans and her organization, when he caught sight of it, he tried to suppress it. She wasn't able to win for herself, but look what it produced. Black Voters Matter, which operates in the state of Georgia mainly, but in multiple other states. But they are so efficient at voter turnout. Latasha Brown and Cliff Albright's organization, so efficient at mobilizing voters, they took that massive bounty of registered black voters that Stacey Abrams organization put together, which again, the voter suppression was so aggressive that she wasn't able to win. She narrowly lost, but look what happened as a result. Sometimes you put yourself out there and even if you don't win, your coattails sweep in other people, and then that's about power. It's about flipping the power in these states because the states control whether you vote, how you vote. Donald Trump think you can nationalize elections? You can't do that. Each state controls its own elections. So you need to elect people at the state level who will control your elections. These states control whether you can get an abortion. So you need to vote to make sure the people who are in control of your body are people who care about freedom. So I'm excited about Scott Collins race in November, and I do not write it off at all. He needs to find 150,000 votes and then know that if it appears that he has an opportunity to win, then Republicans will try to find 200,000 more and scare up more votes on their side. But they are at. They're at a higher turnout rate. Already there's more room to grow on the Democratic side because so many more Democrats in the south just don't vote at all. That's what happened in Texas. More than a million black Texans did not vote. So those of you who are mad about Jasmine Crockett, that's what happened. You can't just inspire people and get people interested and excited. You then have to go knock on their door, harass them on the phone, grab them out of their house and pick them up, put them in a bus, get them in a car and take them to boat. Americans are not self motivated voters. I wish they were, but they're not. Americans are not self motivated. But Georgia, yes, Georgia keeps taking voters off the rolls, but you have to be relentless in getting back on the rolls. This is why we like early vote. Because then you test whether your vote is going to be counted. If you go in an early vote and they deny you, you then have like two more weeks to go back and fix whatever they're claiming is wrong with you. You have to be relentless. There's an African song that says, the higher you build the barrier, the taller I become. The higher you build the barrier, the taller I become. Yeah. Abbas Bas Alawiyeh. You want to vote for him? It's Alawiyeh. That is his last name. And you want to vote for him, just say Abbas from Michigan. That's it. He's a really great guy. He's brilliant. He's, he's, he's a good human being. And that's what you want. You want people that are going to go in there to help people, not to spend money on lobster and steak or private jets or, you know, a plane with a bedroom in it. Because that's apparently what the Trump people are about. It's really kind of interesting that some of the MAGA people are finally figuring that out. They went in and in a lot of cases, they weren't self motivated either. Elon Musk was waving around a million dollars and saying, if you vote, you might get a million dollars. It wasn't like a magical, like, you know, it wasn't magical. They promised people who were pissed off about immigration that they deport all the nonwhite people. They waved around literal cash money, which is probably illegal. And in many cases they suppressed votes in red states wherever they could. They made up lies. They did all sorts of insane stuff. But you have to, like, know they're gonna do the bad things and you have to outplay them. In the war. It's a war, an election, and the war is who gets more people to vote for him. And if you're not in a boss's district, what you can do is you can find out if you know somebody who is and harass them to vote. Don't ask them, harass them. Harassment is a strategy in elections. You have to call them once, then call them again, then call them a third time, then text them. That's what you have to do, right? The persistence is what you have to persist. This is how Obama did it. And I know that people in Texas, we're going to have this conversation about Texas at some point, but I'm just telling you, none of these southern states are really red states. They're mostly voter suppressed states, states. And they're also discouraged states. Florida is a completely discouraged state. But y' all are about to have Byron Donald try to be the governor down there. Jesus. And if you stay home and let it happen, you let it happen. And so we have to figure out how do we get. We went through today. The, the total game they played on maga. You almost feel if they weren't such nasty bastards, you'd actually feel. Have to feel sorry for them. They were promised no new wars, mass deportation, and the end of diversity, equity and inclusion. They did get a lot of black and brown people run out of the government, but now the government don't work. Now the government don't. They got all the black women out of the federal government and now, now they're like, I can't get my Social Security. Yeah, you can't get your Social Security check because you ran out the experienced bureaucrats who've been doing that job for 40, 50 years. My mail didn't come yet. You ran all the blacks out of the post office. They're the people who actually knew what they were doing. You ran them out. And you got Jethro, who's MAGA and who's got a friend in the MAGA world and got the job, don't know what he's doing. They ran all the smart minorities out who had the job and had been doing the job and knew what they were doing, and they replace them with mediocrities. You're like, my government don't work. Look who's in the government. They put in a bunch of grifters, crooks, scalawags, people in there cheating, flying with their boyfriend in a private jet, allegedly. You know, getting a fancy jet with a bed in it, eating lobster. Yo, they eating lobster on your dime. They're buying grand pianos. What the grand piano for? Do you have a grand piano? Buying Herman Miller chairs. Do you understand that this was literally a scam? If you are maga, do you understand that they prompt mass deportation? Not happening. Trump said tariffs were going to pay for themselves and make everybody rich. It was going to be the golden age of America. Y' all broke. You're probably going to lose your farm. He's not going to send you a farm subsidy. He don't have to run for reelection again. He doesn't have to buy you off anymore. You think he has to buy you off? He doesn't care about you. They're all in here lying, stealing, living high on the hog. These people are living well while you cannot get your Medicaid. And then those of you who voted MAGA thinking that it was going to be the end of stupid wars around the world in the Middle east, well, surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise. It's George W. Bush all over again. Now, your sons, remember, they don't want blacks in there. You notice when they released all the names, they then eventually had to mention there were three black people who were killed. Is Pete Hegseth gonna acknowledge that the three blacks who were killed were heroes? I don't know. I don't even know if that's legal anymore. Let's go through and show you all who was doing the doge work of getting rid of all the diversity. That's not. That was supposed to make this into a golden age. So Last week, on March 6th, the American Council of Learned Societies and the American Historical association and also the Modern Language association, they filed a lawsuit in U.S. district Court for the Southern District of New York, the vaunted Southern District of New York. Right. Requesting summary judgment and arguing that the totally made up Department of Government Efficiency Doge used Chat GPT. They used ChatGPT to identify DEI programs and inform their decisions on what grants to terminate, including grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. They lost their grants. They sued. I want you all to hear one of the doge boys who was subpoenaed in this lawsuit. His name is Justin Fox. Listen to Justin attempt to explain, because this is his whole job is to root out dei. Let's see if Justin could explain what DEI is.
- [112:32]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Dei.
- [112:41]
Abbas Alawiyeh
There was the EO explicitly laid out the details.
- [112:45]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
I don't remember it off the top of my head. I'm asking for your understanding of it.
- [112:47]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Yeah, my understanding was exactly what was written in the eo.
- [112:49]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Okay, so can you.
- [112:50]
Abbas Alawiyeh
I don't remember what was in the eo.
- [112:52]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
So right now, do you have an understanding of what D.E.I. is? Yeah. Okay, so what's your understanding as you sit here today in this deposition?
- [113:00]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Well, it was exactly what was written in the eo. And so anytime that we would look at a grant through the lens of
- [113:06]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
complying with an executive order, we would just refer back to the EO and
- [113:09]
Abbas Alawiyeh
assess if this grant has had relation to it.
- [113:12]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Okay, but I guess I'm stepping back from your methodology strictly in terminating the grants. Do you have an understanding as you sit here today of what DEI means?
- [113:20]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [113:21]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Okay, so what's your understanding of what it means?
- [113:23]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Well, I. It. It is exactly what was written in the eo.
- [113:27]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Okay, so why is a documentary about Holocaust survivors dei?
- [113:33]
Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry
Objection.
- [113:35]
Abbas Alawiyeh
This. The gender based story that's inherently discriminatory to focus on this specific group.
- [113:46]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
It's inherently discriminatory to focus on what specific group?
- [113:52]
Abbas Alawiyeh
The gender based. So females during the Holocaust.
- [113:59]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
And you believe that that's inherently discriminatory?
- [114:03]
Abbas Alawiyeh
I'm just saying that's what it's focused on. Sure, but this is related to dei.
- [114:07]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Right, but you just use the term inherently discriminatory. What did you mean by that?
- [114:14]
Abbas Alawiyeh
It's focusing on DEI principles, gender being one of them.
- [114:20]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
So a documentary that's about women would be dei.
- [114:25]
Joy Reid
Okay.
- [114:25]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Is that fair to say?
- [114:27]
Joy Reid
No.
- [114:27]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Okay, so tell me why what I just said isn't dei, but what you just said is dei?
- [114:34]
Joy Reid
Objection.
- [114:37]
Abbas Alawiyeh
It's a Jewish. Specifically focused on Jewish cultures and amplifying the marginalized voices of the females in that culture. It's inherently related to DEI for. For those reasons,
- [114:57]
Joy Reid
big up to that TikTok group with the music under it. Oh, but it got worse. It got. It got worse, basically. All right, let's just listen. It got worse.
- [115:05]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Do you agree with ChatGPT's assessment here that a documentary is DEI if it explores historical events that significantly impacted black civil rights?
- [115:20]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Yes.
- [115:21]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Okay, why would that be dei?
- [115:28]
Abbas Alawiyeh
It's focused on a singular race. What is not for the benefit. It is not for the benefit of humankind. It is focused on a specific group of or a specific race here being black.
- [115:50]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Why would learning about anti black violence not be to the benefit of humankind?
- [115:58]
Joy Reid
Objection.
- [116:01]
Abbas Alawiyeh
That's not what I'm saying.
- [116:02]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Okay, then what are you saying?
- [116:03]
Abbas Alawiyeh
I'm saying it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.
- [116:08]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
You said it's not to the benefit of humankind.
- [116:11]
Joy Reid
Right?
- [116:12]
Abbas Alawiyeh
Is that what I said?
- [116:13]
Joy Reid
Yeah.
- [116:17]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Did you read back the witness's response about benefits to humankind?
- [116:35]
Joy Reid
Why would that be dei? It's focusing on A singular race. It is not for the benefit of humankind. It is focused on a specific group or a specific race here being black.
- [116:53]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
So what do you mean by not for the benefit of humankind?
- [117:01]
Abbas Alawiyeh
That's a very subjective. The way that I phrased it there wasn't exactly what I meant. It is focused on a specific subset of race and therefore it relates to dei. Okay, I'm not suggesting that this is not for the betterment of humankind. That was a misphrasing.
- [117:23]
Joy Reid
It was a misphrasing. So I listened about. I've listened to about an hour and a half of that today. It went on and it did not get better. So these, this is the quality of people that were working for Doge that were deciding that you, dear viewer, were not qualified to be in the government or get grants simply on the basis of your race, gender, religious background, etc. If you were not a white male or your company or your grant was not for white males, you were automatically DEI and ChatGPT was making those decisions along with people of the quality of Justin Fox. Somebody who in any normal situation would be considered clearly unqualified to work for the federal government. But he was inherently qualified to work for Doge not because of the content of his character, but because of the color of his skin and his gender. All he needed, just like Pete Hegseth, all he needed. All he needed to be qualified was to be the right color and the right gender and the right ideology and suddenly, miraculously, allegedly qualified. We got it. When you meant not for humankind, you meant that humankind means what you see when you look in the mirror. Everyone else is dei. We got it. Now you see why the government don't work. You see, that's why the federal government don't work. They replace people who knew what they were doing with people like that. Let's go to our moment of joy because I think we need it. So our moment of joy is coming from. There is a guy named Dottie. I want to say I think it's Dottie is how he pronounced his name. And he does like he started doing restaurant reviews. He hasn't really been in this game, but he did them. And then people got mad that he, he reviewed like a black restaurant. Then people got upset so he started doing it more. But I want you all to listen to his review of a restaurant in New York called Marquette.
- [119:31]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Black woman to own restaurants started by an award winning chef cannot get influencers to come and see support them. Well, I'm not really a food Influencer. But I do love to eat and
- [119:43]
Joy Reid
I thought I'd bring you guys with
- [119:45]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
me to get some dinner tonight.
- [119:47]
Joy Reid
So come with me to Chelsea. Marquette was recently opened by Michelin award
- [119:54]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
winning chef India Doris, who combines her Caribbean heritage with fine dining techniques to make food that is both personal and elevated. And despite glowing reviews, they've had a hard time getting the the word out because influencers want to charge them thousands of dollars for reviews. I did their $60 Restaurant Week special, starting with their salt cod fritters, which
- [120:14]
Joy Reid
were packed with potatoes, scallions and salt
- [120:16]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
cured cod with a red pepper aioli.
- [120:18]
Joy Reid
These were spicy, salty and crispy. I would come back just to eat these.
- [120:23]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Next was their half pound peri peri chicken served deboned and topped with peri peri sauce and buttermilk ranch with a
- [120:30]
Joy Reid
slaw salad on the side. This could easily feed two people, but
- [120:34]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
I power through the whole thing. And for dessert, I got this beautiful blood orange cheesecake with a flaky oat crust and fresh oranges. I was stuffed, but you better believe
- [120:44]
Joy Reid
I didn't waste one bite. I wouldn't be surprised if this is
- [120:47]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
one of the busiest restaurants in New
- [120:48]
Joy Reid
York City once word gets out.
- [120:50]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
So I would recommend you beat the rush and go here immediately.
- [120:55]
Joy Reid
So we did not beat the rush, but let I tell you that yesterday, me and the homie Adrianne, we bumped up on Marquette our own selves, and we had a time. Oh, is it not going to post? It's not going to run. We bumped out on Marquette. And let me tell you something. So I'm supposed to be in California right now. We were supposed to go to California, but the airline industry under the Trump regime would not let me be great. I was not able to get. It's a long story, but I was not able to get there. Not able to get on my flight. Not a good look for the airline industry. So instead, instead of our trip going to California, where we were supposed to go, we decided, you know what? Since they ain't going to let us be great in travel, we going to Marquette. Based on his review based on that post, we were like, let's go and try it. We went in, it was so packed, we had to sit at the bar. But when I tell you I also had that cod fur, the croquette, baby. Let me tell you something, it was on the next level. I could have finished my meal just with that. Cocktails, Fabulous food. Delicious. I cannot tell you how delicious this plate, this food was, how great the staff was, how Great. The service was we had a young lady who did a fabulous recommendation of just the right cocktail. Of course, I did have my zbiotic first because I don't play that. I'm not trying to be, you know, trying to make sure that I get through it and wake up the next morning to do this show and feeling good. But yes. So we went to Marquette. We had a time. We had a beautiful time. I wish the photo would put would low, but it don't want to sometimes the technology don't want to play with us. But just know that me and the homie Adrienne, we had a fabulous time Marquette. Thank you for feeding us and making our bellies lovely and full. And we felt so good. I'll put the photo on my social media so you guys can see it. So that is our moment of joy. And we were so, so, so, so happy. Marquette is delicious. If you're in the Chelsea area in New York, definitely big them up. And we just. I'm not a food influencer or influencer. She ain't paying me to say it. I'm just saying it because I liked it and it was delicious and I would love for you guys to enjoy it too. So this is not a the sponsored booking. Nothing. I just wanted to say it because I love it. It was delicious. Get them croquettes. All right, y', all, thank you for tuning in. If you guys want a deep dive, if you're a member, a premium member on Substack, we're going to do our noon insiders. Joy read insiders. That's going to be tomorrow at noon. Dave Zirin is going to be here on Monday. I'm super excited about that. You all go. If you are in the the district where Abbas is running, please support him and support all the good candidates and all the good people who are trying to do the right thing. Thank you all for watching. See you guys on the next is your read show. I'll tell y' all, go to Marquette. You gonna love it. It's delicious. That food.
- [123:33]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Getting back to the basics, grassroot level,
- [123:36]
Joy Reid
let me dig a little deeper with the shovel. Plenty can't tell the boy boys from
- [123:40]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
the trees that I'm hard to detect
- [123:41]
Joy Reid
Like a black hole in a dark
- [123:43]
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
injustice anywhere It's a threat to justice everywhere Let me make this clear I got a bone to pick and I'll never fear the threat of poverty they
- [123:51]
Joy Reid
don't want to talk about it they rap the party so I'm a real talk about it for show. I said it's.