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The Majority Report with Sam Seder
3555 - Protests Erupt Over ICE Murder; Big Oil's DC Influence Operation w/ Nick Cleveland-Stout
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Emma Vigeland
You are listening to a free version of Majority Report with Sam Steder. To support the show and get another 15 minutes of daily program, go to Majority FM please.
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Sam Cedar
The Majority Report with Sam Cedar.
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Emma Vigeland
It is Thursday, January 8, 2026. My name is Emma Vigeland in for Sam Cedar and this is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Nick Cleveland Stout of the Quincy Institute will be with us later on to talk about big Oil's influence on Washington's foreign policy infrastructure. But also on the program, in Minneapolis, one mile from the site of George Floyd's murder, an ICE agent murdered legal observer Renee Good yesterday, a mother of three shooting her in the face multiple times at close range in her car. The video also shows ICE officers blocking a physician from helping her as she bleeds out. Trump administration officials rush to Gaslight. The public calling Good a domestic terrorist. Thousands of people poured into the streets of Minneapolis and across the country last night. And right now there are protests in New York City right across the river over there as Kristi Noem visits it's ICE offices here. Democratic Congresswoman Robin Kelly says she'll file articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem. Good to hear. Today the Senate will vote on a bipartisan war powers resolution to limit Trump's military actions in Venezuela. Hopefully. However, Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the US Will control the country's oil sales indefinitely. John Fetterman comes out in support of purchasing Greenland. The Democrat John Fetterman, the Trump family crypto firm World Liberty Financial applies for a banking charter with the US Government. What's going to happen on pins and needles, Will World Liberty Financial get the approval from the Trump administration.
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Emily Heller
The US.
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Emma Vigeland
To withdraw from over 60 international agencies, mostly UN related because Trump says they're too woke. Kathy Hochul bends the knee, agrees to fund two years of Mamdani's free preschool program. And lastly, 86 year old Steny Hoyer is retiring. Glad he got that. APAC sponsored a 22nd trip to Israel in beforehand. But he still has an opportunity to go for a few more times.
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Matt
Yeah, take a few more.
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Emma Vigeland
One of the most powerful Democrats in the House for decades. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome to the show everybody. It is an em Majority Report Thursday. We have a lot to get to today. Obviously yesterday was a historic day and not in a good way. We were able to kind of react to the breaking news at the end of the first hour yesterday. But we have more information obviously about the victim of the murder by the ICE agent in Minneapolis, less than a mile, a mile around from where George Floyd was killed, was murdered by Derek Chauvin. And this woman, I should also say hello, Brian. Hello, Matt. This woman, Renee Goode, was a 37 year old US citizen. She was a mother of three children. She had two children from her first marriage and another six year old from her second marriage. That child will now be an orphan because the father of that child died in 2023. Renee grew up in Colorado. She moved to Minnesota fairly recently with her partner and she and her partner were coming back from dropping off her six year old at school when they ended up encountering some ICE agents. This is how her ex husband describes her to Politico. And then we'll see how the Trump administration chooses to describe her here. But the Trump administration officials, Politico writes, painted Macklin Good as a domestic terrorist who had attempted to ram federal agents with her car. Her ex husband said she was no activist and that he had never known her to participate in a protest of any kind. He described her as a devoted Christian who took part in youth mission trips to Northern Ireland when she was younger. She loved to sing, participating in chorus in high school and studying vocal performance in college. She studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Virginia and won a prize in 2020 for one of her works, according to a post on the school's English department Facebook page. She also hosted the podcast with her second husband who died in 2023. That is who Renee Nicole Goode was. Here is how the President of the United States chose to respond to this killing. In contrast, I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was obviously a professional agitator and the woman driving the car was disorderly. Now, if you see this video, you'll see that there are a number of women screaming. At one point, her wife is screaming. Her wife was outside of the car, it appears, I think they had their dog with them. And her wife was screaming out in agony after what she saw. So there was a lot of screaming happening because people just witnessed their neighbor shot in the face by an ICE.
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Matt
Officer and fascists were pointing guns at people before that.
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Emma Vigeland
So not sure which woman he's referring to, the widow of the victim or one of the witnesses to the murder. The woman screaming was obviously a professional agitator and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing. And resisting, who then violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being, I mean, every word I read, I just, I'm in disbelief. The situation is being studied in its entirety. But the reason these incidents are happening is because of the radical left is threatening, assaulting and targeting our law enforcement officers and ICE agents on a daily basis. They're just trying to do the job of making America safe. Oh, sure, yeah, they made, they made that American really safe when they shot her in the face multiple times. We need to stand by and protect the law enforcement, whatever. So, I mean, they're laughing at the public on this front.
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Matt
This is what fascism is. And a lot of people have been pointing out that they, they talk like Israelis talk about Palestinians. They're calling everyone terrorists. And that's true, but it's true because Israel is just in an outgrowth of fascism. It's the same thing that happened in Jakarta Method in Indonesia, same thing that happened in Operation Condor. Fascists, when they take power, get to kill people who they decide are too far away from fascism ideologically. That's just what's happening now. It's why Jesse Watters will defend all this. It's why every sort of mentally ill streamer on the right will defend, defend it. They'll just defend this. You can't reason with these people. We need to organize and squash them.
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Emma Vigeland
It's a bit trite, but to Matt's point, you have to. Just when you understand fascists and this level of how empowered they've been, you have to look back in history and you can read the Jean Paul Sartre quote that is still so resonant to this day, referring to the Nazis here. But you can refer to them as fascists in general and apply it right now to the Trump administration. Administration never believe that anti Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge, but they are amusing themselves, for it is their absurdity. Sorry. For it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse. For by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument, but to intimidate and disconcert. If you Press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past. And that is exactly what Trump and Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem are engaging in here. And I've spoken about how I feel that Trump is a bit of a surrogate or a proxy for reactionary feelings of empowerment by a. For his base. Often those are along lines of white supremacy or misogyny or homophobia or transphobia or xenophobia. When Trump gets to say slurs and lie with impunity, there's a thrill to them because there's a vicarious experience for a population that feels aggrieved and disempowered. And in many ways, the American population is deeply disempowered. But that's not just maga. That's across the board. And what Trump has provided for the population and for them is a circus. And the Democrats have abandoned populist material messaging to such a degree that violence as a catharsis for these fascists and. And for the MAGA bases, basically, that's all that's being offered, that's visible.
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Matt
And so people can't buy houses, and rich people are as rich as ever. And the Democrats think, like, we need to work with them on abundance.
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Emma Vigeland
Right. Or on, you know, I mean, there's yesterday. Yesterday, Chuck Schumer was hugging Marco Rubio in front of the press. The opposition leader missed this. Yeah. Go to Ken Klippenstein's feed if you want to get your heart monitor up. That there a mat. But. And we have it in the sound sheet. Maybe we'll show it later. But we've also talked about how Trump's followers kind of transpose this, like, evangelical religious framework onto him and how they're primed to do so in many ways because he takes the form of a televangelist at a megachurch. It's why. It's like the arguments about his lack of morality, the arguments about his philandering, and, I mean, we know he's like a predator as well. Didn't land because he represented, like, this authority figure because of his wealth, his celebrity, and, like, just decades of prosperity gospel brainwashing for that base. So if Trump is this godlike figure, then the ICE agents in that framework basically act as agents of his like of God, Trump's divine will. Like, they're executing his judgment against all of the enemies of the MAGA base, which includes leftists, immigrants, Muslims, Somalis, you know, what have you. It is all about, like, that kind of. It is set up as a religiously motivated political movement. It's a Christian nationalist movement at its heart is really what I'm getting at here. And when you see them deny the reality that we all saw in that video, it's because they are operating from a place of blind faith and they are operating within that framework. Or they're completely insincere and just fascists. But it's one of the. But it's one of the two.
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Matt
This picture. I mean, I. He said he's disappointed. Marco Ruby or whatever. This is just two fascists. This is a Christian fascist and Zionist fascist.
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Emma Vigeland
Go to the second one exactly.
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Matt
Like.
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Emma Vigeland
Go to the second one where they're legit hugging. Yeah.
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Matt
I mean, we don't. This is. This is our government. And both parties are occupied at the top by fascists. Listen to Chuck Schumer just a year ago talk about. About what his. What he viewed his role as, which is to keep the left pro Israel.
- [13:52]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
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Matt
And we wonder why this is. This is continuing. I mean, half of these people, I mean, Debbie Wasseman Schultz, Chantelle Brown. I looked at the list of all the Democrats that thanked ICE for their beautiful service to the nation last summer. Is there are people in the Progressive Caucus.
- [14:11]
Emma Vigeland
I mean, and. But you can. That then diagram is going to overlap that took Israel money with who took Israel money.
- [14:17]
Matt
So they shouldn't be allowed in there. Purge them from the Progressive Caucus. It's time to address this shit. I mean, everyone says it's not the time. The time was yesterday for all of this.
- [14:26]
Emma Vigeland
Right. You know, I was. I was talking with. With somebody last night, you know, another colleague in the space. And they were like, you know, is it too late? Like, could we have done. Could this have. Have we gone too far? Basically, this purge needed to happen before that, to your point, to build up the opposition party. But when you look at history, this is how fascist governments rise is you have a weak centrist opposition that is unable to meet the moment. And it's very much echoing in our ears at this moment. And so, like, when you look at the right's reaction, you have those two buckets. You've got the followers who treat this as like an act of faith, essentially, and the fascists who get the thrill out of lying. And those groups are sometimes not entirely distinct, but that's what we're looking at right here. And so, you know, I mentioned earlier that I happened upon that video of Renee Goode's wife crying. And as soon as I saw she had a pride flag in her bio as soon as I saw that she was in a relationship with a woman, I knew immediately what the right was going to run with. And you know what, what all the Twitter Nazi bots were going to run with because they rev up that engine really quickly. And I tweeted out the GoFundMe for her wife and son. We can maybe put that in the description as well. And of course the immediate Nazi bots on Twitter, that is what they, that's what they've decided on is they're gonna go with homophobia. But we don't need Nazi bots on Twitter to do so because we have prime time Jesse Waters to run with it as well.
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Nick Cleveland Stout
The woman who lost her life was a self proclaimed poet from Colorado with pronouns in her bio. A 37 year old white woman named Renee Good. The Daily Mail says she leaves behind.
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Emma Vigeland
A lesbian partner and a child from a previous marriage.
- [16:33]
Nick Cleveland Stout
She was a disruptor, though she considered.
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Emma Vigeland
Herself a legal observer, but there's no.
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Nick Cleveland Stout
Evidence she had a law degree.
- [16:42]
Emma Vigeland
That's not what a legal observer is, you dummy.
- [16:45]
Matt
Ryan Grim showed the world how to deal with Jesse Waters. And people can Google that. And I won't say anything more.
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Emma Vigeland
Yeah, I, They've, they've got, there's nothing about the facts here that will change the minds of the base of this party at this point. They have decided that this is some sort of, you know, almost like religiously ordained war between good and evil. And that's why I bring up the evangelical framework is because now we can slide her into this bucket because she was in a relationship with a woman I knew of course, immediately you see the discrediting of her on that basis, it's really disgusting. And you know, as we talked about trans people being Canarians in the coal mine and that of course they're going to come for Obergefell and gay marriage and LGBTQ rights more broadly in general on that basis. That, that is what is going to happen. I mean, I would not be shocked if this is how the right reacts. Finding a hook as a way to make her into one of the political enemies that they can completely remove their humanity from.
- [17:59]
Matt
This is why we had a problem and it got us accused of being max left by other comment with playing footsie with the right on this stuff and acting as if, oh, if you just scratch below the surface. They secretly want Medicare for all. No, the organized right, the hard right on this country that turns out for this sort of stuff. They didn't just want mass deportations. Those people will support. And I am not exaggerating. They will support death camps for gay people, for immigrants. They will support it just like the Nazis did in Germany. That's the same fucking people.
- [18:36]
Emma Vigeland
They support concentration camps right now, right now.
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Matt
How many deaths have happened in the, in ICE custody?
- [18:42]
Emma Vigeland
Over 50. This last year, it could be 50,000.
- [18:45]
Matt
They wouldn't, you wouldn't hear anything different from the people that supported it.
- [18:48]
Emma Vigeland
Right, because of, of, of really the mentality that we were just outlining here. This is a movement based on domination, based on racism. And it's not motivated by the realities of policy. It is a, it's a fascist movement.
- [19:11]
Matt
The policy is kill people until the conditions improve.
- [19:14]
Emma Vigeland
Exactly. Where have we heard that before? A word from one of our sponsors. And then we're going to be talking more about this story. This episode of the Majority Report was brought to you by Wild Grain. Wild Grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, seasonal pastries and fresh pastas. And like Sam, I cannot get through this ad read without my mouth watering. It's already, it's already starting here. All of these items conveniently bake in 25 minutes or less. Oh, I got this incredible, like French. I'm probably not describing it correctly, but it's one of those long breads that, that twists like a pretzel and you just put it in your freezer and then you can, you can bake it really quickly and it tasted like it was fresh, like you got it from some artisanal kind of bread store. They also had these pumpkin muffins that were phenomenal. Really enjoyed basically everything in the wild grain box that I got. Unlike many store bought options, Wild Grain uses simple ingredients you can pronounce and, and a slow fermentation process that can be easier on your belly and richer in nutrients and antioxidants. There are no preservatives and no shortcuts. Wild Grains boxes are fully customizable. In addition to their variety box, they have a gluten free box, vegan box and a new protein box. As I mentioned, I loved that bread, loved those pumpkin muffins. And yeah, it was the sourdough that I really loved. Sourdough. Sourdough is good. And they, it was incredibly convenient too. I didn't get into that trend of making it myself during COVID Not really my thing. And that's why Wild Grain is perfect for me because it's a very convenient delivery system. They just ship it right to you and bake under 25 minutes. And when you're feeling like, oh, I'm a little hungry, maybe I order in. Wild Grain saves you that. You can just have it in your freezer and then boom, under 25 minutes, you've got some fresh, cozy bread keeping you warm in the cold weather. There is nothing like having an artisan bakery in your freezer to chase away the winter chill. Now is the best time to stay in and enjoy comforting homemade meals with wild grain. I highly recommend giving Wild Grain a try. Right now, Wild Grain is offering our audience $30 off your first box plus free Croissants for Life when you go to wildgrain.com Majority to start your subscription today. That's $30 off your first box and free Croissants for Life when YOU visit wildgrain.com Majority or you can use promo code Majority at checkout. Get $30 off your first box and free croissants in every box. Go to wildgrain.com majority to start your subscription link down below in the video and episode descriptions and at Majority FM and All right, so let's break down some of the lies from this administration on the murder that we witnessed yesterday, the ice murdering Renee Goode. This is just hours after the shooting. You saw that there was an ICE statement that we read on air. I think this was right before or right around the full video came out. The rush to get ahead of the story is immensely telling, defining the narrative they attempted to do. So the problem is that for them is, is that we have two eyes, some of us.
- [22:56]
Matt
Yeah. I mean this is a very the phrase rest to judgment actually comes from the JFK assassination. And that was a different media environment than the one we have now. We have a different where things could like, you know, you have newspapers and takes a long time for information. Now it's so fast that the right has realized that, oh, just lie like what you saw with the Charlie Kirk thing. Just throw out initial information. There's all these shootings that they initially blame on trans people get out there. And because you need to actually mess the judgment up for everybody and say like again, the shooting in Minnesota earlier that they blamed on folks, like they'll just say things.
- [23:41]
Emma Vigeland
Kristi Noem said this like just hours after the shooting. This was the press conference where she claims once again that Renee Goode was committing an act of domestic terrorism.
- [23:55]
Kristi Noem
Questions there. You asked about a shooting that we just had in Minneapolis, Minnesota, just happened. It was an act of domestic terrorism. What happened was our police officers were out in enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis. They were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot to protect himself and the people around him. And my understanding is that she was hit and is deceased. We're continuing to gather more information. But this goes to show the assaults that our ICE officers and our law enforcement are under every single day. These vehicle rammings are domestic acts of terrorism. We're working with the Department of Justice to prosecute them. As such, we will continue to protect our ICE officers and in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies as well. You've seen me in the last couple of days deployment deploy over 2,000 more officers to the Minneapolis area. And in the last two days we've.
- [25:00]
Emma Vigeland
Okay, we'll break down those lies. But should be noted that this is the excuse that they are now running with. And it isn't just in the ICE murder of Renee Goode. The New York Times has this from yesterday. In the last four months alone is number 12 immigration officers have fired on at least nine people in five states and Washington, D.C. all of the individuals targeted in those shootings were like the woman killed on Wednesday, fired on while in their vehicles. In each case, officials have claimed that the agents fired in self defense, fearing they would be struck by the vehicle. At least one person died as a result of those shootings. They also list some of these other examples that have gotten less attention. A Mexican immigrant named Silviero Villegas Gonzalez was shot outside of Chicago. The Homeland Security officials claimed that he had hit and dragged one of their officers with his car and that the officer who shot him was acting in self defense. But a Times analysis of video calls into question key aspects of the government's account. Shocking. They also talk about this Mexican man living in Los Angeles named Carlitos Ricardo Paraes. I'm sorry again if I'm butchering the pronunciation. Federal officials said he tried to ram officers as he fled the scene. And Homeland Security officers fired shots, hitting the man in the elbow. A federal marshal was struck in the hand by a ricocheted bullet. And there's more examples of this as well. So the point is just that there are good Samaritans. There are people who are being racially profiled in their cars who are having these interactions with ice. And if there is any violence that the Gestapo inflicts upon these Americans and these human beings, the claim is going to be that they were trying to use their car as a weapon. So we were justified in using our actual weapon in killing them or shooting at them. So, you know, just to be like they have not, they have tried to use this repeatedly, this excuse over and over in these instances.
- [27:21]
Matt
Oh, it's, it's, yeah, it goes beyond this and its probable cause. A judge has already said, one of the judges that said, hey, they're just lying to us. When we actually go back and review this body cam footage or the footage that they send us supposedly showing people threatening them with their cars, it turns out that it's these ice convoys that are driving erratically. And the judge suggests that they're doing so in order to have an accident, so they have a reason to do, to take action against people. Like that's insane.
- [27:52]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. And there was a CNN contributor that went on there last night, one of their legal contributors. I'm trying to find it, but essentially he went through the, the, the like Department of Homeland Security guidelines and you are not supposed to be shooting into a car. It says it so explicitly. So even by the own DHS charter, they have violated the rules. And I love that the excuse is adverse weather in Minneapolis in January. They're upset about the snow. I mean, it's not like it was snowing. We saw that it was an incredibly clear day. This is an eyewitness here. Number seven, Erin Burnett interviewed her. Her name is Emily Heller. And she says exactly what she saw. Discrediting the lies from the federal government, or I should more accurately say the White House and the Trump administration and reporting.
- [28:54]
Emily Heller
What's your response to that version of events?
- [28:57]
Witness (possibly a neighbor or bystander)
I mean that, that's the only reason why I'm here. I don't think I'm the most articulate person. I don't think that I don't want to be here, but I knew that this would be twisted and it would be self defense and that's absolutely not what happened. But it's just my life is forever changed from having witnessed this. And I'm, I just can't let this narrative that it was self defense go any further because it's absolutely not what it was. And yeah, my, my, my neighborhood, my neighbors, we're all going to be pretty traumatized for the, from this, from, for a long time.
- [29:32]
Emily Heller
When in that video that you shared with us that I just played the 34 seconds, you know, you're, you're obviously incredibly distraught and there's a doctor next you or near you, we can, you know, here I'm saying I'm a, I'm a. I'm a physician, I can help. And they say, no, we have our own medicine. But the doctor is there offering to administer cpr, standing right there. I don't want. You have to relive what you were looking at when the horror of her death. But how did agents respond to him? Was there a speed and a desperation in trying to get any sort of assistance to her? Because it didn't sound like that from what you gave us.
- [30:09]
Witness (possibly a neighbor or bystander)
Yeah, they wouldn't let him near. And they said they had their own medics that were on their way, which murdered. It was. I mean, I don't know. It was at least 15 minutes before the ambulance arrived. And then the ambulance couldn't even get through because the ICE agents had all abandoned their vehicles in the road, so the ambulance couldn't get through.
- [30:28]
Matt
Murderers.
- [30:28]
Witness (possibly a neighbor or bystander)
So they parked at the end of the block and about five paramedics came in and examined her for. I didn't see this, but I just. They were with her for a few minutes and then they carried her limp body away by her limbs, not even on a stretcher, just carried her down to the end of the block where they could get a stretcher because they couldn't get through with their ambulance.
- [31:00]
Emma Vigeland
We can't show that video because you can see her lifeless body and the blood in the background. But there is somebody who is shouting that they are physician and that they want to get through to help. And ICE agents say that they don't care and refuse to allow that to happen.
- [31:22]
Matt
Murderers, I mean, they need to be arrested. And it's nice for Jacob Fry and Tim Walls to talk about things. You need to push us to a constitutional crisis. If Trump's going to overrule any action you take against them, you need to let him do that. You need to have. You need to take some kind of official action.
- [31:40]
Emma Vigeland
It appears like ICE was attempting to get him out of Minnesota state lines for that very reason. Because while, yes, if he were brought on federal charges, which is not happening under the Trump administration anyway, yes, Trump would be able to pardon him, but not state charges. So this is where we have to see leadership from state attorneys general and state governors, obviously, and mayors and local leadership. This is essential. They cannot allow the federal government to Bigfoot this investigation here. It has to be locally controlled in a very tightly controlled manner.
- [32:27]
Matt
You have to assert some kind of authority over this. And if it's going to be overruled, then you have to let it be overruled. And I mentioned that thing about the line 404 media. DHS is lying to you. A great thing. U.S. district Judge Sarah Ellis wrote more than a 200 page opinion that large part catalog DHS is official bullshit. Parts of the opinion were scaling. Here's another one. DHS shared a video the court believed was an attempt to show agents constantly face danger from cars ramming them on purpose. Instead it quote, suggests that the agent drove erratically and brake checked other motorists in an attempt to force accidents that agents could use as justifications for deploying force. That is fucking insane. And officials have to act on that.
- [33:13]
Emma Vigeland
It's a public safety crisis. If you're going to about protecting your citizenry, that even if you're the fascist that loves seeing brown people rounded up by ice, they are causing accidents in your community as a pretext for further crackdowns. Because these ICE agents, some of them you know, you're reading about, have rap sheets. They haven't gotten any real training. The fat ass pig that killed her was like, you know, looked out of shape. I'm sorry to be body shaming here, but like we're, we're, we're talking about the fascists that came up off the street and are getting a thrill out of this. Who knows what they're doing before what drugs they're doing. You just got to read Seth Harp's work to know that there's a lot of crap that happens when people feel like they have total impunity and they're all jacked up getting ready to shoot a woman in the face. We have no transparency here. We should know this guy's identity right now and we still do not. But let's go through these freeze frames here just to, just to make sure that we have our bases covered. These are the specific moments when the ICE agent draws and fires his pistol three times, killing the woman. We'll pull up each of these images here. You see he's drawing it as the car is turning in front of him. We don't have this video. But before this, he goes behind her car and around it as she's kind of slowly turning. There is another video of her waving up, waving another car in front of her to show that she was trying to leave. Because also it appears like the ICE agents were giving her contradictory information. One was about saying getting out of the car, one was saying leave. And it appears that she was trying to leave. Okay, so here he draws his gun. Now the car is turning.
- [35:07]
Matt
You can see the wheel pointed away from him. Going down, ready to go down the.
- [35:11]
Emma Vigeland
Street, right this is where the first shot is fired. You can see both of his feet and you see the front wheel is not hitting him. It's not hitting his feet. So unless away from him. And there is, there is a gap between his torso. We can't see it fully because there's another thug that's chasing after the car. But you can see that there is space in between the vehicle and that far officer as the shot is fired. Now third freeze frame here. This is when he shoots her again. Like I mean at least two feet in between him and the car. But he's already hit her at this point.
- [35:50]
Matt
Anyone at this point arguing that he is in self defense is just a Nazi that wants like the government to be able to kill people and the.
- [35:56]
Emma Vigeland
Nazis lie is also here that they talk about how her car accelerated. At this point we'll do the final fourth. You know why the car accelerated? Because she's dead. She fell forward. Almost certainly this happens in any car chase in a movie that you've ever seen. And they're pretending like he. As she's turning here, she was trying to accelerate towards the officer.
- [36:15]
Matt
It's why even not to give them too much credit but trained officers don't shoot people that are operating a fucking giant vehicle.
- [36:23]
Emma Vigeland
And that's why that was supposedly DHS policy. So you can see this is the shot here where she is driving away. And as we said as we reacted to this live I he's chasing the, the he is shooting her. It seems like either he's parallel to the driver's side at this point or turning his body to continue shooting her as she drives away and eventually hits into something because by this point I'm sure she's already dead. So there's no, there's nothing in dispute here. But with George Floyd they had their laboratory for excuses too. They had their oh, he had drugs in his system. It wasn't the fact that this cop was on his neck for multiple, multiple minutes and we all saw the video of him being slowly asphyxiated and killed. It couldn't be that. No, it's some other reason. And I'm sure they'll figure out a way to blame her in some way and it'll likely be on homophobic grounds as I mentioned. So you know, they killed a mom. They killed a mom. And lastly on this, this is an outgrowth of the war on terror and a multi decade at this point policy of cementing a security state that involved the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. I didn't remember this that that was actually a Lieberman push to make it homeland. I was seeing people have it discussing about.
- [38:05]
Matt
Discussing that exporter of Israel, Joe Lieberman.
- [38:07]
Emma Vigeland
Right. Well, I mean, you know, and someone made a great point like that homeland is supposed to be a place that you, like, return to and that you're estranged from. It sounds very Zionist.
- [38:16]
Matt
It's blood and soil shit.
- [38:17]
Emma Vigeland
But there you go. Right, Joe. But, Joe, the most conservative Democrat, one of the most conservative Democrats at the time, having, like, using fascistic blood and soil type imagery to refer to the United States. It is the erasure of our indigenous genocide of Native Americans here, in the same way that referring to Israel as the homeland is an erasure of the genocide of Palestinians as well. Like, you see how these things work towards the same ends. And prior to 9 11, there was no Department of Homeland Security. There was no ICE. We protected our borders pretty well prior to 9 11. Immigration enforcement and the security state that that is a part of is an outgrowth of the war on terror. We can abolish ICE tomorrow. We can't. And we can reallocate those funds to a more humane immigration system. ICE isn't even old enough to rent a car right now.
- [39:19]
Matt
ICE is turning their vision away from sex traffickers and towards kitchens. And, you know, yeah, so this is keeping us safe as a joke.
- [39:30]
Emma Vigeland
But I just mean, like, when you have people act like this is so intractable, it is important to remind folks that ice is what I think, like, 23, 22 years old. These are choices, and they can easily be reversed. If Trump can take us back, you know, 50 years or something like that, we can reverse and build some things better too, as well. And there's always the canary in the coal mine. And at the start of the 21st century, it was Muslim people in this country. They bore the brunt of the fascist security state first. And a lot of people stayed quiet, and then it kept going. And then Islamophobia became central to justifying our foreign policy abroad, but also our domestic policy of mass surveillance. That's how it was justified on these grounds. And so you have the imperial boomerang in action right here. The war on terror and the security state being justified to support that, securing financial interests abroad in that region, saving, you know, participating in great power competition over resources. And then, if that is the case, immigration and immigration enforcement here is also about securing those same interests domestically. It's in part, there's the Nazi fascist part. Yes. But there's also the overarching power interests here are about creating A population of folks with subcitizen status who live in fear, who don't have the ability to stand up to their boss to power. They are a sub citizen like labor force. That's how they're essentially treated. That can be easily exploited and enrich the same people that put the surveillance state in place.
- [41:26]
Matt
The media that spent the last few years talking about Israel has the right to defend itself will not be much better at, you know, talking about the American government killing your neighbor. It'll fall for the same fucking shit. And you know, it's nice to, it's very, maybe it'll be moderately better. It's nice to see Graham Platner on Morning Joe this morning.
- [41:48]
Emma Vigeland
Nice.
- [41:48]
Matt
Yeah, maybe we can play some of that later. But, but there will be plenty of people, including that CNN that will have to say, well, maybe we got to hear both sides, especially the higher you get in these organizations. You have to hear both sides. I mean, Tony do Capill, I see, I see already doing fluff pieces with ICE agents. So like there, there is an apparatus here to normalize this death and allow it to continue and we need to fight against it.
- [42:15]
Emma Vigeland
Absolutely. All right folks, quick break and when we come back, we are going to be talking to Nick Cleveland Stout about some of his work at the Quincy Institute tracking DC think tanks and why they might be a little bit more invested in plundering Venezuela for its oil than they should be because of some financial ties. We'll be right back.
- [43:34]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Sam. It.
- [44:44]
Emma Vigeland
We are back and we are joined now by Nick Cleveland Stout, research associate in the democratizing foreign policy program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Nick, thanks so much for coming on the show.
- [44:56]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Hey, great to be here with you, Emma.
- [44:59]
Emma Vigeland
So glad you were able to join us because last year I saw this, I think it was last year you funded the think tank funding tracker where you've been looking at DC's think tanks, foreign policy think tanks and where they actually get their money from. Maybe we can start from really the basics here. What is a thinking, what's a think tank for the audience that may not be fully aware.
- [45:24]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Yeah. So especially for the folks outside of dc, think tanks are almost impossible to ignore when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. You know, they are oftentimes the experts that get called up by journalists for quotes. They oftentimes testify to Congress. They oftentimes will write laws themselves. So they serve as this kind of like intermediary oftentimes between the legislative process and the American people or the media or even academia, you know, they produce research hot takes all kinds of things. And, you know, I should say I work at a think tank, so I, you know, I have an interest in think tanks being as for the people as possible. And one of the things, though, that we know is that think tanks present themselves as these very kind of objective research organizations that are purely working in favor of the national interest. And while they might believe that, it's also true that a lot of them take funding from corporate sources, foreign governments. So we wanted to kind of look under the hood. New York Times did a long investigation into think tank funding about over 10 years ago now, and so it hasn't. No one really touched it since then. And so we wanted to create a living database where folks can kind of go in and check out what sorts of conflicts of interest exist at a lot of these think tanks.
- [46:54]
Emma Vigeland
And I want to get to the big oil piece in just a bit because that's very operative right now as it relates to Venezuela policy. But you see just on your tracker, these think tanks, top 10 think tanks that receive funding from foreign governments, top 10 think tanks that receive funding from Pentagon contractors. Like, this is. These are the incentives, and this is the laboratory where foreign policy kind of gets written. And you'll have, say, secretaries of state that go join think tanks after they leave service or, you know, other members of the blob, as it were, or they'll start a think tank, then come back into the federal government. Can you talk just about the biggest ones and where some of those funding sources are coming from?
- [47:46]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Broadly, Definitely, yeah. So some of the biggest think tanks include the Atlantic Council. The Atlantic Council comes in at number one in our tracker is taking the most funding from both Pentagon contractors and foreign governments. Then you've also got the center for Strategic and International Studies. They're a very prestigious think tank. They're actually the think tank that testifies to Congress more than any way, more than any other think tank. You've also got Brookings taking a significant amount of money from these sources and kind of by the numbers to give people a sense, you know, we looked at the last five years and found that donors from foreign governments gave $110 million to these think tanks. And Pentagon contractors, meanwhile, gave $35 million to think tanks. And, you know, they're not just giving this kind of money out of the goodness of their hearts. You know, they have an intent. They want to get something out of it. And it's this kind of game where, you know, think tanks, on the other hand, they want to signal a Certain kind of independence from these donors. But you know, there are even like built in ways in which these donors can get influence. You know, CSIS for instance, says that in some cases, like if you take a good close look at their, their, their policy, like they even say that there are cases in which they would accept donor recommendations for their research agenda. So you know, there's, it's donor recommendations.
- [49:21]
Emma Vigeland
Meaning like I love that coded language. A donor recommendations for what we'll research, for what we'll work on. And I wonder what that donor is going to suggest. It might be something in their interest. Like in terms of those foreign government donors, who's the number one culprit? I mean, is it Israel?
- [49:40]
Nick Cleveland Stout
It's so it's actually the, there are plenty from the Middle east, but it's actually. And you know, Israel, we know that Israel is funding think tanks and plenty of think tanks also have anonymous donors. So Israel is actually kind of hard to pin down when it comes to.
- [49:57]
Emma Vigeland
Well, they don't register as a foreign lobbyist now. Right, Exactly. So they can kind of do their subterranean a bit.
- [50:06]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Totally. And you know, there was this report from the Guardian last year which revealed that they had even considered creating and funding a think tank of their own which would have been, you know, probably entirely funded by the government of Israel. But they said that they didn't want to do it because they were worried that they would have to register under the Foreign Agents Registration act and that their credibility would be hurt as a think tank. Which is an important point when it comes to these think tanks, think tanks is that they are not seen as lobbyists. You know, if you're a lobbyist in D.C. if you're a corporate lobbyist, you have to file certain things. If you're a foreign lobbyist, you have to file even more things about what you're doing. But think tanks have been able to escape by without really registering under the Foreign Agents Registration act, despite, you know, taking a lot of foreign government interests. And also, you know, I should say they definitely don't also don't have to register under the Lobbying Disclosure act, which is kind of the domestic lobbying framework. So they are not seen as lobbyists. So when think tankers advise members of Congress, even though they might be representing the sympathetic interests of their donors, they don't come across that way. They're seen as these objective independent analysts.
- [51:20]
Emma Vigeland
And so I guess the Atlanta Council and others. What did you find about big oil and their influence right now over Venezuela policy? It doesn't need to just be the Atlantic Council. But it's notable how much money they take. You know, there's a lot of influence peddling and a lot of drive. And there has been for decades to get involved in Venezuela to be more hawkish towards Venezuela. And a lot of people might be wondering where that comes from. And in many ways, it's this think tank apparatus that takes all of this money totally.
- [52:02]
Nick Cleveland Stout
I mean, you know, the Trump administration has been menacing Venezuela for months now, bombing boats since September. There have obviously been plenty of threats towards Venezuela, you know, in the first Trump administration, sanctions, all these kinds of things. And throughout a lot of that, these think tanks have been cheerleading the most maximalist positions of regime change possible, oftentimes. And so you see fellows at the Atlantic Council, which takes a million dollars from Chevron per year and actually even has a terrace in their new building called the Chevron Terrace, you know, promoting a lot of this stuff. And they also take a significant amount of funding from Exxon, between 250,000 and $500,000 per year. And, you know, they even had one of their fellows, Matthew Kroenig, publishing an op ed in the New York Times very recently, two days ago, making the case that ousting Maduro was a good thing. You know, talking about how great this US Military operation was, how great it is that Maduro is gone. And of course, a lot of this kind of analysis benefits the very same donors that give to the Atlantic Council. You know, whether it's Chevron, Exxon or even the defense contractors. Right? This was a big win for the defense contractors. Their stocks are all going up significantly. And cronig, this Atlantic Council fellow, he gives a lot of space in this op ed to talk about how great it was, how great of a military operation it was. And, you know, none of that really goes disclosed in the pages of the New York Times. And oftentimes in the analysis that these think tanks provide on their website. And, you know, I should say, like, the Atlantic Council is actually relatively transparent about their funding sources. You know, if you look at a lot of other think tanks that, that receive funding from these sources that we know from, you know, investigative reporting and whatnot, you know, they don't they don't disclose anything about, about who they get funding from. Like, we know, for instance, that the American, American Enterprise Institute is a longtime recipient of Exxon and Exxon funding dating, I think, since the 90s. And a lot of it's towards climate change denialism. But there's competing interests here. And AEI doesn't disclose anything about its funders. We just know that because Exxon and Chevron disclose their giving reports or whatever they call it, and, you know, mention AEI as a recipient.
- [54:53]
Emma Vigeland
Let's pull up this chart you tweeted out here because it gives, you know, us a visual, a bigger picture of what we're looking at here. Looking at these think tanks and Chevron and Exxon specifically. You put this together a few months ago, and this is just about the donations that Chevron and Exxon have made to these specific think tanks. You've got the Atlantic Council, we mentioned there, the over 1 million from Chevron, but you got Aspen Institute, Brookings, Carnegie. I mean, that's a little bit less money. But the Heritage foundation, undisclosed. How is this able to be undisclosed? That's another question, I guess, here. And the Council on Foreign Relations, that's a little bit shocking to me. Center for Strategic and International Studies, over 250k from both. What's your, what's your read on this chart here? And can you explain why the Heritage foundation isn't allowed, isn't disclosing their funding here at all?
- [55:56]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Yeah, I mean, there's a few things happening. If you look at that chart, for instance, one of the things that jumps out is we don't have exact numbers. And a lot of that is by design. Like if you look at the, you know, Atlantic Council, for instance, says a million plus for Chevron Council and Foreign Relations says 100,000 plus for Chevron and Exxon. That could mean a million and one in the case of Chevron's donations to the Atlantic Council. Or it could mean 10 million per year. And we have no way of knowing because there really, you know, there's no law that requires think tanks, which are 501c3 nonprofits, to disclose their funding sources. And, you know, it's the same for foreign government donations to these think tanks. You know, think tanks have this kind of academic research exemption which exempts them from Farah. And they don't have to disclose their corporate donors either. There's kind of a trend, if you want a certain degree of prestige that you would donate, that you would disclose some of your donors. And so that's kind of what's happening in the case of those ones that disclose the names of their donors, but not the amounts. Like, I think you mentioned Heritage, for example, they don't really mention how much Exxon or Chevron gives to them, but we know that those are our two donors.
- [57:17]
Emma Vigeland
And can you explain specifically Exxon and Chevron's interests in Venezuela? We've talked a bit about it on the show, but I'm curious about your perspective.
- [57:27]
Nick Cleveland Stout
It's a super interesting question because over the last few days, there's been a lot of back and forth around what exactly are the US Oil major's interests in Venezuela? And, you know, definitely, I should say it's definitely been the case that the Trump administration has been leading this charge. You know, it's not really come from the think tanks, although a lot of think tanks might cheerlead what the Trump administration is doing. But, you know, in the mid-2000s is kind of the important starting point here for the oil majors in Venezuela. You know, there was a big round of nationalization. Exxon and ConocoPhillips both left the country and then demanded that Venezuela give money to them for expropriating their assets in Venezuela. You know, they're still demanding that money to this day. Conoco Phillips is demanding somewhere in the ballpark of $10 billion from Venezuela. Exxon lasts around $1.6 billion. Chevron is kind of an interesting one because they decided to stay in Venezuela. They're the kind of boots on the ground. And these are the three, these three companies, Chevron, Exxon and ConocoPhillips are the three companies that would be expected to play a very big role in whatever the Trump administration has planned for Venezuela going forward. Trump is meeting with the executives from some of these companies tomorrow, and we're getting a slow trickle or a dump, actually, I should say, of like, you know, information about what the buildup of US Oil infrastructure in Venezuela is going to look like.
- [59:18]
Emma Vigeland
Well, I mean, it just, it feels like when you read about the amount of infrastructure and investment that's going to be necessary, this is going to be really costly. And you wonder if they're meeting with the Trump administration, if they're like, hey, you're all about the oil. I guess this is what he cares about. And it doesn't, you know, I think a guy like Rubio always wanted regime change in Venezuela, and whatever Trump is fixated on is good enough for him. But the oil executives might be playing that same game here, where it's like, we can probably convince this kind of fascist guy who's really interested in the state merging with some of these corporate interests to subsidize our infrastructure efforts in Venezuela because it's going to be very costly for them.
- [60:06]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Totally. They're looking to get the most out of this situation. And people have made a lot about this, about how they're. We don't quite know what the oil companies want, what their interests here are, it's heavy crude, which is less valuable than lighter crude oil. But I think they're playing coy because, like you said, they want to get the most out of this situation. And of course, there's been a lot of underinvestment in Venezuela's infrastructure, but the Trump administration seems very committed to making this a good deal for the oil company. So I certainly wouldn't bet against them. He's even suggested reimbursing them, not only for what they would invest in rebuilding Venezuela's oil infrastructure, which some estimates I've seen could be $100 billion over the next 10. But he's even suggested reimbursing them for the seized assets during that nationalization period, which, if you're the ConocoPhillips executive or Exxon executive, you know, Darren woods, you're sitting there, then that's music to your ears, like if you're considering whether to go back into the country or not. And, you know, there's a lot that we, that we still don't know. A bunch of US senators have sent letters to the CEOs of these oil companies, asking them, you know, basically what the heck is going on, because Congress is being left in the dark on this military operation. But supposedly, you know, Trump is saying that he briefed the oil executives, and, you know, it seems like they may have been more involved in a lot of this operation than previously known. You know, their politicos reported that they were briefed on kind of post operation reinvestment as much as 10 days before the operation. And so I wouldn't bet against these oil majors, even as their stock kind of goes up and down as people are concerned about the fact that it is heavy crude, the fact that it could affect the price of oil. But, yeah, it's definitely something to watch.
- [62:22]
Emma Vigeland
Trump has said that he wants to increase the military budget from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion. Another insane explosion. I mean, the $1 trillion budget blew past the military budget increases year over year, budget over budget a lot. But they're usually a little bit more coy about this. This was like the largest percentage increase in years, and this would dwarf that. I wouldn't be shocked if that is some of what he has in mind. Subsidizing almost directly, perhaps investment in Venezuela to the benefit of oil executives who can basically, at that point, double their money.
- [63:04]
Nick Cleveland Stout
And the only way to interpret that true social post, too, is that he is high on militarism right now. You know, he sees the success. What he sees is the success of this operation in Venezuela. You know, I think I would throw some caution on that in that, you know, there's a lot that we don't know yet. We don't know what's going to play out. You know, Dulcie Rodriguez, the now acting Vice President, has to walk this very tight rope, but he sees this as a huge success. Right? And he is wanting to. He's already looking to Greenland, to Cuba, to Iran, and, you know, he is realizing where militarism can take you. And he is already saying that he wants this $1.5 trillion budget, which, I should point out, $500 billion increase. That $500 billion figure is already larger of a defense budget than every other country on earth, including China. And so this would be a massive increase. You're already seeing, by the way, the chairs of the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee saying that this is great. We're so excited. We're happy about this increase. So a lot of it is just, like, throwing things at the wall and seeing what's gonna stick. And I think this is another example of that. I think a lot of his tweets about basically describing Venezuela as US Protectorate is also part of that in an effort to coerce Dulcio Rodriguez. But he is certainly high on militarism right now.
- [64:38]
Emma Vigeland
There's another figure I want to ask you about, Paul Singer. And just returning to the think tank piece, I mean, he's been a donor to the Manhattan Institute, which is a conservative think tank that has been supporting regime change in Venezuela. He has, like, just a name is very central in this major MAGA donor donated millions to his reelection effort in 2024 and to Republicans broadly in 2024. And prior to that, I think he was pretty cozy with Marco Rubio back when Rubio was running in 2016 as a GOP political donor kind of power player. What's his interest in Venezuela, and why is he kind of named as the guy who stands to benefit the most here?
- [65:27]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up, because this is another example of someone who's donated a lot of money. I think he's given $1.3 million to the Manhattan Institute, and he's a donor to other think tanks, but to the Manhattan Institute. And there you have a think tank that's oftentimes promoting the interests of this donor. And Manhattan also has taken a ton of money from Exxon and other oil companies. But, yeah, I mean, you. Paul Singer, he's a major Rubio and Trump ally. He's given $5 million to Trump's super PAC. And he's one of these. He's what's described as kind of a vulture capitalist. He buys up distressed assets and tries to turn them into something after the sale of these distressed assets are sold from developing countries. And he did that with Citgo, which is the subsidiary of PDVSA that owns refineries across the U.S. three major refineries on the Gulf coast. And it can refine some 800,000 barrels of oil per day, which is about how much Venezuela is producing in oil currently or as of late last year. He stands to benefit a lot. He bought citgo for just $6 billion, which is pennies on the dollar and what he could get. And yeah, he goes back a long time with Rubio. He endorsed Rubio's 2016 campaign. Rubio even helped pressure Argentina into paying this $4.6 billion payment to singer and other creditors to settle some debt that they had bought. So he's a good friend of Rubio, a good friend of Trump and another major donor to a lot of these think tanks. So he stands to gain a lot from all of this.
- [67:31]
Emma Vigeland
Well, I'd really encourage people to check out all of what the Quincy Institute does and the tracker itself, the think tank funding tracker. We'll put a link to your latest piece on what risk big investors jockeying for potential Venezuela oil rush in responsible statecraft and also your think tank funding tracker down below. Nick, thanks so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.
- [67:53]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Thanks so much for having me on.
- [67:55]
Emma Vigeland
Of course. With that, folks, we are going to wrap up the free part of this show, head into the fun half of this show where we'll read your IMs. Perhaps we'll take some calls. We shall see. Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning and with Jacobin.
- [68:14]
Matt
Yeah, yeah, Left Reckoning. Nick Estes and Jose Luis Granada Sea talking about Venezuela on Tuesday. Go check that episode out. Great talking to those guys on two different perspectives on it. And tomorrow, Ryan Grimm talking about just some, some stuff happened in the news recently.
- [68:29]
Emma Vigeland
Oh.
- [68:31]
Matt
So probably, you know, tuck on that. So Tomorrow, Jackman show, 10:00am Eastern time.
- [68:37]
Emma Vigeland
All right. We're bringing in Brandon here. There he is. While we bring him up, we will read some IMs. Brennan in Petaluma. I seems reluctant to invade any state with stand your ground laws. If they did, I'm pretty sure we'd see some of these thugs getting their masks asses shot as well. Well, Yeah, I don't know about that. Yeah, I don't know.
- [69:07]
Matt
I don't know about that. I mean, they were in Tennessee, right. I don't know what the gun laws.
- [69:13]
Emma Vigeland
Are and yeah, like Louisiana. They also did something. Yeah.
- [69:19]
Matt
But I do think like this, this people need to do lots of different forms of organizing their communities to stop this because I don't think tell them to just get the fuck out of the city. Like you're going to need to. We're going to prosecute these people. These sorts of threats need to be real.
- [69:35]
Emma Vigeland
Yep. Hey, Brandon, how are you?
- [69:39]
Brandon
I'm doing all right. How are you doing, Emma?
- [69:41]
Emma Vigeland
I am doing all right. What is happening on the Discourse?
- [69:46]
Brandon
Well, I mean every day, you know, Monday through Friday, 9am to 12pm Eastern, we're just chopping it up. We're just covering the news. So you can go over to the YouTube channel, channel the Discourse with Brandon to just see what's up. We have so many clips up now, it feels crazy.
- [70:02]
Emma Vigeland
Oh yeah, yeah.
- [70:05]
Matt
Big expansion into YouTube. I saw you talk about the hat boys. The hat, Tim Pool, the hat guys sitting in for Tim Pool.
- [70:13]
Brandon
I just, I just don't get it. Like, is it like a thing I don't understand about the show where they have to wear hats and I'm just being like, oh, part of the branding.
- [70:20]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Or is it somebody like there's a.
- [70:23]
Matt
Period of time where I wore a hat on camera regular like three or four years ago and I think it just becomes a crutch. Like I. And for me, people, I stopped wearing it because people said I was going bald. I'm like, no, I'm not. I'll take my hat off. Keep saying that.
- [70:41]
Brandon
Wow, peer pressure. But I will say one thing that we will be covering and I don't know if you are up to date on this too, is that Bongino is going to be coming back to Rumble very soon because obviously his tenure as the deputy director of the FBI has come to an end. And people keep saying that he lasted a year. That's not what happened. It was way less than a year. Yeah, just by nature of when Trump even became president was like inaugurated. Can't have been a year. But whatever. He sort of quiet and a lot.
- [71:09]
Matt
Of like starting in May, didn't he?
- [71:11]
Brandon
Oh no, he quiet quit starting in July when Pam Bondi fumbled the COVID up that he was a part cover up of the Epstein files, obviously. Which is also why he quiet, he quiet quit and wants to go back to Rumble. And so what's Going on on Rumble now is that all of the like right win show hosts who are afraid of Candace Owens are like getting themselves all pumped up because Dan Bongino is coming back. No, Daddy's coming home. And so they think that Dan Bongino is going to take out Candace Owens now that he's not in the FBI. He's going to get decimated. No one has been more compromised than Dan Bongino has been by the Epstein cover up. Who is in right wing media, not Cash Patel. I mean, it's. It's going to be a bloodbath. So I'm excited. Excited for that. If you're excited for that, definitely go subscribe to the discourse. I think that we're up to almost 5,000 on the Twitch channel. And when we get to 5,000, we're going to do a little bit of a gaming. A gaming stream, probably. We'll finish Alan Woke too. Or maybe we'll try that Claire obscure game that people keep yelling at me to buy.
- [72:13]
Matt
I bought that. Yeah. Because everyone's saying it's the best game of the year. And I'm like, I don't normally play these type of games, but I did just buy new gaming PCs, so I guess I need to buy.
- [72:20]
Brandon
Oh, look at you.
- [72:22]
Emma Vigeland
Look at you flexing on them.
- [72:24]
Matt
We'll do. We'll do this Bongino stuff in the fun.
- [72:26]
Emma Vigeland
Yes. Let's head into the fun half, take a quick break, and we will see you on the other side of things. Okay.
- [72:35]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Emma, please.
- [72:36]
Emma Vigeland
Well, I just. I feel that my voice is sorely lacking on the majority report.
- [72:40]
Sam Cedar
Wait, look, Sam is unpopular. I do deserve a vacation at Disney Disney World, so. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome Emma to the show.
- [72:49]
Emma Vigeland
It is Thursday.
- [72:51]
Matt
I think you need to take over for Sam.
- [72:53]
Emma Vigeland
Yes, please.
- [72:53]
Nick Cleveland Stout
No, no, no.
- [72:54]
Emma Vigeland
I'm.
- [72:54]
Sam Cedar
I'm gonna pause you right there.
- [72:56]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Wait, what?
- [72:56]
Sam Cedar
You can't encourage Emma to live like this, and I'll tell you why. Who was offered a tour, sushi and poker with the boys? Tour sushi and poker with boys. Who was offered a tour, sushi and poker with with the boys? Twerk sushi and poker.
- [73:14]
Emma Vigeland
Tim's upset.
- [73:15]
Sam Cedar
Twerk sushi and poker with the boys. It was offered a twerk sushi, and that's what we call biz. Twerk sushi and bulker with the boys.
- [73:25]
Emma Vigeland
Right.
- [73:26]
Sam Cedar
Twerk sushi and we're gonna get demonetized. I just think that what you did to Tim Pool was mean.
- [73:33]
Emma Vigeland
Free speech.
- [73:34]
Sam Cedar
That's not what we're about.
- [73:35]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Here.
- [73:36]
Sam Cedar
Look at how sad he's become now. You shouldn't even talk about him. I think you're respectful.
- [73:41]
Emma Vigeland
I probably am in a certain way. But let's get to the meltdown here.
- [73:45]
Sam Cedar
Sushi and poker with the boys.
- [73:47]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Oh, my God.
- [73:48]
Matt
Wow.
- [73:49]
Sam Cedar
Sushi.
- [73:49]
Nick Cleveland Stout
I'm sorry.
- [73:50]
Sam Cedar
I'm losing my mind. Someone's offered a tour. Yeah, Sushi and poker with the boys. Logic. Sushi and poker. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a kid. I think I'm like a little kid. I think I'm like a little kid. Add this to base 7,000 times. I'm losing my mind.
- [74:10]
Matt
Some people just don't understand.
- [74:12]
Sam Cedar
So I'm not trying to be a dick right now, but, like, I absolutely think the US should be providing me with a wife and kids.
- [74:20]
Emma Vigeland
That's not what we're talking about here, all right?
- [74:24]
Sam Cedar
It's not a fun job. That's a real thing. That's real thing. Real thing. Willy Wonka work. That's a real thing. That's real thing. That's a real thing. Real thing. That's a real thing that's offered. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Rogan has done it again. That's a real thing. That's.
- [74:45]
Brandon
I think he might be blowing it out of proportion.
- [74:47]
Sam Cedar
Real thing that's got offered. That's a real thing. That's got. Let's go, Joey. Sushi and poke with the boy.
- [74:56]
Matt
Take it easy.
- [74:57]
Sam Cedar
Sushi and poker. Things have really gotten out of hand. Sushi and poker with the boys. You don't have a clue as to what's going on live YouTube.
- [75:08]
Emma Vigeland
Sam has tw the weight of the.
- [75:10]
Nick Cleveland Stout
World on his shoulders.
- [75:11]
Emma Vigeland
Sam doesn't want to do this show anymore. It was so much easier when the majority report was just you.
- [75:19]
Sam Cedar
Let's change the subject.
- [75:21]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Rangers.
- [75:21]
Sam Cedar
And Nick, shut up.
- [75:23]
Emma Vigeland
Don't want people saying reckless things on your program.
- [75:25]
Sam Cedar
That's one of the most difficult parts about this show.
- [75:28]
Emma Vigeland
This is a pro killing podcast.
- [75:30]
Sam Cedar
I'm thinking maybe it's time to bury the hatchet.
- [75:32]
Emma Vigeland
Left his best trump. Violet Twerk.
- [75:35]
Sam Cedar
Don't be foolish and don't tweet at me.
- [75:37]
Matt
And don't.
- [75:38]
Sam Cedar
The way Emma has cucked all of these people.
- [75:41]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Love it.
- [75:41]
Emma Vigeland
That's where my heart is. So I wrote my honors thesis about it.
- [75:47]
Nick Cleveland Stout
Jesus. I guess I should hand the main.
- [75:51]
Sam Cedar
Mic to you now. You are to the right of me on foreign policy.
- [75:54]
Emma Vigeland
We already found Israel, dude. Are you against us?
- [75:56]
Sam Cedar
That's a tougher question I haven't answered to. Incredible theme song.
- [76:05]
Emma Vigeland
Hi Bumbler.
- [76:05]
Sam Cedar
Emma Viand. Absolutely one of my favorite people, actually. Not just in the game like period.