Lindsey Graham (4:27)

Do you want to see regime change in Iran?

Donald Trump (4:30)

If there was, there was. But no, I don't want to. I'd like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change takes chaos. And ideally, we don't want to see so much chaos. I'm looking to have a really good Iran, really strong. We're not looking for regime change. You've seen how that works over the last 20 years. That hasn't been too good. And we're looking to make Iran rich again. Let them be rich. Let's let them do well. I think that Iran is a country of tremendous potential. We're not looking for leadership change. We're not looking for that kind of change. This country has been through that many Times before that doesn't work. I will tell you, you're not going to have a war with me and you're not going to have a third world war with me, that I can tell you.

Joy Reid (5:18)

Oh, you're not going to have a war with me? You're not going to have a third world war with me. Is that right, Donald? Because weirdly enough, it seems that Donald Trump has become more George W. Then America.

Lindsey Graham (5:29)

First, our American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq.

Donald Trump (5:37)

A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.

Joy Reid (5:46)

My belief is we will in fact be greeted as liberators.

Donald Trump (5:48)

To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.

Joy Reid (5:55)

There will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom clout.

Donald Trump (6:04)

They can never have a nuclear weapon.

Joy Reid (6:09)

Yeah, and it's not just him. Remember, remember when Tulsi Gabbard used to be a backbench Democratic senator? And J.D. vance who used to say Donald Trump was a terrible person? Remember when they were opposed to dumb foreign wars? Trump says that he doesn't want war with Iran, but that's exactly what he wants because that's exactly what Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu, Al Qaeda, Bolton, Haley and other neocons and neolibs want. That's what he puts first, not America. That's exactly what Trump did. He conducted and committed an act of war without congressional authority, seriously escalating the situation with Iran. And so now we're at a point of it's not a matter of, well, are we going to have a war with Iran? We are in a war with Iran right now. So the real issue is, are we going to allow this war to continue to escalate and if so, for how long and to achieve what objective? You have a looming, potentially larger war in the Middle east with Iran. You were the Vice president. How does the Trump administration handle what could be a massive, you know, Mid east war? Right. You know, after everything, obviously we just talked about, about, like getting America back on track and figuring out how to, how to allocate resources to people in this country. How do we handle that?

Michael Emanuel Rayner (7:47)

Well, I mean, a couple of principles. Right. So obviously, you know, Israel has the right to defend itself, but America's interest is sometimes going to be distinct. Like, sometimes we're going to have overlapping interests, and sometimes we're going to have distinct interests. And our interest, I think very much is in not going to war with Iran.

Joy Reid (8:07)

Look at there, you see them sitting there. You see J.D. oop, that looks like Tulsi Gabbard. Uh huh. I want you guys to note how in that first post the White House threw them right under the bus by tweeting out their location at what turned out to be the kids table in the. Let's see, checks your notes. The White House situation room. While Trump set up his own situation room at Mar a Lago where he didn't even change his clothes before announcing a bombing campaign in Iran that with Israel that has killed an estimated 148 school children and counting and injuring another 42 school kid. You can see here their backpacks, what's left of these children, 148 kids plus 42 children injured. Israel kind of doing what it does in Gaza, but doing it in Iran. In addition to that, at least six U.S. service members are also dead and several injured in unknown locations across the Gulf. As Iran strikes any base, US base in any Gulf nation near its missile range. Here's your unserious president not even bothering to change his trucker cap on making the announcement.

Donald Trump (9:22)

Great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered, don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

Joy Reid (9:48)

Unserious didn't even bother to change his trucker cap between the party at Mar A language where he dropped into a multi thousand dollar fundraiser and and walking into his fake situation room with Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to announce that they were bombing civilians in Iran. It's been interesting watching the mainstream news media accuse the Iranians of attacking Americans and attacking American military bases as if this is not the normal response. If a country bombs you, what your military will generally do is start to bomb back. And some in the mainstream media are not able to grasp that. So they're portraying the Iranians as conducting military attacks against American bases when in fact they're responding to military bases after the US and Israel bombed their cities, including a school for girls. I will note that Bibi Netanyahu is already out giving press conferences once again saying remember the Amalek, remember that the Amalekites, he used this rhetoric before the Amalekites. This is a biblical story in which God tells the Israelites to kill the oxen, the men, the women, the children and anybody of the People of Amalek, he's out there using that rhetoric again. If you are traveling anywhere in the Middle east right now, the US Is now saying it's not safe to be there. You should get out of there. Hundreds of thousands of travelers per PBS News were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. There were also no flight. There was no flight activity over the entire United Arab Emirates, flight tracking website, flight radar said after the government there announced a temporary partial closure of its entire airspace, Iran's Fars News agency said that Mr. Ahmadinejad, the. I mean, Mr. Khamenei. Sorry, Khamenei, who was their grand mullah, his daughter and grandson have also been killed. So not only did the US Kill their religious national leader, we also apparently killed his daughter and his grandson. Not sure how that is a war aim, but it appears that we are conducting this operation Israeli style, meaning civilians are considered to be legitimate targets. We're also finding out that insurers are canceling war risk coverage for any vessel that happens to be in the Gulf while this conflict goes on, which is going to disrupt shipping. We talked over the weekend about the Straits of Hormuz, which Iran effectively controls. Tankers go through that Gulf, and the majority of oil shipped out of the Middle east has to go through the Straits of Hormuz in order to get to Europe and then to be shipped overseas. And so insurance companies are now canceling war risk coverage for vessels that go through the Straits of Hormuz because it is now subject to being closed or mined or bombed by Iran. So where we stand now is that you're likely to see gas prices spike, oil prices spike, food prices spike, and the price for anything that is shipped over land, sea or air spike. So the inflation that you were already dealing with is about to get a hell of a lot worse. We also do not have details on the half dozen members of the United States military who have been killed. We don't know who they are, but we do know that they've died for literally nothing because Iran did not attack the United States. Pete Hagseth is out there saying we didn't start this war, but we're going to finish it. No, sir, we started this war. The United States. The United States unilaterally attacked a sovereign country that did nothing to us. Just getting news that we may not have Jasmine Crockett tonight. They are on their way, apparently to a campaign event. So I do not believe we're going to get Jasmine Crockett that's unfortunate because there is a lot to talk with the member of. With a member of Congress about tonight. It would be good to have a member of Congress on, because it appears to me that we have yet another war undeclared by the only part of our government that is authorized to declare war. Because I can tell you the President of the United States is not allowed to declare war. That is not something that they're allowed to do, but they apparently are doing it anyway. And we will all pay the price because not only will we pay the price in terms of higher prices for basically virtually everything, because remember, oil prices impact everything. It impacts airline prices because what do planes run on? They run on oil. It impacts the price of a plane ticket, and then that means it impacts the price of a cargo flight because cargo ships also run on oil. And we still get a substantial amount of oil, not just from the Middle east, but you still have a global supply. It's not as if we buy oil directly from that region. It's the only place we get it. But when the price of oil goes up in the Middle east, when those countries have to raise their prices because just shipping oil to Europe becomes exponentially more expensive, it raises the price of oil globally because oil is a global commodity. On top of that, you still got the Donald Trump tariffs, which are now global. So Donald Trump is now tanking the already crap economy that he screwed up. It's just about to get worse. In addition to that, you had in Kuwait, very expensive US Ship planes were shot down in a friendly fire incident in which the Kuwaiti Air Force, I suppose, accidentally shot down some of our very expensive planes. And I will note, as I've been sort of scrolling through social media at some of the people who are being deployed, note that the US Is not halting or hesitating from deploying immigrants who are members of our United States military. They don't seem to have a problem with brown immigrants and black people being shipped on planes very expensively to go to the Middle east and fight in this war, which I am officially declaring to be Operation Epstein. I'm officially declaring this to be Operation Epstein. Why am I declaring it to be Operation Epstein? Jason, let me know when you have it if you could pull up a 11 whenever you get the chance. Because the reason I am officially calling it and the reason this show is saying Trump and Bibi launch Operation Epstein is because no one can tell us why Donald Trump launched this war against Iran. There was no casus bell, right? Iran didn't commit an act of aggression against the United States that would have triggered a military response. So it's not that the Trump regime claims that in its previous attack on the nuclear facilities in Iran, they obliterated Iran's entire nuclear capability. So they told us that they already took care of Iran's potential to make nuclear weapons by getting rid of it all. So if you obliterated it all, you've seen people like Mark Wayne Mullen, the second dumbest member of the United States Senate. Lucky for him, Tommy Tuberville exists. Otherwise he'd be the dumbest. Say both we obliterated their entire nuclear stockpile, and we needed to hit them. So they can't get nukes. It's got to be one or the other. It can't be both. So if it's not that there was an imminent threat and none of them, no one, including Marco Rubio, who's come out and said some more stupid things, which is kind of his job, they've all talked around it, but no one has said what was the triggering event that caused us to attack Iran, other than Israel wanting us to, other than Israel telling Donald Trump to do so. And the reason that I'm calling this operation Epstein is because the one thing we do know has happened in the last week is what Ted Lieu, member of Congress from California, said about 24 hours ago. Here it is. So why are Republicans so interested in Bill and Hillary Clinton? It's because they're trying to distract from the fact that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files thousands and thousands of times. In those files, there's highly disturbing allegations of Donald Trump raping children, of Donald Trump threatening to kill children. That's the reason that we're at war with Iran. And you have to remember, as we talked about over the weekend, it is highly likely that Jeffrey Epstein was collecting compromise against American presidents and against the royal family of Great Britain and against leaders in Israel, including Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel, as he was trafficking women and children to the elite in the world. We do know that Ghislaine Maxwell's father, Robert Maxwell, was indeed Mossad connected. And it appears increasingly likely that Jeffrey Epstein was trading in disgusting, horrendous acts by elite men who he could then blackmail. There's a story that Ryan Grimm has been telling on his substack over the weekend that talks about way back during the Clinton era. Now, remember, we've got pictures of it. Bill Clinton did hang out with Jeffrey Epstein back in the 90s when he was in national politics as President, there's a story of Ehud Barak coming to the White House at the time they're doing the Oslo Accord. So they used to meet a lot and hinting to the President that they had Kompromat on him, that they knew about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. And in fact, there's a story that Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton at the time tried to concoct a backstory because it was clear that an intelligence agency had tapped their phones and knew of their affair. And so they, in their final get together, their final illicit rendezvous, allegedly concocted a backstory, which was a thin backstory because he was dead to rights, that he was having an affair with Monica Lewinsky to try to get around the fact that this could leak because an intelligence agency had the information. I wonder who that intelligence agency was. It probably is a country that starts with I and ends with we did a genocide in Gaza. And so the likelihood is, if you're doing Occam's Razor, and I realize the Washington Post is now sort of veering us onto a story that, that it was really the Saudi royals who convinced Donald Trump to do this, you've got Lindsey Graham bragging that this will now result in Donald Trump's one foreign policy success of his first term, the Abraham Accords, whose goal was singular. It was to get the Arab world, the Arab nations, writ large to normalize relationships with Israel. That was the goal of it. And to tamp down the uproar throughout the region, the constant uproar over Gaza and over the Palestinians. And to get this normalization to happen, you've now got Lindsey Graham openly bragging that by taking out the mullahs in Iran, this will allow the Gulf states to normalize relationships with Israel. And so the Occam's Razor answer is that, yeah, Donald Trump is very much easily, you know, swayed by the Saudis because they offer him, you know, money and investments in his crappy resorts, et cetera. We don't know whatever monetary inducements they offer him. Sure. But Bibi Netanyahu is the one who's been to the White House every other month since last January. He was the first person to visit Donald Trump when he was elected for the second time in non consecutive presidencies. And he's been there every other month like he's his handler. He keeps going back. And one wonders what the conversation is, because if back in the Ehud Barak days, it seemed that the Israeli leadership was not shy about letting that president know, we may know some things about you. And it's likely that they knew some things about the former president through Jeffrey Epstein. Now, there's no evidence that Bill Clinton was doing anything illegal, but he certainly was being unfaithful to Hillary. We now know that because of the Monica Lewinsky affair. We also know that at the time there was a lot of pressure from Israel for President Clinton to pardon Jonathan Parlor, a notorious spy who was stealing secrets for the Israeli government. And he was a cause celeb in Israel. They wanted him released. Now, ultimately, Bill Clinton didn't do it. He didn't release him. But there was huge pressure on him and he wound up doing a pardon for somebody lesser than this particular person. This person served his term. He's now back in Israel and is one of the main proponents of total annexation of all Palestinian land. Just saying there's no one that has leverage over Donald Trump like Israel and like Bibi Netanyahu. And so one wonders if what Ted Lieu is saying, and I have read through some of the horrific allegations against Donald Trump that are in the Epstein files, what we've gotten so far, which is like 5% of what's really in there, we do know that, that this regime has deleted FBI interviews with women who claim that when they were children they were sexually abused by Donald Trump. That doesn't mean he did it. It just means the FBI investigated it. least investigated it to the extent that they interviewed these women, in some cases multiple times, that's indisputable that these interviews took place and that what's in the interviews, at least what we know about them, is horrendous and involves children. And so now all of a sudden, with no casus belli, with no debate in Congress, you didn't even have a triggering event like 9 11, which gave George W. Bush the excuse to do a war for oil in Iraq, on top of going after Afghanistan, at least they had 911 to use as the lie that got us into that war. Trump has no lie. Iran has done nothing to us. They have attacked no one. They're now breaking up Lindsey Graham. We're going to play some sound later in the show. Lindsey Graham is still bringing up the attack that Ronald Reagan faced on the Marines in Lebanon in the 80s because Hezbollah, which was controlled effectively by Iran, committed that attack. More than 200 marines were killed. He, he's bringing that up as the casus belli for attacking Israel today. I mean, for attacking Iran today. Seriously. So we're going to go with like 40 year old attacks by Hezbollah as the reason that today we're attacking them. It just doesn't add up. And when things don't add up, what you're supposed to do is ask questions. Because there is no triggering event that can explain why we are now potentially in World War iii. Because Iran is not just hitting back against the US in discreet locations. They're bombing any place in the Gulf where we have a base. Which means every single troop and soldier deployed overseas, anywhere in that region is now at risk. And six of them are already dead. And Donald Trump has no answer for that. Other than that shit happens. He gave us a talk. A statement that effectively amounts to maybe more will die. Lindsey Graham has been jonesing for this kind of military action against Iran since the Project for the New American Century. The old neocon plot to wage simultaneous multi theater wars against Iran, Iraq and Syria, all coincidentally countries that Israel would like to see neutralized. Also, maybe coincidentally, Israel and Saudi Arabia both share a desire to neutralize Iran so that they will not become the preeminent power in the region. Just saying, some of these things could be coincidences or maybe what Ted Lieu said is meant to be pushed off the headlines. And American troops, Donald Trump is willing to kill them and let them die in order to further this cover up. I'm not saying I can prove that. I'm just saying. Occam, meet Razor, meet Epstein. The Joy Reads show tonight is brought to you by our wonderful friends at Helix on some much better news. How are you guys preparing for your springtime? Doing some spring cleaning maybe? How about cleaning up your sleep? Because sleep help is important, particularly if you're like an allergy sufferer because you know those pollens are in the air or you get the seasonal blues. You really actually need more sleep. 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They offer a 120 night sleep trial and a limited lifetime warranty. So if you are ready to join me on a spring 2026 sleep journey because I know with all this stress I'm gonna need most sleep, just go to helixsleep.com joy for 27% off site wide that is helixleep.com joy for 27% off Site wide they offer. The offer is exclusive to the TJRS audience just to you guys. So make sure that you enter our show name the Joy Reid show after the checkout so that they know or at checkout so that they know that we sent you. Okay. Helixleep.com joy so please do that. All right. So if you're in Texas, I hope that you already early voted. Early voting is actually closed. But the election is tomorrow. Tomorrow is the election, both on the Democratic side and the Republican side. So if you're in Texas, I hope that you all went to vote. It is a very, very, very important race. But there's something else going on in Texas in addition to that election and it is sinister. Today, four minority and women owned businesses and a statewide trade association filed a landmark lawsuit. And in Travis County, Texas state court. Now the case challenges actions by the Texas comptroller and various state agencies that stripped thousands, thousands of small businesses of 35 years, 35 years of legal rights and protections that helped them gain access to billions of dollars in small business funding, I guess to close out Black History Month and kick off Women's History Month, Trump style. The Texas Comptroller, whose name is Kelly Hancock, issued these regulations that unilaterally dismantled the state's historically underutilized business or hub program, removing all black, Hispanic and women owned businesses from the program and reducing the number of certified businesses who are eligible for more than 15,000 to approximately 500. Joining me now is Alfonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum filed that lawsuit. Alfonso, my friend, thank you for being here. I wish it was under better circumstances. Talk about what's happening in the great state of Texas.

Alfonso David (32:10)

Thank you. Well, first, thank you, Joy, for having me. I think what's most important for people to understand is that our lawsuit certainly is representing the interest of more than 15,000 women owned and minority owned businesses who have been disenfranchised. But at its core, what we should also understand is that the state controller doesn't have the legal authority to change the law. And that should be of concern to any citizen that lives in any state across the country. So as you said in your introduction, the state controller issued regulations that sought to dismantle a program that was created by the state legislature. You can't do that. He's not elected to serve in the state legislature. He can't simply rewrite the law to remove protections that the legislature has created for their constituents. I think that's one of the key issues that we're litigating in this case. Because if we don't challenge this, you could have an executive officer in any agency, whether it be the Department of Labor or the Department of Commerce, issue regulations that ultimately undermines statutory protections that people have. And this case is critically important again for the 15,000 people that are disenfranchised, but is important for all of us, because if we don't challenge executive overreach, then we've lost democracy.

Joy Reid (33:42)

So who now is eligible for this program? Or does the program just no longer exist?

Alfonso David (33:47)

So the controller issued these regulations to effectively remove women, black contractors, Hispanic contractors, Native American contractors, and Asian Pacific contractors. So the only folks that are eligible are service disabled veterans. And keep in mind, we're not saying veterans, we're saying service disabled veterans, which is approximately 500 contractors throughout the entire state of Texas.

Joy Reid (34:16)

And what will be the demographics of those contractors? I'm going to guess. I think I know what it is, but I'm going to let you tell me. What are the demographics of those contractors?

Alfonso David (34:26)

White men.

Joy Reid (34:29)

So let me just. I'm just going to go back because, you know, I like to reiterate just to make sure that I am getting things clear. I like to be clear. So what you're saying is state of Texas, the comptroller, unilaterally, without going in and trying to get the legislature to change the law, has rewritten a program that was originally designed to help black Hispanic women owned businesses, AAPI businesses, et cetera, and rewritten it so that they are ineligible and only white men can get the money.

Alfonso David (34:55)

You said that.

Joy Reid (34:56)

Right.

Alfonso David (34:57)

That's essentially what he's done. And he's done so without any legal authority. And that is what we're challenging.

Joy Reid (35:05)

So now this is going to state court, I'm assuming. Right. So it would go through this, sort of wind its way through the Texas Supreme Court. Theoretically. Correct.

Alfonso David (35:13)

So we filed it in Travis county today. And we did that for a variety of reasons. But most importantly, we're challenging the comptroller's actions under a statute called the Administrative Procedures act because he acted unlawfully in violation of that statute. He also violated the Texas Constitution. So we have 16 counts in our complaint. The complaint is 100 pages long and it outlines in minute detail all of his actions and how his actions violated the law. Joy, to the point that you made earlier, members of the legislature, certain members of the legislature tried to change the law last year and the legislature rejected that attempt. And now the state controller is essentially trying to do what he couldn't accomplish through the legislature. And that should be even more concerning for folks. Last point on this is that the acting comptroller has never been elected. He's never been elected to that position. He's running for election, but he's never been elected to that position. And the fact that he's seeking to essentially ignore the existing law is deeply, deeply concerning.

Joy Reid (36:32)

Just for a moment to just kind of go back, we were going to have Representative Jasmine Crockett on, and one of the things I was going to talk to her about is just the large number of military personnel in Texas. It is one of the largest states in terms of the kind of people who serve, right. About 113,000 service members. Only California and Virginia have more active duty service members than. It's also got about 15 military installations, one of the highest numbers in the state. So there are a lot of non white service members there, some of whom are about to be at great risk because we are at war with Iran and maybe in World War Three. So you're saying that if those people are. They're veterans, they're military veterans. They're not eligible if they start a small business.

Alfonso David (37:18)

They are not.

Joy Reid (37:20)

No.

Alfonso David (37:20)

Under the controller's application or regulations, if you will, only service disabled veterans are eligible under his program. Now, we appreciate that the controller may have an opinion, but his opinion is not law. He's not allowed to write a regulation and usurp legislative authority. And so we have filed this complaint. We're seeking an injunctive relief from the court. We're seeking a declaratory judgment. We're seeking to have these regulations voided and to compel him and every other state agency to comply with the law.

Joy Reid (38:03)

So if you are not successful in this lawsuit, then what's the next step? Or tell us what the next steps are, period.

Alfonso David (38:16)

We have to be successful and we will. Because again, where I started, this is a fundamental question of separation of powers. If the executive is allowed to ignore statutes that are passed by the legislature, we no longer live in a democracy. I know some will say there are questions about whether or not we live in a democracy now. But if you allow this principle to take hold, imagine what can happen in every other state throughout the country. This is not only about Texas. This is about making sure that executive branch officers cannot ignore the law. So we are going to prevail, but let's assume that we don't. We have to make sure that folks utilize their power at the voting booth to vote out people who are ignoring the law. And that's. I know what you're going to talk about next. Elections matter. The primaries are tomorrow. We have November that's coming up. And sometimes we are focused on big national races. And we fail to appreciate that folks that are elected to these, these positions, whether it be a comptroller or an attorney general or a district attorney, they have the power in some cases to affect your lives. And when they ignore the law, they affect your lives even more.

Joy Reid (39:31)

So, thank you. You have set up exactly. What I wanted to remind our audience is that, yes, we have a lot of Jasmine Crockett fans in the chats and they love her very much. And if they're in Texas, they want to vote for her. But you need to look down that ballot because that is not the only office that is important. You need to make sure that you vote all the way down from the rooter to the tutor, because it is these smaller local offices that people don't pay attention to often that wield inordinate power. And to your point, Alfonso, this isn't even somebody who got elected. We're talking about somebody who essentially is a bureaucrat who has decided on their own that they can strip 15,000 eligible small, black, small minority business owners of opportunity, of billions of dollars of opportunity. We can't have that. So I appreciate you, Alfonso. You're always fighting the good fight. Thank you very much. If people want to support what you're doing or keep up with it, is there a place that they can go to do that? Yes.

Alfonso David (40:27)

So they can go to our website, which is www.gbef.com. and all of the information about the lawsuit is on our page. You will also see the press conference that we had earlier today and we'll be posting more for people to follow the case and support the case.

Joy Reid (40:46)

Please come back when you've got developments. Our door is always open. Thank you, my friend.

Alfonso David (40:50)

Thank you for having me.

Joy Reid (40:52)

Thank you very much. I want to remind you guys also, so the data, there's actually real time voting data that's coming out in Texas. And I can tell you that while we certainly don't know who is going to win this primary. We do know that black women are voting at the highest rate of anyone in the state of Texas right now. Black women are the, are the, are the most active voters. Black men also registering extremely high on turnout. Now, that's not necessarily dispositive of who will win. White women also voting in pretty high numbers. And what we're seeing is that in the counties, Tom Bonyer, who does a lot of this, really great data, the counties that are shaded light blue or darker blue are showing higher intensity in terms of turnout at this moment. And the counties where Latino voters vote, the counties that have a more blue leaning Latino vote are more intense than the counties with red. Now, this is not dispositive of who is going to win, but I was texting with Tom Bonier earlier because he's been posting a lot on social media that if you're Republicans, you should be somewhat concerned because it appears that the turnout on the Republican side is lighter than the Democratic side in terms of which primary is attracting more interest. But I will say that we are hearing some anecdotal evidence of Republicans going in and voting in the Democratic primary because there is a great interest in silencing and taking off the stage Jasmine Crockett. So we don't really know whether Republicans are choosing to vote in the Democratic primary because they would very much like to move her off the stage. Just know you just don't not vote if you were thinking it's probably over. And because black people are voting in huge, huge numbers in Texas, it's done and dusted and Jasmine's going to win. Do not assume that Kamala Harris did do a call for Jasmine Crockett. She did that. She put that on the table. So she's in there right now, the Representative Crockett. The reason she's not here now, she didn't make it. But they've got some out of state members of Congress that are coming in to support her. So they're doing some last minute sort of pushes in Texas tonight. And the race is tomorrow. So we will find out tomorrow. I did have a clip that I was going to play earlier, but we don't have time now. James Talarico answered the question about electability, really reiterating that he has the ability to flip Republicans and that is why he believes himself to be more electable, whereas Jasmine Crockett's strategy is more of a base strategy. So we'll see. I know that Talarico has a hell of A ground game. That's what we're hearing, that he's got thousands of volunteers and he's got a hell of a ground game. He didn't have his highest name id, but he did have a ground game. So we will see which one prevails. Ground game and the Colbert bump or high name recognition and a very active and eager online audience. So we will see. We will. We will certainly let you guys know on Wednesday. We are already staffing up to say who's going to talk about this on Wednesday. Let's move on now to the great state of Florida. And we want it to be great. We wish Florida could be great. It isn't yet. I want to let you listen to some testimony back in January by HIV advocate Michael Emanuel Rayner, my dear friend who testified before the Florida Senate Committee on Appropriations. And here is some of his testimony concerned.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (44:26)

I'm one of those 130,000 Floridians living with HIV AIDS and the estimated 30,000 that will be impacted by these cuts that are happening with the state's AIDS drug assistance program. The state gets about $90 million from the federal government and then through the rebates and premium rebates that it gets, it earns another $225 million. What alarmed me, what I just heard, is that those funds are being shifted. That's a violation of federal law. To shift programmatic dollars for rebates, those must stay within the program according to the 340B program. That's a violation of federal law. The health Department's also violating the rulemaking process and shutting out the community to make sure that we're aware of what these changes are coming. I'm going to lose access to the ADAP program to pay for my medications. One of the medications alone, my insurance company, cvs, accidentally went to fill one and I went to pick it up because they said it was ready when I wasn't actually entitled to get it. At that moment. The cash price was $7,500 a month for a month of Prozista. I take additional medications on top of that. This program is a lifeline. It has changed the HIV epidemic from once we all know it. I have been on zooms. I drove up here from Broward with my dog. I'm camped out in a hotel because this is so critical to so many. I have the privilege to get up here to Tallahassee. 130,000 people that are living with this virus in the state don't have the chance to come up here and ring the battle alarm to say this is wrong, the health department is doing something wrong and underhanded to cheat us and distance us from critical life saving medications.

Joy Reid (46:16)

And Michael Emanuel Rayner joins me now. Michael, it is good to see you even in these circumstances. So that was in January. Florida has now dropped the hammer. $7,500. I think that is the thing that shocked me the most when I listened to that earlier today. $7,500 is the cost without ADAP.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (46:40)

Yeah. So let me correct one thing, Joy. So you know, in the moment I rushed down to testify in that committee meeting, I was meeting with a Republican senator staff member and she quickly told me, you know, the surgeon general is going to be in that meeting. Why don't you rush down and sign up? And I did. Just to correct it. My action, I'm actually not on persista, I'm actually on Priskovix. The medication is 2500amonth. But what CVS was filling was a 90 day fill which was 7500. So I just like to make sure I always get the facts out.

Joy Reid (47:14)

But I mean, I'm sorry, but even if it was 90 days for 7,500, that's insane. That's more than double most people's mortgage.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (47:22)

It is. And I'm on two HIV medications and they're both about 2500amonth. So it is 5000amonth in which my medications just for HIV alone cost. And it's outrageous.

Joy Reid (47:36)

So we know that Florida, even since, you know, Jason, I and the family live there, it has consistently been a state that reported one of the highest numbers of new HIV diagnoses in the US People tend to think it's California, but Florida in many cases would top California. And according to state health data. Thanks to our wonderful interns for grabbing all this information. In 2023, there were 128,000 people in Florida living with HIV. What does the removal of ADAP and explain what ADAP does, what does that do to these 128,000 people's lives, including you?

Michael Emanuel Rayner (48:13)

So the AIDS Drug Assistance Program is a part of the Ryan White program. And you know, Ryan White was the young boy who died of aids, went through a horrible time of being run out of town and his mother, Jeannie White is still alive and doing great. And you know, that program has been a lifeline for so many, you know, before health insurance would insure people and everything. And for those who were uninsured, it provides a mechanism for, for big cities to establish their own kind of medical program to provide medical Care, substance abuse, mental health counseling, prescriptions, and so much more. And one of the parts of the program goes to the states and that's the AIDS Drug Assistance program. Florida gets 95 million, as I testified, 95, 98 million. And we just don't know where all that's going. And so for somebody like me, it helps pay for the gap in which my insurance doesn't pay along with a lot of other people. But one of the biggest things that it helps with people right now is individuals with their health insurance premium. And so not only does it assist with the premium, the difference between the premium tax subsidy that people get, but it also helps pay for the CO pay and deductible for those medications, which are staggering. I mean, when I was living in New York City in 1996 and I didn't even know about the AIDS Drug Assistance Program at that time, I remember paying about $500 or more a month in CO pays, you know, just for my medications back then. I wish I had known about ADAP then. You know, it would have been one of the things that would have helped me prevented from having filed a bankruptcy many years ago.

Joy Reid (50:04)

And now we know that New York Times just reported this actually today. It's coincidental that we had you booked to come on today. About 20 states are following Florida's lead because we know that big states like Texas and Florida are laboratories, right, for bad ideas of the far right. And it now looks like this idea has spread to something like 20 states that are toughening eligibility programs. And just for those in the chat who are saying this is horrendous and they can't believe it's happening. Just so that you understand that according to the eligibility changes, what we've been able to just. Our great interns did some digging this. About 16,000 people are at risk of becoming ineligible, period.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (50:40)

No, Joy, Joy, the state already threw us off a moving train in a dark tunnel. They just, they dumped 16,000 people off in the dark night in a tunnel in a program that was serving about 30 to 32,000 people. And so that eligibility of 400%, what they ended up doing was the only people they're keeping at the 400% are those who are actually also receiving Medicare or have an employer sponsored health plan. And then what they did is they cut Everybody down to 200% of the federal poverty limit, which is about 20,500 for a family of one of income. And those people, all they'll get is direct dispense from the health department. So no longer do they have health insurance? And when you look at all the comorbidities, along with hiv, we have a higher rate of heart disease, diabetes, different types of cancer. And so it's just staggering that the health insurance has just been ripped from these people. Just before coming onto the program, I was on a zoom and in Miami, we already heard there's three people that went to fill their medications and they're supposed to be in a grace period where the insurance companies are theoretically supposed to be dispensing those medications and they're not getting them. And the health department has been crowing about the fact that they are making sure that people get 90 day fill and they're not getting them.

Joy Reid (52:07)

And I will note that Florida did not expand Obamacare, meaning that they don't have the Obamacare Medicaid that lets people, people at a slightly higher income, closer to the poverty line a little bit more over, over the poverty line, get Medicaid. So basically, people are going to be left with no health insurance and no way to get their medication, which to me sounds like murder.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (52:28)

Yeah, it is. And you know, people are going to get sick and die. I mean, I, I went through my journey, you know, in New York City, I was down to 124 pounds. And then even when I moved back, when I moved down to Florida, I got down that far again. And you know, I'm at a plump 2:15 right now. And so, you know, those are better days, thankfully, which proves that the medications are working. But I know what it was like going in and out of the hospital every week almost with different opportunistic infections that the antibiotics just, they couldn't figure out which antibiotic to use and everything. And fearfully, we're going to be getting back to those days. We already have people that now are deciding to skip a day or two of medication at a time just so that they can stretch out what they have. And eventually what that's going to cause is drug resistance. So it's going to create a treatment failure. It's going to be more costly because you also need to do more lab work to figure out what somebody's resistant to at that time.

Joy Reid (53:28)

Can I just just ask you, I mean, you're so good at sort of, you know, going in and confronting these Republican lawmakers and being dispassionate in the way that you can present it. But I just wonder how you feel just as a human being, knowing that this is a state that spent a lot of money. Was it $400 million to build Alligator Alcatraz, a concentration camp for immigration for immigrants. They are spending lavishly on allowing ICE to roam and prowl through the streets of South Florida. And they are currently, right now, I just, and looking at the story in front of me in the Guardian, they're attempting to create their own version of the CIA and a statewide intelligence agency that is akin to the Sovereignty Commission that Mississippi created in the 1950s after Brown v. Board to spy on civil rights organizations to make sure that they could never have integration. They now want to create a modern equivalent of the Sovereignty Commission in, in the state of Florida that's going to cost maybe billions of dollars. So this is a state under Ron DeSantis that doesn't want to let kids get vaccinated, that doesn't want to mandate children have mandatory vaccinations so that measles can run wild, that wants to have a spy agency that won't expand Medicaid and wants to build concentration camps. A weird way to spend your money, right? Their values seem off.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (54:51)

It is, it is alarming. I mean, you know, I've even heard from lawyers who are working with people who have been detained at Alligator Alcatraz, who have been denied their own medications in medical care, even the HIV medications, and which they're supposed to be providing them to them. But I think, you know, I'm every bit of a custom Christian like yourself and, but I'm not going to do it here. But I have to tell you, it's been a really bizarre experience being here in Tallahassee this entire session. I mean, I'm in a hotel room. You know, I've, I just can't wait to go home and go to my own bed. But it, the reception I've had from the Republicans in the Senate have been incredible. And on this issue, you know, and I've had to unfortunately have a bit, put a little bit tunnel vision to just stay focused on this and not get angry with all the other injustices that I see that are going on that you and I often talk about. But they're leaning in. I mean it's, it's. Last week I met with the Senate president and you know, for a five minute meeting that went into a half hour and the Republican senators are working very well with the Democrats and they're coming up with a bi, they're working towards coming up with a bipartisan solution. You know, hopefully we're going to have a stopgap measure that will replace and put back a lot of these policies back into place and make sure that people are made whole again. You know, there's already $120 million, $118 million proposal that's in the Senate budget for next fiscal year. So we're already seeing that they're responding, and several of them have either family or friends and, you know, and are sharing that with us. And so it really has been daunting where it's not the experience that somebody like me, who's not a lobbyist, who just came up as somebody who relies on this program to speak on behalf of my community and to see the reception. I mean, that. That committee that I testified in, I spoke for 14 minutes, which is unheard of to. For that type of committee, just to let a member of the public go on. So. But they didn't. The legislature didn't even know about this, that this was happening to people.

Joy Reid (57:11)

And so this is. Before we wrap up. This is an initiative. What of the governor? Is it the surgeon general who initiated this?

Michael Emanuel Rayner (57:18)

This was done by the Florida Department of Health with no community participation. And certainly we don't know if any monies were misappropriated or anything. I mean, it's. It's alarming. But, you know, we. We hope that a solution is coming. You know, the federal government just announced a special open enrollment for Florida for people that were in the ADAP program.

Joy Reid (57:39)

So.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (57:40)

But people don't know which way to turn. I mean, we don't know where to go and where people are going to get their care and their medications from right now. It's really a frightening time.

Joy Reid (57:49)

It is. But we so appreciate you letting us know what's been going on from our text messages to the world, because I was aware of it, because you made me aware of it. Michael, we wish you the best. We're all praying for you, and we are hoping that the souls and spirits of these Republicans are awakened to justice and that for once, they can do the right thing. Michael Rayner, thank you very much. Can I. Yeah.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (58:12)

One quick thing.

Joy Reid (58:13)

Yeah. Please.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (58:14)

If you're a person living with HIV in Florida, please continue to take your medications as prescribed, continue to stay in contact with your doctor, and continue to talk to your case manager.

Joy Reid (58:24)

Yeah.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (58:25)

We are going to get through this. And, Joy, thank you for lifting this up and shining the light.

Joy Reid (58:29)

Amen. Amen. Amen, my friend. Thank you very much and thank you for shining the light. We appreciate you, Michael Rayner, everybody. He's a good guy, and he's been fighting also for, you know, racial equity in the HIV space. And he's a guy that really, really really has been fighting the good fight for a really, really long time. I've known that guy since, like, the early aughts, and he's a fighter. So thank you guys for listening to him. And this is why we're saying elections are important. We're doing this on the day before election day for a reason. Because you see that, that's the Florida Department of Health. Well, how do they get their jobs? They come through a governor. And so who you elect affects everybody. You can impact people's health just with your votes and not even know it or by withholding your votes at all. I want to also let you all know that the way that we get to do this is that we have incredible people who sponsor this show and who allow us to bring you this kind of information that you're not going to get on mainstream media. I doubt lots of people are booking Michael to go on their shows in prime time tonight to talk about that, but that's the kind of thing that we do here. So we appreciate Michael. And the Joy Reid show tonight is brought to you by the Freedom From Religion foundation, another organization that is doing God's work, doing God's work to try to bring justice to people around the world. Let's just talk about who pays the price when church and state merge, because make no mistake, what you're seeing happen in Florida, this is an outgrowth of this very muddy situation with Christian nationalism in this country. And the people who suffer tend to be women, LGBTQ people, as we just heard, people suffering and living with hiv. And it's religious minorities. It's anybody, basically, who doesn't fit a narrow white Christian nationalist vision of America. The First Amendment exists literally to stop that. The Freedom From Religion foundation is fighting in courts and in communities to keep public institutions secular so that no one is forced to live under somebody else's ideology or theology. This is literally a civil rights issue. If you want to support them, visit FFRF US Joy or simply text JOY J O YEAH to 511511. To learn more and to join, go to FFRF US/JOY or text JOY JOY to 5115-11 and help protect this country as a country that belongs to all of us. Thank you all for listening. Message rates do apply. If you do use the text option, which of course is 511-511, you just text the word joy. Thank you all very much. Okay, so back on our main issue. And welcome to hour two of the Joy Read Show. And we are cooking, we are moving along, but I want to give you guys a quick pop quiz, especially for those of you who are. And thank you for those of you who are complimenting my glasses. I've got many, many more pairs coming. That's a tease. You got some more pairs coming. We are, we are readers and these are my readers that I'm wearing. And we've got more very interesting, fabulous glasses that are coming. I know people do love, they do love a good glasses. But we'll, we'll give you. That's a little tease to what's coming down the road. But here's a quick pop quiz, particularly if you were one of the folks who tuned into our little Saturday Iran class top quiz. Okay, what is the original name of the oil company bp, British Petroleum. What's the original name? Pop it in this, in the chat if you guys know. What is the original name of the oil company which is called bp? Anybody know? Let's see what people are saying. This is the Frames of Fire. I'm getting lots of people talking about the frame. But does anybody know the name of the company that is called bp? Looking, looking. I'm looking in the sub stack. I don't see it there. Somebody said Exxon. Somebody said Aram. Aramco. That's a good guess. Aramco. I'm seeing Shell, Chevron, Exxon, Standard Oil. British Petroleum is what its name is. Nope, that's not it. You guys are giving some good guesses. So. Wow. My father used to work for Esso Eastern in the Congo. So Esso. That's just like. I just had a flashback. Nope. The original name of BP is the Anglo Iranian Oil Company. The Anglo Iranian Oil Company. And its purpose was to exploit the oil beneath the soil of the former Persian Empire, aka Iran. Now, prior to 1953, the Anglo Iranian Oil Company, aka British Petroleum, BP controlled Iranian Oil production and sales. They did it through a royal family called the Pahlavis. I want to read to you a little bit from an article in the Indian Express. It's a good newspaper which you can always check out on your own. And here is the quote. In 1872, a British company bought a concession from the Qajar dynasty, giving it exclusive rights to run industries and exploit mineral resources, among other things. Viceroy of India Lord Curzon called this quote the most complete and extraordinary surrender of the entire industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands that has ever been dreamed of, much less accomplished in history. The Pahlavi dynasty was founded in 1925 by a man named Raza Shah Pahlavi who was a soldier in the army of the then king. Ahmad Shah Qajar. Pahlavi ascended to the throne in 1925 after leading a coup against the king. This is like Game of Thrones stuff. He leads a coup and then he becomes the king. Conditions were conducive for a takeover as the once great Persian kingdom faced threats of imperialism or with Russia and Britain seeking to divide their spheres of influence around the world and within Iran. And they were doing that. Although no Western nation ever actually explicitly colonized Iran, Pahlavi's reign was made possible by the support that he enjoyed from the west, especially from Great Britain, because he gave him that oil concession. And he buried the fact that he allowed the great nation of Persia to become dominated by foreign powers by wrapping himself and his reign in Iran's glorious past and by projecting an image of a man who was continuing the 2,500-year-old Persian monarchy. So he's basically selling out his country, but he's wrapping himself in the history of Persia even though he is a guy who got to be king by overthrowing the king. So you got that. So that guy was forced brutally. He was forced out. He was forced to abdicate the throne after the Allied powers attacked Iran in 1941, ostensibly over its close ties to Nazi Germany. So the king decides he's going to be a little too cozy, as were the British monarchs at the time, to be honest, with Nazi Germany. So he ends up getting forced off the throne. And with the military failure of this sort of incursion into Iran, the national consensus was now in favor of a new leader whose name was Mohammed Mossadegh. He kind of looked a little bit crypt. That's Mossadegh when he was in power. He's waving from the car as the leader of a free Iran. So he. Mossadegh is the first Iranian to earn a doctorate in law from a European university. Did that from Switzerland. And despite being times man of the year in 1951, he gets on the COVID of Time as the man of the year. 1951. There's his picture. Mosaddegh didn't last long. As prime minister from 1951 to 1953, he championed the need to nationalize Iran's massive oil reserves. Second largest oil proven oil reserves on earth after Venezuela. He once told the un, quote, our greatest national resource is oil. This should be the source of work and food for the population of Iran. Its exploitation should properly be our national industry. And the revenue from it should go to improve our conditions of life. Unquote well, that prompted the British to seek the United States assistance to engineer regime change in 1953, which resulted in a CIA engineered coup. Mosaddegh was arrested, and Resa Pahlavi's son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, assumed the throne. That's the return of the king. And how did that go for the Iranian people, I wonder? Well, let's read a little bit more from the Indian Express. Similar to his father's regime, Pahlavi initiated some reforms for modernization in both social and economic matters. But he also had a mean authoritarian streak. An object of dread during this period was the savak, the nation's secret police, which was known to arrest and torture dissidents, meaning people who protested. No independent institutions, political parties, student groups, labor unions, or civic institutions were tolerated. During the Shah's quarter century in power, the only place dissidents could find shelter was in mosques, which gave the developing opposition movement a religious tinge that would later push Iran toward fundamentalist rule. Again, you have a monarch in place calling himself the Shah. That's just a Persian word for king. He's an authoritarian that does not allow dissent. They arrest you if you protest, which sounds familiar. They don't allow students. They don't allow secular protests. They don't allow people to protest in the streets. So the only place that you can organize, just like in the United States, when enslaved people would want to organize, where could they organize the church? Where could the civil rights movement organize the church? And so in authoritarian countries in the Middle east, where do they organize the mosque. That is where organizing happened. So now you're starting to see why. When the Shah gets overthrown, who comes in? The people from the mosque? By the 1970s, dissatisfaction with the Shah spurred public protests, with participants raging from the Communists to the Islamists. Despite the regime's crackdowns, the continued agitation led the Shah and his family to flee Iran in 1979amid the unrest. In April, a referendum with 98% of the vote led to the establishment of an Islamic republic led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. But soon enough, that regime engaged in many of the same excesses as the Shah. Thor Terranism and limited space for dissent, with the added element of religious fundamentalism. Which brings us to today, when an American regime led by our own wannabe king has pulled a Dulles Brothers 2.0 by overthrowing and killing the elite mullah of the Iranian government, apparently along with members of his family. The guy who took over from Ayatollah Khomeini, whose Name is Khamenei, who took over in 1989. We've now apparently killed him along with members of his family, his granddaughter, launching a thoroughly illegal war without the consent of Congress. Six US troops are dead as a result and counting. And the apparent goal is to put the 60 something year old son of the Shah, who has not set foot in his birth country since 1979, in charge since apparently he is the man of the wealthy elite who mainly live in California and of, wait for it, the Israeli government. And of course the ultimate irony is that these people who have launched a coup against a religionist state are in the process right now of rapidly trying to transform the United States into a religionist state. In Iran, the secret police is called the savak, initials that translate to the Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State. Innocuous sounding. Here in the U.S. the secret police are called ICE, U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement. Both are secret police mask secret police. In Iran, women enjoy few rights and freedoms. Although I have to say statistically and I did look this up, more Iranian women go to university and are represented in STEM careers and in the medical field than women here are. And they don't have anti DEI laws. So just saying Iranian women are oppressed. But are we not here in America? Here in the U.S. women's rights and freedoms are being rapidly Iranianized. Women are being driven out of the military, they're being driven out of universities by the outlawing of DEI and affirmative action which primarily benefited white women. They're being bullied to stay home and make babies. While half of the US states have some level of abortion bans, with 13 states having total abortion bans and at least 10 states, including the latest Tennessee, looking to apply the death penalty to to women or their doctors over abortion. Iran is a theocracy, no doubt, but Project 2025 and Christian nationalists are also trying to turn the US into a theocracy where a mandated state religion is going to be taught in our schools if they get their way. There's an apparently official prayer at the Pentagon, courtesy of our own mullahs. They've got mullahs, We've got mullahs. The white Christian nationalists and the boys from Project 2025 want Project Esther. They want to blend religion in the state. That's what Iran is. Pete Hegsett's part time pastor, Doug Wilson, you know the guy who said he'd be a friend to the pedophiles. He operates a Christian nationalist movement that requires women to get to find spouses based on their Father's picking the spouse for them. And then the church enforces who they marry, when they marry and that they consummate the marriage. And if there's abuse in the marriage. This was a 60 Minutes report. There's nothing they can do. They're just supposed to allow their abusive husband to keep leading and to support him and make him feel forgiven,

Rula Jabril (72:39)

you

Joy Reid (72:40)

know, but not to worry, we're, we're not Iran. And the hand picked leader that apparently Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud party in Israel have chosen for Iran, the son of the Shah, he's got it all

Donald Trump (72:56)

worked out, economic growth and what have

Joy Reid (73:00)

you, just by a change that we hope to bring to the table that will be probably over a trillion dollars worth of impact and revenue to the

Donald Trump (73:08)

American economy just by, by Iran's market

Joy Reid (73:11)

being open to America and how much we stand to benefit from billions of dollars willing to be invested into Iran. Goody. Joining us now is former US Diplomat, former White House senior director and former State Department official Nayira Haq Nayera. It sounds to me like the son of Shah, baby doc seems to have a plan that's similar to the lady who gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize offer to sell out the resources of your country in order to get the US And Israel to back you up.

Nayira Haq (73:47)

Yeah. The Shah's son, who by the way, has never lived in Iran or stepped foot in Iran because he was born in exile.

Joy Reid (73:54)

Yeah. He lives in Maryland, by the way.

Nayira Haq (73:57)

There's a big diaspora community here, always had this uncomfortable relationship with the state of Israel. And I mean uncomfortable giving how the people of Iran said see Israel as a threat the same way Israel sees Iran as a threat. Right. So that's a very weird dynamic for the people of Iran. And again, the Shah himself was not a great kind leader. He just happened to be the American approved leader. People forget that before the Shah and before the CIA helped bring him to power, there was a democracy in Iran. So the people know and understand that that is possible. They just haven't had that chance in, you know, more than dozens of years. The Shah's son isn't offering that chance. At best what he could do is bring a group of parties together or different factions together and try to be the person who brings them to the table and, and helps them negotiate a solution forward without him. But come on, the son of a king, you think he hasn't imagined what that crown on his head would look like?

Joy Reid (74:56)

I mean, the, you know, when people say, oh, they hate, they hate us for our Freedoms. No, they hate us because we took their freedoms. They had a president. We dethroned him.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (75:02)

And.

Joy Reid (75:03)

And this guy. My first question, if I was Iranian, and there are monarchists, just like we have monarchists on the Supreme Court. John Roberts is a monarchist. We've got monarchists here that want a king in the United States. They want Trump to be the king. They're monarchists in Iran, too. Right. They wouldn't mind having a king again. But my first question about Mr. Pahlavi is, how are you rich, dude? Because nobody knows what you do for a living, but you are mad rich. It sounds to me like your family stole your Iran's wealth, walked out of Iran with it when you went into exile in the United States. And you still have it because he lives real, real, real well.

Nayira Haq (75:36)

Well, that is what has been accused and rumored over the years. And listen, every country, you know, there's all sorts of people love conspiracies. This one has a little bit more credence than I think most that we come up with. But the idea was that when the Shah himself was flown to California for surgery and all, that, that plane was literally full of gold.

Rula Jabril (75:55)

And.

Joy Reid (75:55)

Right.

Nayira Haq (75:56)

I mean, okay, that seems feasible. I was leading a country under those circumstances. I might do the same thing.

Joy Reid (76:01)

But I want Mobutu Sesego did it. He was like, oh, you're dethroning me from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Give me all the gold. I'm leaving. Right. All right.

Nayira Haq (76:09)

And you people who are putting the gold in there with me, I'll give you a flight out. Right, Right.

Joy Reid (76:12)

I mean, I'm out. Give me the money and let's run. And I know it's not mine, but it's mine now. There are.

Nayira Haq (76:17)

I don't know, there's also what the. The idea that that happened with the. Oh, my God. Why am I blanking his name, the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, who just rolls out.

Joy Reid (76:27)

Yes. Bashar al Assad. I would love to know what was in Bashar Al Assad and his wife, who loved the fancy purses. I'm quite sure they stripped Syria bare before they left. Right. Let's talk about some of the other rumors. And I don't know if you're in your State Department circles, you've heard whether Ahmad Nitajad, who was the president of Iran, he is alleged to have also been killed, which is wild because he's a civilian. That would not make any sense. Mahmoud Ahmed, just. If you guys don't remember him, he's done a lot of interviews in the US let's just listen to him. Do you have da. Jason? Okay, let's, let's listen to Ahmed for a minute. Israel be wiped off the face of the map. Is that your desire?

Michael Emanuel Rayner (77:11)

If a group comes and occupies the United States of America, destroyed homes while women and children are in those homes, incarcerate the youth of America, impose five different wars on many neighbors,

Joy Reid (77:31)

and always

Lindsey Graham (77:32)

threaten others,

Joy Reid (77:36)

what would you do? What would you say?

Lindsey Graham (77:38)

Would you help it?

Michael Emanuel Rayner (77:39)

Would you help that entity or would you help the people of the United States?

Rula Jabril (77:44)

So

Joy Reid (77:46)

when we say to be wiped,

Lindsey Graham (77:49)

we say for occupation to be wiped

Michael Emanuel Rayner (77:52)

off from this world, for war seeking to be wiped off and eradicated. The killing of women and children to be eradicated.

Joy Reid (78:00)

And we propose the way, we propose the path.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (78:04)

The path is to recognize the right

Lindsey Graham (78:08)

of the Palestinians to self governance.

Donald Trump (78:11)

So let me ask it a different way.

Joy Reid (78:12)

If you did know that Osama Bin

Donald Trump (78:15)

Laden was in Tehran, would you show him hospitality? Would you expel him? Would you arrest him?

Michael Emanuel Rayner (78:20)

I heard that Osama Bin Laden is in Washington D.C. no you didn't.

Joy Reid (78:24)

Shut up.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (78:24)

Yes, I did. He's there because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush. They were colleagues, in fact in the old days, you know, that they worked together. Mr. Bin Laden, Laden never cooperated with

Joy Reid (78:35)

Iran, but He cooperated with Mr. Bush. Now first of all, the reason I play that naira is I hate it when US Media sort of portrays particularly Muslims and people from the Middle east as sort of, you know, monsters that are just completely irrational and crazy. Ahmeda John was a sort of urbane man. And I'm not saying Iran is a regime that doesn't do wickedness and they certainly do horrible things to protest and to the women, but seemed like a rational guy. And by the way, y', all, George Herbert Walker Bush, the former CIA director and President of the United States, one term president, he was so close to the, the people of, of, of Saudi Arabia. They used to call him Bandar Bush. That was his nickname was Bandar Bush. And he was like this with Osama bin Laden. The father was a developer, much like Donald Trump's father. Osama bin Laden was also the son of a developer. And the elder bin Laden developed much of the real estate and sort of beautiful real estate that you see across the Middle East. He was friendly with George Herbert Walker Bush. Your thoughts? Yeah.

Nayira Haq (79:40)

Well, Osama bin Laden grew up rich. Let's be clear, right. He did not grow up looking like what the images we see in his later years in Afghanistan, like that was a very careful transition and a power that he was able to gain among lots of people who are disaffected by this idea. You know, he sold the idea of American imperialism the same way the American public has been sold the idea of the communist boogeyman. So much so that we would go all the way to Vietnam to try to stop it from falling to the communists. Right. Like, so that, that the narratives and the ideologies really work when you have these people who know how to manipulate them. Let's not forget that, you know, Reagan also had his connections with the Taliban, the mujahideen in Afghanistan that was all about funding them to fight the Soviets.

Joy Reid (80:29)

Oh, no. As did Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was working for James Earl Carter. Jimmy Carter had his foreign minister, as it were. ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI FATHER OF MICAH they did go to Afghanistan and they told to raise the mujahideen, raise your hands and fight the godless communists of Afghanistan. They were doing that because we told them to. And we knew what Bin Laden had because we kind of gave it to them. The arms.

Nayira Haq (80:52)

Yep. And so this is some of what the American history, but people in the region remember this and we don't like those of us who have worked the issues and have lived. You know, we understand it and we see it, but it's not part of the American history lessons that we get in school. And it's certainly not part of the public media narrative in the United States to the degree that American imperialism is a narrative in the Middle east and elsewhere. So so much of this is being seen across the Middle east and South Asia as chickens coming home to roost. That, and this really has put an even worse way. Like, they saw, they, they saw that America was selling a lie when it came to Iraq, but they're like, okay, at least that lie, there's a UN blessing, all right. You know, it's terrible. You know, the United States was attacked before Afghanistan. This one is really coming out of nowhere for your average person. Like the person on the street in the Middle east and South Asia is like, what the hell is the United States doing now? And frankly, we're having the same reaction because we haven't been given a story or reasons. It seems like all of these messaging trial balloons Trump has raised up, first it's regime change, then it's not. Then it's a 48 hour window for the people to rise up. It's for them. Now it's maybe for something else, but it's definitely not democracy, according to Pete Hegseth. So why, like, why? What's happening here?

Joy Reid (82:12)

They didn't even have, like a cute, like, false flag that they could do just like, and say, look, they did this. They didn't even do anything like that. Nothing. But one person who's very, very happy about this Naira, and you will not be surprised by it, is one Lindsey Graham who's been spoiling for multiple wars all over the world for a very long time, including against Iran. Here's his excited thoughts.

Lindsey Graham (82:31)

I'm not going to try to get into the mind of Donald Trump because I don't think there's a whole lot of space there. I think he's a kook. I think he's crazy. I think he's unfit for office. And I'm a Republican. And he's not. He's not a conservative Republican. He's an opportunist. He could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and 25 or 30% of the people would still follow him because he gives a voice to their anger and their frustration. But he's not fit to be President of the United States.

Joy Reid (83:01)

Bless you.

Lindsey Graham (83:01)

To Donald J. Trump. You just surpassed Ronald Reagan as the most consequential Republican president since Lincoln. You're now the gold standard for modern Republican Presidents. You're Reagan. Plus plus plus what you did tonight, Mr. President, today, is you unleash the might of the United States military against evil.

Rula Jabril (83:21)

The United States pick the next leader of Iran or will the Iranian people pick the next either?

Lindsey Graham (83:29)

I talked to the crown prince. He's got some ideas about transition. There will be no American boots on the ground. This is not Iraq. This is not Germany. This is not Japan. Is a place that could be wonderful without Hezbollah. Hezbollah has American blood on its hands. It killed those Marines 2002018 sailors in 1983. And Ronald Reagan, the great Ronald Reagan left and never did a damn thing. Mr. President unleashed the American military with Israel on Hezbollah tonight. Finish these bastards off. And as to this commander in chief, he did something people talked about doing. You just wait for Cuba. We're going to wake up one day, I hope in 26 in our backyard. We're going to have allies in these countries doing business with America. Not narco terrorist dictators killing Americans. This is a good thing. This is not interventionism. This is making America safer. We're going to be more prosperous because of the business deals. There are going to be Americans alive today because he shut down a narco terrorist state called Venezuela. This is a good thing, not a bad Thing.

Donald Trump (84:42)

And the oil companies are going to go in and rebuild their system. Them, they're going to spend billions of dollars and they're going to take the oil out of the ground, and we're taking back what they sold. Remember, they stole our property. It was the greatest theft in the history of America. Nobody has ever stolen our property like they have. They took our oil away from us. They took the infrastructure away.

Lindsey Graham (85:06)

No matter who the people pick, they cannot become the largest state sponsor of terrorism. They can't fuel Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas. They can't have ballistic missiles. They can't have a nuclear weapon. They will be out of the terrorism business. So the people will pick. As to the people, choose wisely. We want to be your friend. We'd like to have a good relationship with you going forward, but that is up to you.

Joy Reid (85:29)

So basically he says, you better pick somebody we like or we're coming back in 1983. Apparently the casus belli is the marine attack in Lebanon in 1983. Were you even alive in 1983? I'm not sure you. You were even born brown don't crack either.

Nayira Haq (85:49)

You can tell from this lighting. But there was some melanin in here.

Joy Reid (85:52)

Yes, I see it. I see it. So does it. Does any of. I mean, he seems to say, put boots on the ground to take out Hezbollah. Cuba will be next. He's very excited about the war everywhere, and he seems to think that we should put boots on the ground to go and finish off Hezbollah. Your thoughts?

Nayira Haq (86:08)

I'm just trying to figure out how, like, what. What is on Trump's boots that Lindsey Graham loves looking and sucking up so much, but what is that flavor? Because I honestly, I don't understand it. Otherwise, it is okay. He's just going to repeat the Trump talking points. Keep telling us this is a good thing. First of all, the oil and gas companies don't want to go into Venezuela. They rejected that entire plan. Secretary of Energy tried to get them together the week after the Venezuela raid. They want nothing to do with this. Like, we. We can't. That's a waste of money for us. So they're not doing that there. I don't know why they think or if they think that could happen in Iran. If they're really worried about oil and gas prices, they probably should not have launched this war. They knew that Iran would retaliate. Iran's already taken out Riyadh's biggest energy cell. They're blocking. They already took out another oil tanker with an American carrying an American flag. They hit the military air bases that essentially were trying to stop in the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranians from becoming pirates on American vessels. So all of this puts energy, the energy sector into a complete disarray. That's not good. It's going to be bad for trade. So I'm not quite sure who profits from this unless it's another weird scheme. Like we're going to redevelop Gaza to be beachfront property. Like, you think American businesses are going to grab a hold of contemporary Persia and rebuild that? Like, what kind of fantasies are we talking about here?

Joy Reid (87:38)

Yeah, I think the fantasy, as Lindsey Graham also further expounds, I didn't include that sound bite, that he believes that taking out the leadership of Iran will enable the Gulf states to finally normalize ties with. Wait for it, Israel. He's made it pretty clear that it is Israel that profits, that Israel is who benefits and that is who he intends to benefit. Niahq. That is apparently according to him.

Nayira Haq (88:03)

Yeah, and I, I think that's a really interesting argument to make right now. When Riya, when Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE are all sitting here like, you got us attacked.

Joy Reid (88:15)

They're getting bombed.

Nayira Haq (88:16)

Israel, like, you can say this may have been a US Missile or not, but this has publicly been an Israeli and US Action. Like, they're, they're not blaming Israel, rather, they're not blaming Iran for the retaliation because, like, well, we probably do. We don't like Iran, but we're doing the same thing right now. So it puts our allies in a really weird spot because they were trying to get us not to launch an attack. They know what the spillover consequences would be. So, you know, do you choose between. I don't know how they're going to wrangle their choice here, frankly, because now it's almost impossible for them to side with Israel because their countries have come under attack and the region is blaming the United States, not Iran, during Ramadan.

Joy Reid (88:59)

Nayara, thank you very much. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. We appreciate you being here and come back because we're going to have more, I'm sure, to talk about because we're in World War iii. Yay. Welcome to it. Thank you, sis. Appreciate you. Yeah, I don't know if I mentioned that, but this attack did occur during Ramadan and also during Purim, which is a Jewish holiday which Bibi Netanyahu decided to celebrate by once again invoking the Amalek. Let's play a couple other things here. Here is Pete Hegseth explaining who started the fighting. Start this war. But under President Trump, we are finishing it. Nope, nope. Wrong. You did start it. The United States attacked a country who did not attack us, and we attacked them first. Here's Donald Trump showing the empathy. That is why MAGA loves him so much.

Donald Trump (89:51)

Earlier today, CENTCOM shared the news that three US Military service members have been killed in action. As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives. We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is. Likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case. But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against basically civilization. They have waged war against civilization itself.

Joy Reid (90:51)

Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Stupid piggy. Iran is civilization. It's quite civilized. And again, they have more women scientists and mathematicians and doctors than we do. And you said things basically he said ish happens about the deaths of US Servicemen. Okay, we're gonna come back in a minute. I have one more amazing sponsor to thank before we move on with the rest of our show. This show is brought to you and at this point we really need it by 112,120 life. 120 life. You know like that whole health problem that almost everyone is carrying around, especially nowadays with that dude talking and not stopping talking. High blood pressure. High blood pressure is the number one risk factor for my when for mortality. Half of all adults have it and everyone knows somebody in their life who deals with high blood pressure. And the problem is dangerous. People generally don't know about it until the damage is already done. So by March, your New Year's resolution momentum is probably on. Life is busy again. Life is life. And you don't have time for it. So you don't need the guesswork. You need something that's simple that can help get your blood pressure down and actually will you'll enjoy in the process. So here's what you can do. You can drink 120 Life Daily. Check your numbers. Many people see improvement in as little as two weeks, which is exactly why this product has become so popular. If you're over 40, blood pressure might runs in your family. And if your doctor has ever mentioned it, this is for you. 120 Life is a once a day functional drink made with ingredients that help support healthy blood pressure. It's not a pill or a stimulant or some trendy weird wellness gimmick. It tastes great, it's refreshing and it is made from a blend of superfruit juices. It also fits into your normal real life. The powdered version has just 111 gram of sugar, making it a smart option for people who are watching their blood sugar. Hundreds of Doctors actively recommend 120Life to their patients and more than a thousand health professionals have supported or endorsed its use. It's increasingly becoming a go to. It's part of a lifestyle that's healthy and that can actually help you be healthier long term. You want to try it? Go to 120Life.com that's 120-Life and simply use the code JOY or read R E I D for 20 off. The risk free two week trial. If your blood pressure doesn't come down, they'll give you a full refund. So go to 120life.com use the code joy or read to save 20%. Don't wait until next month. You have nothing to lose against your high blood pressure. Go to 120life.com use the code joy or read for 20 off. And we should note these statements have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and this product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Okay, I want to play for you guys to one remarkable piece of video. So this is Jeffrey Epstein. Once again we're going to play because this is. We are in the Epstein War right now. This is Operation Epstein. So I just want to play you Jeffrey Epstein having a conversation with the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak sometime during the Obama administration.

Donald Trump (93:46)

The future of Israel, I mean something

Lindsey Graham (93:50)

will happen in Iran.

Joy Reid (93:51)

Maybe we'll succeed, maybe we won't and

Donald Trump (93:54)

that'll make it worse.

Joy Reid (93:56)

But the demography seems terrible. Nobody sane seems to be procreating and

Michael Emanuel Rayner (94:02)

everybody insane in their own way seems

Lindsey Graham (94:05)

to have five children.

Michael Emanuel Rayner (94:08)

Whether it's Arabs or Orthodox, they have five children. If you're regular Israeli, you have one

Donald Trump (94:14)

and a half children.

Lindsey Graham (94:16)

Two the Haredim are more productive than the Arabs. Since we cancelled some of the we

Joy Reid (94:25)

had exponential support function for productivity, there's

Lindsey Graham (94:33)

something bizarre rather to be an esker, it becomes exponential.

Joy Reid (94:38)

Always when I meet a friend with

Lindsey Graham (94:40)

three children telling another tool, you are

Joy Reid (94:43)

deep into the Social Security trap.

Lindsey Graham (94:47)

That's your job.

Joy Reid (94:50)

You can sit idly. Okay, I think we've had enough. No I don't. And he goes on to talk about the fact that eventually what will happen to Israel is it will lose the demographic war and that because of the birth productivity of the Arabs versus all but the most religious Jews in the country, eventually it will be an Arab majority. Joining me now is Rila Jabril, award winning journalist, international best selling author and foreign policy analyst, renowned for her groundbreaking work in Europe, the United States and across the Middle East. Rula, my friend, it is so good to see you.

Rula Jabril (95:26)

So great to see you. Joy.

Joy Reid (95:28)

Do you have any doubt whatsoever that we are in this war which I am calling Operation Epstein because Israel demanded it?

Rula Jabril (95:37)

Absolutely. And we have the confirmation tonight from Secretary Rubio who literally said that that was not. I mean he basically said that Israel forced our hand, meaning they were going to attack. So Trump went along. But I think the underlining and the most important element to underscore Netanyahu visited the White House seven times in one year. Netanyahu, according to many, was adamant about bombing Iran. He's been trying for the last 40 years to convince every US President Trump was the only stupid enough to go for it. And not only that, why did he go? And that, I mean, why did he go? For the second time there was a war, the 12 days war in June. He himself stated that he destroyed the nuclear program for the Iranians. The CIA and American generals said that Iran doesn't pose an imminent threat. They talked about Iran saying, well, basically they don't want the nuclear weapon. They just killed the man, Khamenei, who actually issued a fatwa saying no nuclear weapons, we're against nuclear bomb. That's the guy, that's the guy they killed and they're bragging about killing the guy who is 87 year old, who had cancer, who was already dying. And now we're in this war of choice, disastrous war that is basically hitting the entire Middle East. It's now a regional war and it's being globalized by the Iranians to punish everybody that would help America, every American ally, every country that has a military base. And when did that happen? That happened immediately after we discovered that the FBI interviewed a girl in 2019 who said that Trump raped her, forced her for oral sex. And they interviewed her fourth time and that happened when she was 13 year old. We know that Tom Bundy took out of the files that that specific document. We know that the FBI themselves in the Epstein files wrote, they wrote and they concluded, and that is during the first Trump presidency, that Israel has compromised on Trump. That basically Jared Kushner was their asset. And then he is the one basically that is handling Trump in the White House. Jared Kushner was the guy that Trump sent to conduct the negotiation. Who is he working exactly for really? America's national security interests or Israeli national security interests? Seen his close ties to Netanyahu's family and to the Israel great project.

Joy Reid (98:23)

And I will note that in the video that I played earlier, the chat note, I don't know if you noted that the third person that was standing on that Air Force One flight talking about how great it would be that we would be able to scoop up Venezuela's resources and crowing about that was Howard Lutnick, who this administration attempted to hide evidence that he apparently lied to Congress and lied in an interview with 60 Minutes in which he said he was disgusted by Epstein and would never be in a room with them, but then took his whole family to Epstein island, to Epstein's disgusting island, took his children there, his teenage children there. And so what we're seeing, it feels to me, Rula, is that there is an Epstein, Epstein elite. There's a global, yes, Epstein Elite. And these people are all trafficking in girls, boys, children, women, Eastern European wannabe models, girls from trailer parks in Palm beach. And they're trading them around like toys. Right at the same time, it seemed that Epstein was recording all of this getting compromised. You heard him for hours advising Ehud Barack how to get and stay rich. Is that the reason that he's able seemingly to control Donald Trump?

Rula Jabril (99:34)

Yes. And not only that, Joy, we discovered last week that the Israeli mission in New York, the UN Israeli mission, was basically in charge all of the telecamera and security apparatus in Epstein House. Israel itself was in charge. They installed those cameras. Why would a country install cameras inside a house of a guy that was a well known rapist and pedophile? That happened after he was convicted in 2008. Not only that, Ehud Barak. Let's go to Ehud Barak. Who is Ehud Barak? The former prime minister. He is the father of the surveillance state that Israel unleashed. He is in charge of three, four companies. One of them is Paragon. Paragon basically is used as a spyware to spy on people in charge of another two companies. And he also was involved with Palantir that is being used as AI technology to exterminate Palestinians in Gaza. Ehud Barak is not some kind of a figure. He is the guy that appointed basically the head of the Mossads. The head of the ex head of the Mossad just wrote a Book. His name is Yossi Cohen. Yossi Cohen did 3, 4 interviews, including with Barry Wise, you know, whatever, the Israel propagandist, chief propagandist. And he said in one of the interviews, and it was an open confession, he said when we sell our technology to other countries, we put a backdoor. So we're spying on our own clients. Of course they are spying on the US Administration. Of course Epstein was blackmailing American politicians to keep the unconditional support for Israel. Do I think Donald Trump is blackmailed? I absolutely do. He's already been convicted of raping Eugene Carroll, our colleagues. Do I believe that he might have raped that 13 year old girl? I don't know. But I want to know and I think Americans have the right to know. If our politicians are blackmailed, why would a country of 300 million people, the superpower in the world, would capitulate totally to a convicted war criminal, excuse my language, indicted war criminal Bibin Netanyahu, and follow him into another war in the Middle East. The Trump campaign saying he will never do. He is doing this because he is blackmailed. He is doing this because Israel got compromised on him. And he's doing this because probably at this point he think he can bury the Epstein file under the Rubbles in

Joy Reid (102:14)

Iran and under the rubble of a girls school 149. And we're just watching the death count in that school because it is sort of a kind of unfortunate trademark of IDF that they don't have any problem targeting schools and children. Let's talk about the Saudi angle because this is sort of the new sort of storyline from the Washington Post, which again you have to be very careful. For those in the chats, be careful what you're here for. The Washington Post still has great journalists, but overall it is owned by an oligarch who is pro Trump. Yes. And so it seems that they are attempting to shift the blame away from Israel, which is bragging about being behind it and saying that it was the Saudis. What's the Saudis game here? What do you think their role is in convincing Trump to do this? Because it doesn't seem to make sense to me because they're getting their assets destroyed.

Rula Jabril (102:55)

Look, you know I've been a very hard critic of the Saudi regime since MBS went to power. I criticized his repression, oppression. I have no skin in the game. I'm not a defender of Saudi Arabia. However, when it comes to information and news and truth, somebody leaked that information to muddy the water and basically shift the blame from the Israelis and Trump and the Epstein and involve the Saudis. I talked today. I've been emailing with Saudi contacts around the region, including dissident people who really don't like the regime. And they all concur that absolutely that is not possible. MBS has been actually lobbied the administration not to attack Iran. They told me that they knew that Iran because Iran had been telling, you know, flagging to the region. This is what we're going to do. If they attack us, we're going to attack military assets in the region. We're going to attack military bases in the region. We know where they are. We know. And not only that, after the war in June, Iran had access to a different technology that they bought from China. They have actually a better technology than they used to have in June. And that kind of technology allowed them to see military bases and assets, et cetera. They bought actually a very advanced technology we didn't see before. And you can see this in the barrage of attacks that they, you know, throwing at Israel. They flagged to the region, the region believed them. They knew where they were going to attack. And they told Trump, this is not your war. This is an Israeli war. This is not your war. Stay away from it. Because the Iranians are so desperate in this moment and it's a survival war for them. And they told Trump, if you corner them too much, they might want to take as many people with them when they go down. You don't want that. The Saudis are very clear in this last five years, their shift is first of all, they shifted also from they were willing to think about normalization with Israel, but after Gaza war, they said that's not going to happen. So Israel is now is trying to involve everybody in the region to say, well, everybody wanted this. That is not true. Today Saudi Arabia arrested three, four Mossad agents, Qatar as well as released by Jeremy Scahel in his podcast and in his substack. They arrested them because they were trying to blow up basically oil fields and blame it on Iran. I don't trust the Israelis because in this moment, all kind of operation, they're trying to blame everything on Israel. And my fear that they are willing to do anything because I think the whole game is exposed and the whole game is connected to abstinence.

Joy Reid (105:46)

Indeed. Let's talk very quickly about the son of the Shah who seems to want to take over. I'm going to play, I don't play a lot of Van Jones, but I found this clip to be very telling. Here is Van Jones Talking about Mr.

Lindsey Graham (105:58)

Pahlavi past 47 years, the Iranian people have been suffering. They've been oppressed. Women have been forced to wear hijabs. Gays and lesbians have been persecuted. Executions are common. Recently, you saw millions of people come out of their homes protesting, demanding a new regime. They were chanting the name of Reza Pahlavi. Who is Reza Pahlavi? He is actually the son of someone who's known as the Shah of Iran. He doesn't want to come home as a ruler like his father. He wants to come home as a healer. He wants to come home as what's called a transitional figure to give the people of Iran a fair chance to come up with a new government for themselves that is based not on theocracy like they have right now, or a monarchy like they had under his father, but a true democracy. But why would you care about Reza Pahlavi if Iran were suddenly to be ruled by someone who believes in democracy, believes, believes in rule of law, believes in women's rights, believes in fairness to everyone. Suddenly, the entire region of the Middle east changes overnight. And the Iranian people get a chance to step forward as partners to the world again.

Joy Reid (107:18)

Okay, so just by the way, I'm going to let you, I'm going to let you react to that. But the dude that made a joke, please.

Rula Jabril (107:26)

Yeah, the dude that made jokes about dead Gaza baby, that Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby joke, joking about the 20,000 children who are slaughtered by Israel in Gaza is now telling 92 million Iranians that this guy is your savior, is the healer, that he believes in democracy. Guess what? Reza Balavi went on television on 60 Minutes and he said he doesn't want to be elected. He want to be appointed. Okay, so the whole bullshit about democracy, Please spare me. His father is remembered in the region for his torture chambers where he tortured thousands of Iranians and butchered them. You cannot impose on the Iranians with bomb the son of Asshah. It's not only going to work. The Iranians don't want him. He's so unpopular. A guy that lived his entire life. You know, you think that and I just want people to reflect on that. After Israel bombed a school girl and butchered 160 of them, today they bombed a hospital. They bumped also actually a gym for basketball for girls. And they're bombing left and right. You really think the guy that is talking about normalizing with Israel will be received as a hero after Israel murdered their own children? You have to be out of your mind. I don't know who's paying Van Jones, I don't know what kind of propaganda he is listening to. And he's been brainwashed. Totally. I lost respect, to be honest. He is a joke and a half. I used to reach out to him because at a certain point I thought, really, there's a guy that cares about truth. There's a guy that truly cares about the rule of law and international law and justice for all. But he's becoming another mouthpiece for the Israeli regime. And I am sorry to say this, if he lived in Israel or in Palestine, they will treat you like a black man. You know how they call people like us? You and me and him? Cushim monkeys. That's how they call us. This is the country he is defending that in 1993 sterilized black Jewish women from. They actually saved them. They brought them from Ethiopia and they brought them to save them from the civil war. And then secretly they were injecting them with repro vera to prevent them from birthing black children. This is the country he is defending. He decided to discard that history and lobby for a former shah who is so corrupt and he was so repressive that people were so desperate, they actually embraced Khamenei. Khomeini is a byproduct of the repression of that shah. So he needs to stop and shut his mouth and not lecture the Iranians about what they want, what they don't want. I'm so sorry.

Joy Reid (110:16)

No, no. I needed to let you say that because the reality is, I'm sure it will not surprise anyone that this man, Mr. Pahlavi, who again, lives in Maryland, he's never lived in Iran at all. Millions of people were not calling his name in the streets. There's no evidence of that. And Van Jones works for cnn. He should have evidence to. To say something like that.

Rula Jabril (110:37)

CNN plus Israel.

Joy Reid (110:39)

And as you will not be surprised, Pahlavi is the preferred choice of Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud Party. He is who they would like to install as the leader of Iran. And so Van Jones, who is, as you said, a stalwart supporter of whatever it is the Israeli regime wants to do, he's with them.

Rula Jabril (111:01)

Absolutely. And you know, Israel is very clear. They don't want the regime change. They want the collapse of the country, the total collapse of the country. They want to reduce Iran, a beautiful country of 92 million people. They want to turn it into another Libya, into another Iraq, into another Afghanistan, so they can have hegemony over the Middle East. This is a country of 10 million people that want to dominate a region of 450 million people. But I mean, the fact that Netanyahu today. Talk about Amalek again. This is the kind of language that actually was reported and cited in the International Court of Justice as incitement to genocide against the Palestinians. This is the exact biblical verse he used to justify exterminating Palestinians. He's using it against the Iranians. And you don't think the Iranians are listening to that? And you want to bring a guy that embraced that kind of mindset, that kind of lawlessness to impose it on them? I mean, imagine, Joy, imagine if somebody would call for the extermination of Americans, right? And then you have his friend or his ally. Would he ever win elections in America? Never. Would he ever even be accepted by the Americans as their ruler? Never. Come on, let's be clear. I don't know what Van Jones is doing, or he's drinking or he's hanging around certain people, but he need really to come to his senses because he's becoming like a laughing stock.

Joy Reid (112:33)

And I will say, and by the way, Bibi Netanyahu. And now winsome. I wish I'd kept this. I wish I'd kept this element. This is also Bibi Netanyahu, somebody who excused Hitler and said Hitler did not originally want to kill the Jews, he just wanted to expel them and tried to blame the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and say that if the Muslim guy hadn't said so, the Muslim guy said, burn them. And so he literally tried to say it wasn't Hitler's fault, it was the Grand Mufti of Palestine that was to blame for the Holocaust. The last question before I let you go, Rula. The irony to me, as I think about Israel, is that during the Kennedy administration, Kennedy very deeply opposed Israel getting the bomb. And they were very, very determined. Ben Gurion was their prime minister at the time. And the United States was demanding inspections of their nuclear sites because they opposed them getting nukes. And they defied the United States and got nukes anyway. Imagine what would have happened. Indeed, what would have happened.

Rula Jabril (113:41)

All the secrets. How that. How this is how they got the bombs.

Joy Reid (113:45)

Please. No, go ahead, go ahead.

Rula Jabril (113:47)

I am like, again, how much does Israel is going to do to America until American leaders wake up? We've seen a US Official, basically, Huckabee, a US Ambassador to a foreign country, receive a traitor to the US Embassy, a guy who sold military secrets to Israel, sold them military secrets, and then we find out that he was pardoned. Then we find out that the biggest backer of Donald Trump, the Adelsons, put him on a private jet and sent him to Israel. How many crimes you want Israel to commit before you start standing up for America's national security and America's lives? How many Americans were willing to let die and get killed for Bibi Netanyahu and for this criminal regime and for Israel at a certain point? This is not America first. This is not about American lives. This is about the agenda of the Israelis to basically dominate the Middle east, create a greater Israel. And now they're dominating America. They are dictating America's foreign policy. They are literally forcing a US president to do their bidding against the will of 85% of the American people. I mean, like I am about to explode thinking that American people can vote as much as you want. It doesn't matter. They can compromise America's leaders, blackmail them and then force them to do whatever they want. We have the head of the former head of the Mossad who threatened the head of the ICC saying, if you investigate Israel, I don't want anything bad to happen to you and to your family. I don't know how many of those conversations happen to our politicians because when Thomas Massie, representative, a Republican, said I'm not suicidal, and he start pointing to the fact that they might kill him. This is where we are in this moment in American history. They exterminated the Palestinians in Gaza. They're ethnically cleansing Palestinians in the West Bank. They're bombing multiple countries. And guess what? They're sending little girls. Or they send little girls to be raped so they can blackmail and compromise American leaders so they can keep that support. This is evil. This is sheer evil. And if the next. And I admire what you said, Joy, multiple times in 2028, this is going to be a litmus test. There's never going to be an elected Democrats who support Israel, who takes money from aipac, who or even had any hint to actually endorse any of their policies. I mean, the fact that Shapiro, Governor Shapiro, didn't say anything about an American child killed by the Israelis, and yet he is continue, honey. He chose actually to go serve in the idf, to volunteer in the idf. I mean, at a certain point we need to ask these officials, is your loyalty to America or to a foreign country? And anybody served in that army, a genocidal army, actually need to be excluded in power because I don't trust their ability to distinguish and to be loyal to an American. The American Constitution.

Joy Reid (117:08)

Yeah, it is no longer America first. It isn't America at all. Because I cannot discern a single US interest at stake in bombing Iran. I can't think of it, if there is one, come up with it. Because the best that the adherence to this policy have come up with is the 1983 bombing in Beirut. That was when I was in junior high school. That is not a reason to go to war 40 years or 30 years later. That doesn't even make sense. Even MAGA has figured out that this is a ruse, that this is a lie and that this is a cover up of the Epstein files and that this is not. Not. It's something, but it's sure not America first, religion real.

Rula Jabril (117:47)

But you remember Joy, one last. Even in 1983 we had, we had Reagan, a Republican president, when they were. When Israel was bombing Beirut, slaughtering people left and right. He called the Prime Minister of Israel, he called him Begin, and he said, you need to stop the Holocaust in, in Beirut, otherwise we'll sever our relationship. And that would be it. The guy was so shocked 20 minutes after they had a ceasefire. If Reagan, a Republican president can do that, why is not Donald Trump doing that? He claimed to be the big man who decide everything and he is like, nobody can buy him. He campaigned on that bullshit. Right. He cannot do that because of Epstein. Because they are holding him by his. Whatever that is, whatever left underwear in that space. Sorry.

Joy Reid (118:40)

Yeah, they're holding him by his micro. I think it's quite clear. We love you ruler dribble. Because you speak. You speak truth without fear and without mitigation. You don't come out here and water it down. You just give it to us like we need to be. It needs to be told. Thank you very much, sister. I appreciate you come back anytime, anytime you want.

Rula Jabril (118:59)

Thank you.

Joy Reid (119:00)

Thank you. And that and that. And there you have it. There is no way you can argue that this is a war in the United States interest. And the last thing I will say before we turn to a moment of joy which is very badly needed. In the 1960s, can you imagine if the world had reacted to Israel attempting to get the bomb the way they and the United States are reacting to just the possibility of Iran trying to get the bomb? Think about it. Israel was defying the United States, Europe, all of its sponsors, all of its sponsors. And this is before the 1967 war in which it expanded its territory. This is a country that was created under the auspices of U.S. protection. It owed the United States a lot in terms of its creation and the support of the Eisenhower and other administrations were the reason that it could exist at all. And United States has been guaranteeing the security of Israel to for its entire existence. And yet when President Kennedy said, you cannot have nuclear weapons, they got them anyway. No one bombed them. No one bombed their nuclear facilities. They knew exactly where they were. And then Israel refused to admit they had nuclear weapons. For decades. They pretended they didn't have them. And it was forbidden in the American media, the supposedly independent press were forbidden from saying that Israel had the bomb until a defector, someone admitted it. They leaked the information. And the man who is apparently responsible for it is a Jewish Iranian who was in the intelligence services, who let the cat out of the bag and became a Persona non grata to the Israeli government. And so they pretended not to have them. They wanted to secretly have nukes and also to continue to spread and proliferate nuclear technology to their friends in South Africa. This is a country that is not, n o t, not a signatory to the international treaties that govern nuclear weapons. I'm going to say that again. There is an international treaty that governs nuclear weapons. The small number of countries that can put on two hands that have nukes are all signatories to this iaea, I believe, is the signatures of it. They refuse to sign it. So imagine the idea of a country that refuses to sign the treaty that governs nuclear weapons demanding that a signatory country, the United States, put its own boots on the ground and put its own troops at risk, six dead and counting, so that a country that was willing, willing and signed an agreement to forestall ever having nuclear weapons, Iran, that as wicked as the Iranian regime is in many ways, and there was a lot of problems with it, but they signed that agreement. Vladimir Putin said that today the Iranians signed an agreement with Barack Hussein Obama and Europe, the whole eu and Obama signed an agreement. And in addition to that, as Rula Jabril said, the ayatollah, who is now dead, issued a fatwa, meaning a religious dictate, so saying they will never get nuclear weapons. And so a country that actually signed an agreement and was living by an agreement to never get nukes simply because Donald Trump didn't like the black man being able to get that done, ripped the agreement up, put them in non compliance when they were in compliance, and then said, you can't have nukes. Well, we already signed a thing that said we weren't going to get nukes. How are you coming at us now? They actually had a reason to be like, what are you talking about? We signed a deal. You broke the deal. Donald Trump. Then you turn around and bomb their nuclear facilities, say you obliterated their nukes, and then after that, you commit an act of war against them. And then the American mainstream media literally has the gall to report that Iran is attacking American military facilities. No, they are responding to us attacking them. This is called you made war on us. We're going to make war back on you for no reason. And the country that ordered Trump to do it. It's very clear, the whole Saudi angle, I guess, but it's very clear who has been vocally, openly, on camera in Congress to politicians, so that you can hear him begging, pleading, demanding, testifying, asking for. Begging for insisting on a US Attack on Iran. For most of my adult life is Bibi Netanyahu. That's who I know wanted this done. That is who had access to whatever Epstein had. Last thing. Remember when that birthday book came out? Where do you think that they got that birthday book from? Epstein had dirt on Americans, including American presidents, the British royal family, Prince Andrew, and his own government's former prime ministers. And so if you don't think that this is Bibi Netanyahu giving orders to the supposed strong man in the White House. We supposedly have a king, right? Well, he don't seem like a king right now. He seems like Junior Birdman to the guy who's supposed to be our client state. It seems to me that if there's a boss, if there's a king, that king is named Benjamin Netanyahu, not Donald Trump. And we are now at war to suppress the evidence of Donald Trump's disgusting alleged potential behavior, which is not proven. But he's obviously scared that whatever's in those files is so bad that he needs to obey. He must now obey a foreign, tiny country's prime minister. Unbelievable. All you MAGA people who had all your Trump as Superman, Trump as strongman, Trump with the big muscles. You better change them cartoons, because Trump is the little dog at the end of the leash. Bibi's holding the leash. Bibi is the boss, not Donald Trump. Russia was the boss. Russia, the old boss, the new boss. The old boss was Putin, baby. And the new boss got him to do a war. I really pray for every single serviceman and every parent of a serviceman in America. I pray for each and every one of you that your loved one does not wind up in the Middle east having to die for this, because this is dying for nothing. There is no reason for the United States to be at war with Iran. There's never been a reason for us to be at war with Iran. If anything, Iran had a reason to be at war with us. We stole their freedom. We took their president, we took their democracy away. If anything, they had a reason to scream death to America. They had a reason to be mad at us that they never launched a war on us. Yeah, they have some proxies that did some horrible things in terrorism. But again, to quote Ahmeda John, what would you do if a giant, massive, mega country, the greatest superpower in the history of earth, continually made war on you? What would you do? Pray for our troops. Pray for the people who are serving and including the immigrants who apparently this regime has no problem putting in harm's way. Not for the United States, not for America first, but for the person to whom Donald Trump is obedient. Look at this world. What a mess. I think we really do need a moment of joy, so let's go ahead and have it. This moment of joy is one that's been a long time coming, and it is a great closer to a very awful moment at the BAFTAs when sinners, actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were stunned by the N word being yelled by a person suffering from Tourette's. SNL did a really hilarious bit on it, a parody on it this weekend, saying, now everybody who says something bad or says the slur is going to say, yes, I too have Tourette's. That's the new thing that they're going to do on the right. But it's pretty funny. But yes, that that happened. And they were very embarrassed and it was a really awkward and horrible moment. Very uncomfortable for all concerned. But Michael B. Jordan got a chance to take the stage at the NAACP Image Awards over the weekend. Congratulations to all who won. And I know the lemon hands are in here. Don also won. I think he won like four in the Blaze Image Awards. Congrats to Don. But this was Michael B. Jordan's moment. He was named Entertainer of the Year, and he gave quite a hell of a speech. And here it is. What's up, y'? All?

Michael B. Jordan (127:36)

Y' all really don't understand how much this means to me being here. I used to come here when I was a kid, when I was about 15 years old, sneaking in through the back as best I could. And I always loved being here, man. It felt like a reunion of sorts of, you know, being from New Jersey and coming out here during the summers. And this is a place where I always felt encouraged. I always felt like I was being Celebrated and nourished. You guys poured into me. Even small successes, even when I was a kid, you told me it was okay to keep going because I felt seen here. I felt comfortable. I felt like. I felt the love. And that's why I love being here. And I love you guys, man, so much. And I was thinking about lead actor, you know, and I was thinking about what lead actor meant to me. And honestly, I got to dedicate this award to Chadwick Boseman, because

Donald Trump (128:24)

as my

Michael B. Jordan (128:25)

brother, our time here on this planet is short. I was watching the Memoriam and seeing how fast these careers go by and people's lives go by and what we do while we're here on Earth. And that's why I want to be here and be present with you guys as much as possible. So thank you. Thank you to my team, thank you to my mom, thank you to my dad, my brother, my.

Joy Reid (128:41)

My sister.

Michael B. Jordan (128:42)

You guys. You guys make me who I am, and you push me to keep going and keep being. Keep being solid as best I could. And. And yeah, I just want to thank the naacp. I want to thank. Man, I love being black.

Joy Reid (128:53)

I love y'.

Rula Jabril (128:54)

All.

Joy Reid (128:55)

It's a great suit, too. New Jersey. All the New Jersey people in the chat are going wild. New Jersey in his house. He totally deserved that. Michael B. Jordan is great. Sinners is brilliant. I hope it wins all, all the everythings because it's so good. And I need Delroy Lindo to take home some statues, too, because Delroy, I mean, made that from the two of them. They were all so good. I love Sinners. Congratulations to Michael B. Jordan. Congratulations to all the NAACP Image Award winners. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Happy birthday, Don and all the Lemonheads. Love y'. All. Thank you all for tuning in. Thank everybody for tuning in. We appreciate you and we will see you. And yes, God rest Chadwick Boseman. One of the best of the greatest of the greatest. T' Challa Wakanda forever. Forever. Love you guys. See you guys on Wednesday. Same bad time, same bad channel. Don't forget to like and subscribe and share. See y'. All. Bye.

Donald Trump (129:44)

Getting back to the basics. Grassroot level Let me dig a little deeper with the shovel Plenty can't tell

Michael B. Jordan (129:50)

the fors from the trees and I'm

Donald Trump (129:52)

hard to detect Like a black hole in a jar Injustice anywhere it's a threat to justice everywhere Let me make this clear I got a bone to

Joy Reid (129:59)

pick and I'll never fear the threat

Donald Trump (130:01)

of poverty they don't want to talk

Joy Reid (130:03)

about it they rap the party so I'm a real talk about it for show, all right?