Krystal and Saagar discuss Syrian gov massacres, Republican civil war on Iran negotiations, Columbia Palestine protest leader disappeared by ICE, Tim Walz spills tea on Kamala failures.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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Speaker 1 (00:26):
We need your help to build the future of independent
news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints
dot com. All right, let's get over to Syria. There's
been some extraordinary developments in Syria, sadly very predictable. So
we have had the explosion of a lot of ethnic
violence inside of Syria, largely perpetrated and supported unfortunately by
(00:49):
the new so called moderate but in reality like radical
Islamic government that has taken power there. We have some
video that we can show you. Just as Chrystal said,
this is not for the faint of home, but I mean,
you've got people here who are dodging gunfire and there's
been a lot of just like public executions and things
that have been going publicly that are being posted on
(01:10):
telegram and on social media. I mean, the rounding up
of people. I mean, these are scenes really reminiscent out
of ISIS and their takeover of Syria and so much
of the leftover equipment. All of this right now really
is just like You've got over a thousand people that
were killed since Thursday, Crystal, and a lot of it
(01:34):
is people who are again are like now in charge
of the government. And the reports out of this and
all this are very confused because the West doesn't really
know how to deal with it because the person who
is largely responsible for much of this is the so
called moderate rebel who was supported by the United States
of who we removed their terrorist designation. Let's put this
(01:55):
up there on the screen, formerly known as HTS. You know.
Abu Mohammad jog Jlani has instructed his militants to stop
recording their acts of violence in an effort to control
the narrative and minimize the damage to his public image.
As reports of massacres and ethnic cleansing and serious coastal
regions continue to surface, the leadership fears that documented evidence
(02:16):
could further expose their brutality and weaken their support base.
And like I said, a lot of this violence has
been perpetrated unfortunately against many of the Syrian minorities. There
Alohite Christians, drus and others who live in the area
and were some of the strongest supporters of the Asad regime.
The reason why I think that this whole story is
very important is it does just show us about how
(02:38):
you know, good guy bad guy ideology in our support
or you know, weapons that we pour into the Middle
East very often make the situation much worse. You know,
to look back at the Syrian Civil War, it was
a genuine you know, political uprising and from twenty fourteen onwards,
but at that point onwards, it became this you know,
basically geopolitical playground for the United States, for Israel, for Iran,
(03:01):
for Qatar, for Saudi Arabia. They floored more weapons into
the country than had ever been seen there before. And
you know, literally millions of people were either displaced and
or killed. What are the worst refugee crisises in modern history.
And the truth is is like everyone was celebrating the
downfall of the Ostad regime. It's like, well, now this
is what has come next. More massacre, more death, and
(03:22):
there's no picking good guys, bad guys or any of that.
If we'd stayed out of this thing in the first place,
we probably all would have been better off. But the
you know, the the god you know, to even think
back to that time twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, as I'm
sure you remember too, the level of just like hystericism
here in Washington over the Syrian Civil War, in pushing
(03:44):
for more action, more bloodshed, more war, you know, intervention
on behalf of the United States, trying to push Obama
to bomb Syria to enforce a red line. Remember Hillary
Clinton ran on a damn no fly zone over Syria,
which would have required shooting down Russian jets over the
country and potentially drawing the United States into a conflict.
(04:04):
I just think this is the ten year, you know,
kind of culmination of all of the failures of modern
bipartisan foreign policy. And the end result here is literal
radical Islamist government in power who are now slaughtering ethnic minorities.
It's just unbelievable. It's horrible to watch for the people
of Syria. The destruction of a great people and of
a great country. But I think even worse than that
(04:27):
is the complicit, you know nature of the United States
of the EU and the whitewashing of this guy's image
who's now being invited to Brussels and he's wearing a
suit and he's got the support here of all these
other governments, and the country itself has basically been obliterated.
Israel's like annexed half of it now for some reason
that we're not really allowed to talk about over here. Meanwhile,
(04:49):
you know, these ethnic Christians and others are getting slaughtered,
and you know where there's no real there's no coherent
narrative here in Washington because everybody is so complicit in
backing the so called moderate rebels of the time. Yeah,
I just think it's horrible and it's very.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Sad when HGS was able to, you know, finally and
very shockingly kind of from our perspective, were't coverage, right, Yeah,
so it came out of nowhere, is able to finally,
you know, completely push the Assad government out of power.
They engaged in this very purposeful propaganda campaign to try
to convince the West that like no, no, no, all
(05:27):
that radical Islam, like that's in the past.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
We're going to be moderate.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
We're going to celebrate our ethnic diversity. And there were
quite a lot of Western media outlets that bought that
because they.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Wanted to buy it, and yeah, it's a nice narrative.
And you know at the time we said, for like, yeah,
we are very dufful, but we'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And so you're right that this was you know, it's
sad and utterly predictable, and you know this is it
really has served Israel's interests, even though that might seem
surprising given that this is like a radical islamis group
and you might say, Okay, it's got to be bad
for it, and they must not like that. But you know,
they've benefited by being able to push into Sea. You know,
they are annexing significant parts of Syria up to effectively Damascus,
(06:12):
helping to realize their you know, fanatical vision of greater Israel,
which any you know, psycho Israeli settler can tell you about.
So they're doing that because they can and no one
will stop them. And HGS has publicly said basically like
we're not going to do anything to push back against Israel.
They also have publicly expressed a desire to distance Syria
(06:34):
from a Ran another thing that makes Israel very happy here.
And so you know, they have really seized on this
opportunity to claim more territory, more power, and to you know,
for their hobble their enemies in the region. So that's
been part of the fallout and part of why there
was a desire among the Western press to kind of
(06:55):
like whitewash who these guys were and what was very
likely to happen in the wake of them ultimately taking power.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, and like we said, we've got probably I mean,
nobody knows the true number. What we do know is
that a lot of these things seem to be very
conveniently supported by the government that's in power. And I
think it just drives me crazy because it just shows
you how trying to again like paint people as bad
guys in the Middle East and then picking the alternative
(07:23):
it never really seems to end up all that great
for us. And you know, none of this is moral
per se, but this is the reality of whenever you
want to try and intervene in other countries. Like the
truth is, z Iraq was probably better off under Saddam
Hussein terrible to say, it killed a lot of his
own people, and it was horrible. But look at the
subsequent fallout and what's happened to the country, not alone
what we have wasted in trying to make it into
(07:45):
some great democratic projects. Same now in Syria. Same I mean,
what happened with Libya, right, It's a disaster. It's basically
fallen apart, become an active warzone and a hub for piracy,
for terrorism, and for migrants. It's like, if you look
at all of these projects that have all been supported,
in this case by NATO, the United States, and the
Western Powers, as well as many of the Islamic nations,
(08:05):
then you look at our intervention in Iraq and you
see what happened there Afghanistan, It's like, where has this
all worked out? But we just are addicted to it.
It's like we are completely addicted. I will say. Part
of this is also actually a big proxy fight right
now here in Washington over the influence of the neocons
and specifically how this relates to Israel and Iran. So
(08:26):
let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen.
So it's from Tucker Carlston. He was tweeting a video
here of many of the Aloi Christians and others being
killed in Syria, and he's saying as Predictable says, it's
still infuriating to see. For decades, Bashar al Assad protected
the minority religious communities in Syria, including the country's large
Christian population. No one in the US was allowed to
notice this, and anyone who did was denounced by neocons
(08:48):
as a dangerous extremist. Barry Weiss declared tilsa Gabbard monstrous
and an Assad toady for noticing. But it was true.
Asad protected the Christians. A week or Asad was the
more Christians died during the war. The years that neocons
in the West back the war against Assade, the percentage
of Christians has gone from ten percent to two. Now
that Asad has been driven from power, many of the
remaining are being slaughtered and their holy place is desecrated.
(09:09):
Barry Wise and John Bolton haven't said a word about it,
but no one who's paying attention can be surprised. Neo
con projects in the Middle East invariably destroy these ancient
Cricketian communities from Iraq to Gaza and in many places
in between. Can this be an accident, you wonder? And
the reason why I thought it was important was the
Gaza little shout out there at the end, because you'll
(09:29):
recall Crystal in the early days of that war, when
you had that that ancient Christian church that was bombed
in the middle of Gaza. That's when even some of
the religious supporters in America had to wake up a
whole on a second, like what are we doing here?
And look, I objected a little bit to the framing
as like the Christians are the only people that matter
(09:50):
and all this, But this is a message that at
the very least, I think could get through to a
lot of the people who are in the Republican base
who still have this fin fanatical view of like good
and evil and are very susceptible to being pushed in
a neo conservative direction like there's no evidence here, you
know that is really like Gaza is like all that
great apparently for the so called Christian community in Gaza, right,
(10:13):
they'll tell you that. Ask the Christians in Gaza, the
people in Syria.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
West Bank for that matter, which you know, is the fact.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's such a good point. Nobody ever talks about it,
but you know, some of those people are the most
fanatical pro Palestinian support for the West Bank. Are a
lot of more Palstainian Christians. Yeah, their their land is
actually the one stolen I think originally, you know, and
they've found themselves at war with a lot of these
Jewish settlers. I don't care if they're Christian, Jewish, Muslim whatever.
The point I think that we have here is it's
(10:42):
obvious that the morality, you know, and the morality soapbox
that these people try and preach from itself can often
lead to much more immoral results. And they also just
so happen to be in a you know, in favor
of an agenda that's pretty favorable to you know, in
priest War and also for the state of Israel in
(11:02):
the Middle East. It's just, you know, that's that's part
of noticing I think today here for overall Washington policy,
and it's about what we're gonna have to get to
with the Iran deal, because that is where things are
going to be very interesting. Tomorrow hopefully we'll cover the
Hamas negotiation spat that's currently happening. But you know, the
amount of pressure right now from the pro Israel groups
is unbelievable on the Trump administration. And you know, there's
(11:25):
no indication that they'll be silenced so that they're going
to take even you know, their Colombia deportations. Enough of
his victory. That's not that's just the tip of the iceberg.
For what these people want. They want much much more.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Than Oh, absolutely, they want all of the West Bank.
I mean, they're mobilizing to you know, allow Israel and
they're likely to get that. I mean, they they want
the Trump Gaza ethnic cleansing plan that he has floated.
So yeah, they you know, they won't be satisfied with
just some show trials and some deportations or Colombia having
(11:57):
their funding stripped. They have much larger goals in mind.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Well, let's get to that Iran deal the question, because
this is going to be one of the central parts
for the Trump administration. Now, let's go ahead and play
this from Donald Trump talking about how he wants to
have a deal with Iran rather than go to war
with them.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Let's take a listen, there are two ways Iran can
be handled militarily or you make a deal. I would
prefer to make a deal because I'm not looking to
hear Irun. They're great people. I know so many Runians
from this country. Well, not the leadership, no, not the
leadership people, very evil people. No, but the people of
Iran are great people. But they had a tough regime
(12:37):
and they meet and they'd be shot in the streets.
I mean, it was a tough it was a tough deal.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So as you can see, it's like, we would rather
have a deal. But the problem that they're finding is
that Iran actually just rejected the deal. Let's go ahead
and put this up there on the screen. The Supreme
Leader of Iran rejected any nuclear talks with the quote
so called bully states of the United States, and they're pursuing,
you know, they're continuing their nuclear program. We don't know
(13:03):
how much of this is bluster yet per se. But
part of the problem is we talked about this with
treat de Parsi, the renegging on the original Iran Deialm.
It's like, okay, well, to what end, for what purpose?
The purpose was to increase the sanctions regime and to
hopefully see the country fall the regime. That didn't happen.
You know, in terms of their nuclear program, they're so
called breakout time or whatever apparently remains relatively static to
(13:26):
their ability to create it, their ability to conduct war
abroad and or in the near abroad as they call it,
you know, in that area. Well, you know, it seemed
to be doing pretty well in Iraq, seemed to be
doing okay enough in Syria, Hezbola. Of course in Lebanon.
Have they taken some hits. Yeah, absolutely, especially with Israeli's
(13:47):
being able to you know, assassinate people literally in the
middle of their capital. And of course they had that
whole back and forth with Israel, and but then Israel
retaliated against some of their nuclear missile defense systems near
their basis. But you know, they haven't fallen, which was
the ultimate deal of what they wanted. So now we're
in this situation basically of everyone's neokon making, where we've
(14:11):
tried the maximum sanctions, I mean, what sanctions could possibly
be even left to levy onto the country. And Trump
is in some ways in a problem of his own making,
because now what do you do. You know, if they
do get a nuclear weapon or pursue that that nuclear program,
you've said explicitly that we'll go to war for that,
that would be a nightmare for most Americans. Also, though
(14:34):
you're saying that you want a deal, and so two
sides of your mouth, and especially full of an administration
which historically has been incredibly hawkish on the Iran question.
It's one of those where you could easily find ourselves
in a major crisis over this issue if we don't
revert to what I hope is Trump's best instincts, Like
with the North Korea deal, there's no reason that we
(14:54):
can't go and sit down with these people. And at
the very least that's what Trump has shown his ability
to o overcome. You know, these previous idiotic statements like
we will never negotiate with a Moss, will never negotiate
with the North Koreans. It's like while they're in power
and the ones with the gun, so you know, what
are you supposed to do? Yeah, So anyway, I hope
that we pursue this. Maybe we can get over it.
And it is it is still important that he's saying
(15:15):
he wants it. I'm still worried, especially with Mike Wallas
and some of these other folks in that administration, because
if there are those people doing the deal, there's never going.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
To be in a deal well, and you can understand
the Iranians perspective as well, like, dude, you're the one
who walked away from this, How can we make a
deal with your country? We did that before and got
stabbed in the back by you. So like, you know,
when they're responding with like, no, we're not going to
do another deal with you, that's part of the background
that you have to understand. That and the fact that
(15:43):
the Trump administration has put on even more sanctions than
existed under the Biden administration. They're targeting oil exports, in
particular to China, and also apparently there was previously a
waiver that allowed a rack to buy Iranian oil and
they've gotten rid of that waiver. And obviously Aron is
heavily depointment dependent on their you know, their oil exports.
(16:04):
That's a key part of their economic picture. Apparently there
were also sanctions that were put on Iran's metal industries.
So they are going all in in what he calls
the maximum pressure campaign, which means amping up the sanctions
even further and really trying to destroy the economy. So
when the Iranians are talking about you know, you're treating
us like a bully. Wood that's what they're ultimately referring to.
(16:27):
So yes, obviously it would be much better to like
the best. One of the best things that the Obama
administration did, certainly in terms of international policy, was the
Iran nuclear Deal. One of the worst things that Trump
did was getting out of the Iranian nuclear deal. One
of the failures. There were other worse ones, but one
of the failures of the Biden administration was not jumping
(16:47):
back into the Iranian nuclear deal, especially in the early days.
This is something we did multiple segments with Tree to
Parsi about like they had four years to try to
restart these negotiations to try to get back into a deal,
which for a time Iran continued to it here to
even after Trump had pulled the US out of the deal,
and they didn't do it, And now the Iranians, you know,
(17:07):
are feeling disinclined to want to go.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Back to this rodeo.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
So, you know, I hope the the I hope Trump's
instincts to negotiate and desire to avoid war in this
region to the extent that he has one. I hope
that's what prevails. But I think there's still a lot
of big question marks here there are, and the Israeli
is obviously like they know what.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
They want in the worst possible situation for me.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, they they want us to be shoulder to shoulder
with them in a war against Iran.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
That is the longtime dream.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And you know they have a lot of purchase in
terms of power in the Trump administration. You know, you
have Miriam Maidelson who has already gotten quite a lot
in terms of her hundred million dollar investment in the
Trump campaign. And Boebe is a savvy operator as well
in terms of getting what he wants on of whoever
the political leader is in charge in the un So
(18:00):
I would say at this point, you know, there's certainly
nothing off the table.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Let's get on to the next one, the situation in
columb with Columbia University.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, so there's a bunch of stuff going on here,
but let's start with this. We can put this reporting
up from our friends over at drop site on the screen.
So on Saturday night, DHS agents entered a student residential
building at Columbia University and they detained Mahmud Khalil. He
was one of the lead negotiators on behalf of pro
Palestime protesters at twenty twenty fours Gaza Solidarity encampment. I'm
(18:35):
reading this from drop sites article here and in what
they describe as a sweeping attack on the First Amendment,
the Trump administration said this week it would begin revoking
visas of quote Hama sympathizers, specifically citing Columbia University students.
So now they have arrested Khalil reportedly had no warrant.
(18:57):
Khalil has not been charged with any crimes. He is
not here actually on a student visa. He's here on
a green card, so he is a legal permanent resident,
and at least as of this morning, he has been
effectively disappeared. His lawyers and his wife, who is eight
months pregnant, have no idea where he is. They originally
(19:19):
thought that he was at an ice facility in New Jersey.
His wife went there to try to find him. The
you know, the officers there said no, no, he's not there.
So they have no idea. And so it really is
We can put the two up on the screen which
explains that situation about you know, really having no clue
where he is. This is from from Thacker. He says
Machmou's attorney says they do not know where he is.
(19:41):
They were first told he was sent to an ice
facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. When his eight month pregnant
wife tried to visit him, she was told he's not there.
They receive reports he may be sent as far away
as Louisiana. So Mahmoud Khalil again, who is a Green
card holder, set to be deported over pro Palestine activism,
(20:02):
meaning that if he had criticized, if he had been
involved in protests criticizing.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
The US government, he'd be fine.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But because he was involved in protests targeting Israel a
foreign nation, now he's been disappeared and set for deportation.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah. And I actually looked to see if he'd even
been charged with the crime. He was not even charged
with the crime. That would be see, that's another thing.
It'd be one thing. It's like, oh, you were arrested.
You know, you're here on a visa, you're guest in
this country. It's like okay. But literally just being a
student protester, it's like I'm not seeing this because there
are plenty is Israeli students who are out on the
streets and UCLA and all that protesting on behalf of Israel. Okay,
(20:41):
we're going to start revoking there set or you know
there student visas or any of that anytime soon. They
got great universities in Tel Aviv. I've seen him. You know,
I'm not why are you even over here if you
need to come protests? Right, So that's the problem that
I really have with this thing, and I was looking
into it. You know, he is a lawful permanent resident,
as he said, he's a green card holder. He actually
is entitled with hearing with an immigration judge. So the
(21:02):
judge would have to buy that not because the thing
is for DHS to initiate deportation against a green card hoole.
And this is very different than student visa or other
temporary visas. Temporary visa can be basically revoked about cause
the student a green card, legal permanent resident holder effectively
has like they have very similar rights to a US citizen,
(21:23):
and for their deportation they have to prove that they
violated criminal procedure. Now, their claim here is that this
was a violation of President Trump's executive orders on anti Semitism.
So that's where this whole thing falls apart. And like
I said, it would be one thing. It's like, okay,
(21:44):
you commit a crime, Sure, get out of here. You
have done this? Is that fine? You know, I have
no issue with that. If we want to apply a
blanket standard against all ford and students aren't allowed to
I even would be okay with that because it would
include some of these other But this is just capricious,
and it's on behalf clearly of a foreign state who
(22:04):
just wants these people to be deported for having the
audacity to protest against them. That's where I really have
an issue broadly, because it just is so blatant. And
I'll just continue on this. This is the end result
of the Bill Ackman faction joining the Republican Party. Let's
not forget why did Bill Ackman become political. The day
(22:25):
after October seventh, he publicly started docxing students who were
protesting Israelly military campaign in Gaza. Did some of them
say a lot of stupid shit? Absolutely? But he, you know,
is compiling Google doc dossiers of these folks saying, oh,
we shouldn't even hire them. We got to, you know,
(22:45):
deport all of these folks. And that is again where
you know, we have an American billionaire here basically agitating
to deport people who are protesting a foreign nation. And
that is where it's just so unbelievable, you know, to
watch this all happen in the power of the United
States government when, yeah, if you were protesting I don't
(23:06):
know the US policy in Syria, nobody even cares, right,
you know, you see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Protest Trump.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I was telling us about Bidy I apposed to Ryan.
You know, we live here in DC. You know, you
go down the embassy roads, there's protests about everything. You know,
the Mayan mar protest, outside the Burmese embassy. There's protests
outside darfour. Always there's always a protest outside of a
I don't know, I've seen protests like Cambodian Embassy. Nobody cares.
Nobody's you know out of here's like, oh, let's deport
these folks or whatever. Go outside the White House. Any
(23:35):
time you're here in Washington, there's some stupid protests. Sorry,
but there's some protests outside of the White House. It's
not usually Palestine or whatever relate. It's like, I don't know, Turkey,
something like that. Nobody even blinks an eye. It's just
the average, everyday part of life, but somehow for this one,
the full force of the US government comes down on
their side. I was just I can't deal with it.
I really can't. It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, and the way that this all got spun up,
as we can put E to B up on the screen.
This is our old friend Shidavidai, who is this absolutely
psycho professor at Columbia who actually I think he was
what he was forced to be removed from campus because
he was being so aggressive and abusive towards students.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Doctor.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yes, anyway, I don't want to misspeak because I'm sure
mister Devidai I will come after me. But you guys
can google you know the extent of what he was
involved with their Columbia University and the abuse he was
hurling at his own students there at the school. But
so he had tweeted this, he says, Dear Secretary Rubio,
thank you for your strong statements.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Now we want to see strong action.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Illegally taking over a college in which you're not even
a role in distributing terrorist propaganda should be a deportable offense. No,
I would love to see what this quote unquote terrorist
propaganda is, by the way, because they always say this
and I have yet to see, you know, what this
alleged terrorist propaganda was, because that's what Machmud Khalil from
Columbia SJP did yesterday at Barnard College. So this guy
(25:03):
makes Mahmud Khalil, who again has been charged with no crimes,
but was a lead negotiator in terms of like the
Palestinian Rights movement encampment on campus, et cetera, So targets him.
Next thing you know, DHS is coming in without a
warrant onto campus and arresting Khalil. Apparently when they first
(25:24):
were interacting with him and his wife, they were under
the impression that he was there on a student visa,
which again I would find unconscionable to you know, criminalize
like First Amendment.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Speech and whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
But it is a very different deal when you're there
on a student visa and they find out he's a
Green card holder. But they've been given instructions to target
this guy, so they just continue forward. And when Drops
Site and other news outlets asked DHS for comment on
the fact that this was a Green card holder, a
legal permanent resident, not a student visa, holder. They said,
(25:59):
you need to talk to the White House, meaning this
came from the top. This came directly from the White House.
And so now Rubio has put on a tweet, let's
put this up on the screen, saying doubling down on this.
What is also to Sober's point about the process that
you have to follow here, like this is all brazenly
illegal when it comes to green card holders, because there
(26:22):
is they do have.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
A right to do process.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You cannot just arrest and disappear someone with no warrant
and deport them without going through a process and coming
in front of an immigration judge and proving that you
have cause to revoke their green card and ultimately deport them.
But Rubio doubles down here saying we will be revoking
green card and student visa holders of quote unquote Hamas supporters.
(26:48):
What's more, actually put E five up on the screen.
They're using AI to sift through all of these students
social media accounts to find ones who are quote unquote
pro Hamas.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And again, when you see that some of the things.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That have been offered as proof that Khalil himself was
quote unquote pro Hamas, was him participating in rally chance
or leading rally chance like from the river to the sea,
Palestine will be free.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
That's what we're talking about here.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Okay, we're not talking about he's you know, joining up
and he's you know, like an actual material supporter of
Hamas or any other terrorist organization in any way. We're
talking about rally chance and handing out flyers on campus.
That's what they deem quote unquote pro Hamas. And so
this is incredibly dystopian, Like, I don't care what you
think about this particular issue. If you support basic speech rights,
(27:45):
you can see the way that this is an authoritarian overreach,
a governmentss government censorship effort to try to quash speech
that they and their donors specifically do not like. And
the fact that this was so lawless as well, like
if they don't have to follow the laws in this case,
(28:07):
they don't have to follow the laws in any case.
It doesn't have to just apply to you know, people
who are green card holders. It could apply to literally
anyone if you're just going to throw the laws out.
So if you're someone who's positioned yourself or claim to
support the First Amendment, this and the revocation of Columbia's
four hundred million dollars in federal funding. Like this is
(28:28):
all a blatant attack on basic First Amendment right to speech.
So it is outrageous, and I hope people understand what
the stakes are here because it also is really a
test case.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
We can put E four up on the screen.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
This is the Trump administration again without any process here
says it was cutting off about four hundred million dollars
in federal contracts and grants to Columbia University. This, by
the way, after Colombia did really everything you could want
them to do. They suspended a bunch of students, they
suspended faculty that were quote unquote anti submitting or shared,
you know, had had some text message exchange that they
(29:03):
found to be problematic.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
They've instituted some sort of like rude.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Out the Anti Semitism task Force that's going after students
for things like the crime of writing a pro Palestine
op ed. They invited the cops onto campus to you know,
get get to arrest people who were involved in the
takeover of Hindhall. Like they have done everything that a
Biden and now Trump administration would want them to do,
(29:30):
but it's never enough. They're going to be made an
example of and there are many other schools that are
also on the target list for the Trump administration. You've
got Harvard University, George Washington University, JOHNS Hopkins, New York University,
Northwestern University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Minnesota, and University
of USC University of Southern California are the ones that
(29:51):
are particularly being targeted by the Trump administration here. So
you know, spare me your your lectures about one A
support if you don't have anything to say about this.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
One A fire did speak up on behalf, so I'm
fires great fires off. Yeah, we love them. By the way,
the ADL did come out with a new statement on
the situation. Let me go ahead and read this because
it's just good. It's delicious.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
We firmly believe there should be swift and severe consequences
for those who provide material supports, affair and tourists or
organizations insight violence in support of terrorist activities, or conceal
their identities. We appreciate the Trump administration's broad, bold set
of efforts to counter campus anti Semitism, and this action
further illustrates that resolved by holding alleged perpetrators responsible. Obviously,
any deportation action or revocation of a green card or
(30:36):
visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections.
We also hope this action serves as a deterrent to
others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses
or anywhere. And so, yeah, I mean, you know, this
is the law charge, That's what I was saying. This
is the irony of it. You remember that whole UCLA
thing when you had those guys who you know, they
(30:57):
got into a clash or whatever you want to call
it in the middle of Ucla. How many of those
people were Israeli citizens? You know, how many of those
people or duel Israeli citizens. It's like, well, well, we
don't want to talk about that one. It's like, that's
my point with all of this, is that the capricious
standard is just applied on behalf of this form. It's
just it makes me want to throw up. As an
American citizen, you know, we could protest India, puxta whatever,
(31:18):
nobody cares at all our own governments, and you should,
you know, you should protest your government. But it's just
like with this one, it's just so naked the way
that it all were, and it's all again because of
this genuine obsession. And I know a lot of these
people who are obsessed. They really believe that all of
these folks are like paid assets to protest on behalf
(31:39):
of Palestine. And it's just such cope because you know,
even look, you know people here now, I couldn't stay
I even told advise people not to do this because
of you know, potential blowback in your personal life. But
if not only is it a right, they believe that
they're only doing it because of being paid like further action,
and they just can't grapple with It's just as organic
(32:01):
as any right wing protests that we've seen. You can
offer support camps, you know, any of that other stuff,
but if people don't actually feel outraged about it, then
they're not going to show up. So you know, there's
always this AstroTurf argument, and they really believe like America
is just all like okay with what's all happening in Israel.
And I mean to the extent that they are if
they don't even know anything about it, I don't think
(32:22):
about it that much. With the people who are it's
like okay, fine, let them do whatever they want to do.
And you know, Trump even said prior to that, do
we have that the thing about him expelling people? Do
we have that? It is?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I don't. Okay, we didn't pull it over Ryan and
I did a segment about it. I mean, he's basically
saying a US citizen would be expelled from their college,
you know. And I remember I was engaged in all
these fights back in the twenty fourteen twenty fifteen time
period over these kangaroo courts over like me too, allegations
that would expel students, and it was similar mass hysteria
(32:57):
over this basically denying not only do process rights, but
literally expelling students for some he said, She said incident. Well,
you know, here you have the government in a similar position,
just coming in and saying, even if you haven't committed
a crime, that expressing an opinion or doing wrong think
will get you expelled from college. Is That's the part
(33:17):
where I just can't take it, you know. And I'm
somebody who hates higher education. I'm happy to see Columbia
bother with the kank course. I my network benefit would
be cut, slash them all. I think it would be great,
but you know, to do it on behalf of Israel,
that's too much. That's too much. You got to at least,
(33:37):
you know, try and do it from the perspective of
what's good for us. That's the part that I can see.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
It's it's it truly is outrageous. I mean, right now,
right now, Israel is cutting off They already cut off
aid to Gaza, and they're cutting off electricity to Gaza.
This makes it very like, this severely limits the amount
of just clean drinking water because you know, the salinization plants,
like the water purification obviously you need electricity. You're not
(34:05):
allowed to protest that. You're not allowed to have a
problem with that. Like you can have your status like
as a legal, lawful permanent resident here revoked without any
due process. You could be kicked out of school without
any due process. Total cart blunch for the government to
sift through your social media post and see if you're
engaged in any sort of wrong think. I mean, this
(34:25):
is I mean, this is truly some of the most
authoritarian anti First Amendment overreach that I have seen. And
we've laid the groundwork for many administrations, starting with the
Patriot Act, probably starting before that, but really ramp it
up with.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
The Patriot Act.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
You know, every administration has increasingly, you know, sought to
censor those who they you know, they found their voices
or their opinions to be inconvenient.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
This is another level. It truly is another level.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And what they have done here it clearly elates this
Mahmu Khalil's rights to do process. The fact that they
have no idea where he is is terrifying and outrageous.
And the message that they are to trying to send
here also is terrifying and outrageous because many people will
(35:17):
think twice about speaking out for their own job and
school prospects, etc. And certainly if they are you know,
certainly if they are Green Carter student visa holders, etc.
And that's exactly the point the ADL said, like, I
hope this serves as a deterrent and that's exactly what
the goal here ultimately.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Is, Crystal, what are you taking a look at.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
One of the weirder mysteries of the Kamala Harris campaign
was what the hell happened to Tim Wells?
Speaker 3 (35:43):
So he came out of.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
The gays hot, was turning his cable news campaign his
stellar Minnesota record into a vice presidential slot. He honestly
seemed like the perfect choice. He's an affable Midwesterner history
of electoral outperformance. He translated a down to earth vibe
into an incredible record in a purple state. In fact,
with his selection for the ticket, it seemed like Kamala
was aeshewing her previous cautious positioning to go bold with
(36:07):
a character who resonated on TV. It did not shy
away from using power. Walls had a natural talent for
pitching progressive policies in a way that felt moderate, and
characterized Trump and Vans in a way that went instantly viral.
These guys, they're just weird.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
You know, there's something wrong with people when they talk
about freedom, freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom being
your zamroom, freedom to tell your kids what they can read.
That stuff is weird. They come across weird. They seem
obsessed with this. They continue to try and tell you.
And look, the thing that I find the most weird
about it is is they never do the things they say.
I heard one time, very early on, you do not
(36:42):
need your elected officials to give you a sermon, but
they should try and live one. And these guys are
weird on how they frame it. They are obsessed. And
I said it the other day the he Man Woman
Haters Club. I don't know where this is coming from.
And I have to tell you today here in Minnesota,
joyous day. I just appointed our newest Associate Justices Supreme Court,
Sarah Hennessy. Minnesota was the first state and we have
a majority women on the Supreme Court and we have
(37:04):
a woman of color as the Chief Justice. That scares
the hell out of these guys. That just terrifies them,
and then they start being weird. They think they have
to listen to their stories. They think they're connecting with
people and they tell things and everybody feels uncomfortable around them.
So I'm sticking with that because I don't know what
else describes it, but I know that it's more cynical
and it's deeper, and it's hurtful and hateful. But I
(37:28):
think one of the things you point out to this,
they're not offering us anything. They're not going to come
with a plan. And this is my thing. Every day
I ask where's your healthcare plan? So, yeah, they're weird,
and I am not changing that.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
But of course he did not ultimately stick with that.
After what was a phenomenal launch, she quickly became a
massive draw on the campaign trail, and the Harris campaign
looked like they were set to use Walls's Minnesota record
as a way to fill in the gaps on Kamala's
own ideological vagueness. They released even a solid proposal to
go after price gougers, which caused a glorious Right We.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Meltdown about supposed price controls.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Wall suggested himself a focus on bread and butter issues,
things like paid leave, which had been really popular in Minnesota.
He leaned into JD vance mockery, even made some couch
jokes down on the campaign trail. But then sometime around
the DNC things really seemed to flip. Price gouging was out,
Opportunity economy was in, weird was out, Fascist was in,
and Sean Faine, head of the UAW was out.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Liz Cheney, Neocon was in.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Now Politico has revealed what many of us have long suspected.
Tim Walls was sabotage by an insecure Kamala Harris who
didn't want him to outshine her, and by dim witted
arrogant consultants who thought they knew better about what would
resonate than the organic response, which had originally graded Tim
Walls and his framing of the race. So, according to
Politico quote, after he was selected in early August, Harris
(38:48):
was not yet doing interviews, and aids did not want
Walls to get out ahead of her. Several former campaign
aids said Harrison Walls would not appear together for their
joint interview with CNN.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Until three weeks later.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Even into October, the Washington Post described him as a
quote surprisingly bubble wrapped campaigner, and as for his signature
framing of Republicans as weird quote, there were also efforts
to curb some of his signature lines, including casting Trump
and Republicans as weird, which slipped out of Walls's speeches.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
He was encouraged to stop focusing on the weird criticism,
said another former Harris aid, I think it is fair
to ask whether, even if weird wasn't quite right, his
instinct about how to approach Trump to make him seem
small and a huckster wasn't closer to correct than the
more self serious tone that may have made us sound too.
In defense, of the status will now. In an interview
(39:40):
with Politico himself, Wall slams the play it safe tactics,
which led them to position the campaign as if they
were sitting on a big lead rather than desperately trying
to pull off an upset quote.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
We should have been playing this thing so safe.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I think we probably should have just rolled the dice
and done the town halls where voters may say, you're
full of shit. I don't believe in you, Walls continued.
I think there could have been more of that. We
as a party are more cautious and engage in the media,
both mainstream and non traditional, Walls said, and during the
twenty twenty four campaign, he said, in football parlance, we
were in a prevent defense to not lose when we
(40:13):
never had anything to lose, because.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
I don't think we were ever ahead. Now.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
One thing you can say about Trump is he is
happy to tell campaign consultants and other advisers to piss off.
If he tests a line out on the campaign trail
and it gets a big response, he goes with it.
He's got a gut instinct about these things, yes, but
he also buys much more into the wisdom of the
crowd than what some focused group, poll tested suit tells
him he should be saying. Walls actually had a similar approach.
(40:39):
He didn't just invent weird for the Kamala campaign. He
had done a bunch of town halls. He talked to
voters all around Minnesota, and that was the Trump characterization
that he found really worked. So he brought it to
the national stage and an immediately hit. Bernie actually has
a similar approach. He's not out there checking his lines
over with a pollster. He is getting rockstar receptions, leaning
into the same mesage that has resonated with Americans.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
He's spoken with for over fifty years. Now.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
It helps that they both seem like they actually believe
in something too. There's new data that should further strengthen
Democrats resolve to get rid of all of these ariant, grifting,
idiotic consultants who think that they know better. A recent
Yale study found they literally don't. Random people do just
as well predicting what political messages will resonate as do
(41:24):
paid political professionals.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
These people, they are literally worthless.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
You will be just as well off to throw darts
at a dart board and pick your policies as to
listen to these people. Now, there are signs that Walls
remains one of the Democratic Party leaders with the best
instincts in the country. In a recent interview with Molly
on Fast, he told her that Democrats need to stop
messing around with small ball and actually give voters real
change they can sink their teeth into.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Take a listen, look, I hear.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
The thing out there is is that when we get back,
which we will, will fight. I'll tell you what people
are going to expect is they're not going to expect
to tinkle around the edge with the ACA. They're going
to expect universal healthcare. And if there's a lesson here,
I always said this. We had a one vote majority
in Minnesota. When we move clean energy, we move reproductive rights,
we moved. We moved a whole slew of progressive very popular,
(42:16):
including things around guns and gun safety, very popular thing.
We moved it with a one vote majority. And people ask, well,
what do you call a one vote majority a majority?
Simple as that.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Now, if you need a demonstration of how popular that
message is, how much energy there is behind it, just behold.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
The response to an eighty three year old.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Bernie Sanders, who's been hosting overflow crowds on top of
overflow crowds in Midwestern swing districts.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
It's actually insane.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Biden's average crowd is pointed out here when he was
president and running for reelection was thirteen hundred. Here is
Bernie in Warren, Michigan on a random March day, attracting
more than ten thousand people. Now, as far as his
twenty twenty eight plans goes, Walls is playing koy keeping
it options open. I think opening up about the Harris
campaign's failures, I albeit in a diplomatic way, is definitely
(43:05):
step one. Getting back out there on the road for
town halls and districts where Republicans are too scared to
show up is step two. And then we'll see a
man definitely doesn't need to work on his debate skills.
But if she ditches the consultants, leans into his instincts
to be visible and to be bold with his economic agenda,
he might still yet be the future of the Democratic Party.
(43:26):
And I mean this is the big thing for him
is people are.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Going to be and if you want to hear my
reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at
Breakingpoints dot com. Thank you guys for watching. We appreciate you.
We'll have a great show for everybody tomorrow and we'll
see you later.
Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election,
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
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Speaker 1 (00:26):
We need your help to build the future of independent
news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints
dot com. All right, let's get over to Syria. There's
been some extraordinary developments in Syria, sadly very predictable. So
we have had the explosion of a lot of ethnic
violence inside of Syria, largely perpetrated and supported unfortunately by
(00:49):
the new so called moderate but in reality like radical
Islamic government that has taken power there. We have some
video that we can show you. Just as Chrystal said,
this is not for the faint of home, but I mean,
you've got people here who are dodging gunfire and there's
been a lot of just like public executions and things
that have been going publicly that are being posted on
(01:10):
telegram and on social media. I mean, the rounding up
of people. I mean, these are scenes really reminiscent out
of ISIS and their takeover of Syria and so much
of the leftover equipment. All of this right now really
is just like You've got over a thousand people that
were killed since Thursday, Crystal, and a lot of it
(01:34):
is people who are again are like now in charge
of the government. And the reports out of this and
all this are very confused because the West doesn't really
know how to deal with it because the person who
is largely responsible for much of this is the so
called moderate rebel who was supported by the United States
of who we removed their terrorist designation. Let's put this
(01:55):
up there on the screen, formerly known as HTS. You know.
Abu Mohammad jog Jlani has instructed his militants to stop
recording their acts of violence in an effort to control
the narrative and minimize the damage to his public image.
As reports of massacres and ethnic cleansing and serious coastal
regions continue to surface, the leadership fears that documented evidence
(02:16):
could further expose their brutality and weaken their support base.
And like I said, a lot of this violence has
been perpetrated unfortunately against many of the Syrian minorities. There
Alohite Christians, drus and others who live in the area
and were some of the strongest supporters of the Asad regime.
The reason why I think that this whole story is
very important is it does just show us about how
(02:38):
you know, good guy bad guy ideology in our support
or you know, weapons that we pour into the Middle
East very often make the situation much worse. You know,
to look back at the Syrian Civil War, it was
a genuine you know, political uprising and from twenty fourteen onwards,
but at that point onwards, it became this you know,
basically geopolitical playground for the United States, for Israel, for Iran,
(03:01):
for Qatar, for Saudi Arabia. They floored more weapons into
the country than had ever been seen there before. And
you know, literally millions of people were either displaced and
or killed. What are the worst refugee crisises in modern history.
And the truth is is like everyone was celebrating the
downfall of the Ostad regime. It's like, well, now this
is what has come next. More massacre, more death, and
(03:22):
there's no picking good guys, bad guys or any of that.
If we'd stayed out of this thing in the first place,
we probably all would have been better off. But the
you know, the the god you know, to even think
back to that time twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, as I'm
sure you remember too, the level of just like hystericism
here in Washington over the Syrian Civil War, in pushing
(03:44):
for more action, more bloodshed, more war, you know, intervention
on behalf of the United States, trying to push Obama
to bomb Syria to enforce a red line. Remember Hillary
Clinton ran on a damn no fly zone over Syria,
which would have required shooting down Russian jets over the
country and potentially drawing the United States into a conflict.
(04:04):
I just think this is the ten year, you know,
kind of culmination of all of the failures of modern
bipartisan foreign policy. And the end result here is literal
radical Islamist government in power who are now slaughtering ethnic minorities.
It's just unbelievable. It's horrible to watch for the people
of Syria. The destruction of a great people and of
a great country. But I think even worse than that
(04:27):
is the complicit, you know nature of the United States
of the EU and the whitewashing of this guy's image
who's now being invited to Brussels and he's wearing a
suit and he's got the support here of all these
other governments, and the country itself has basically been obliterated.
Israel's like annexed half of it now for some reason
that we're not really allowed to talk about over here. Meanwhile,
(04:49):
you know, these ethnic Christians and others are getting slaughtered,
and you know where there's no real there's no coherent
narrative here in Washington because everybody is so complicit in
backing the so called moderate rebels of the time. Yeah,
I just think it's horrible and it's very.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Sad when HGS was able to, you know, finally and
very shockingly kind of from our perspective, were't coverage, right, Yeah,
so it came out of nowhere, is able to finally,
you know, completely push the Assad government out of power.
They engaged in this very purposeful propaganda campaign to try
to convince the West that like no, no, no, all
(05:27):
that radical Islam, like that's in the past.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
We're going to be moderate.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
We're going to celebrate our ethnic diversity. And there were
quite a lot of Western media outlets that bought that
because they.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Wanted to buy it, and yeah, it's a nice narrative.
And you know at the time we said, for like, yeah,
we are very dufful, but we'll see.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And so you're right that this was you know, it's
sad and utterly predictable, and you know this is it
really has served Israel's interests, even though that might seem
surprising given that this is like a radical islamis group
and you might say, Okay, it's got to be bad
for it, and they must not like that. But you know,
they've benefited by being able to push into Sea. You know,
they are annexing significant parts of Syria up to effectively Damascus,
(06:12):
helping to realize their you know, fanatical vision of greater Israel,
which any you know, psycho Israeli settler can tell you about.
So they're doing that because they can and no one
will stop them. And HGS has publicly said basically like
we're not going to do anything to push back against Israel.
They also have publicly expressed a desire to distance Syria
(06:34):
from a Ran another thing that makes Israel very happy here.
And so you know, they have really seized on this
opportunity to claim more territory, more power, and to you know,
for their hobble their enemies in the region. So that's
been part of the fallout and part of why there
was a desire among the Western press to kind of
(06:55):
like whitewash who these guys were and what was very
likely to happen in the wake of them ultimately taking power.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, and like we said, we've got probably I mean,
nobody knows the true number. What we do know is
that a lot of these things seem to be very
conveniently supported by the government that's in power. And I
think it just drives me crazy because it just shows
you how trying to again like paint people as bad
guys in the Middle East and then picking the alternative
(07:23):
it never really seems to end up all that great
for us. And you know, none of this is moral
per se, but this is the reality of whenever you
want to try and intervene in other countries. Like the
truth is, z Iraq was probably better off under Saddam
Hussein terrible to say, it killed a lot of his
own people, and it was horrible. But look at the
subsequent fallout and what's happened to the country, not alone
what we have wasted in trying to make it into
(07:45):
some great democratic projects. Same now in Syria. Same I mean,
what happened with Libya, right, It's a disaster. It's basically
fallen apart, become an active warzone and a hub for piracy,
for terrorism, and for migrants. It's like, if you look
at all of these projects that have all been supported,
in this case by NATO, the United States, and the
Western Powers, as well as many of the Islamic nations,
(08:05):
then you look at our intervention in Iraq and you
see what happened there Afghanistan, It's like, where has this
all worked out? But we just are addicted to it.
It's like we are completely addicted. I will say. Part
of this is also actually a big proxy fight right
now here in Washington over the influence of the neocons
and specifically how this relates to Israel and Iran. So
(08:26):
let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen.
So it's from Tucker Carlston. He was tweeting a video
here of many of the Aloi Christians and others being
killed in Syria, and he's saying as Predictable says, it's
still infuriating to see. For decades, Bashar al Assad protected
the minority religious communities in Syria, including the country's large
Christian population. No one in the US was allowed to
notice this, and anyone who did was denounced by neocons
(08:48):
as a dangerous extremist. Barry Weiss declared tilsa Gabbard monstrous
and an Assad toady for noticing. But it was true.
Asad protected the Christians. A week or Asad was the
more Christians died during the war. The years that neocons
in the West back the war against Assade, the percentage
of Christians has gone from ten percent to two. Now
that Asad has been driven from power, many of the
remaining are being slaughtered and their holy place is desecrated.
(09:09):
Barry Wise and John Bolton haven't said a word about it,
but no one who's paying attention can be surprised. Neo
con projects in the Middle East invariably destroy these ancient
Cricketian communities from Iraq to Gaza and in many places
in between. Can this be an accident, you wonder? And
the reason why I thought it was important was the
Gaza little shout out there at the end, because you'll
(09:29):
recall Crystal in the early days of that war, when
you had that that ancient Christian church that was bombed
in the middle of Gaza. That's when even some of
the religious supporters in America had to wake up a
whole on a second, like what are we doing here?
And look, I objected a little bit to the framing
as like the Christians are the only people that matter
(09:50):
and all this, But this is a message that at
the very least, I think could get through to a
lot of the people who are in the Republican base
who still have this fin fanatical view of like good
and evil and are very susceptible to being pushed in
a neo conservative direction like there's no evidence here, you
know that is really like Gaza is like all that
great apparently for the so called Christian community in Gaza, right,
(10:13):
they'll tell you that. Ask the Christians in Gaza, the
people in Syria.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
West Bank for that matter, which you know, is the fact.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's such a good point. Nobody ever talks about it,
but you know, some of those people are the most
fanatical pro Palestinian support for the West Bank. Are a
lot of more Palstainian Christians. Yeah, their their land is
actually the one stolen I think originally, you know, and
they've found themselves at war with a lot of these
Jewish settlers. I don't care if they're Christian, Jewish, Muslim whatever.
The point I think that we have here is it's
(10:42):
obvious that the morality, you know, and the morality soapbox
that these people try and preach from itself can often
lead to much more immoral results. And they also just
so happen to be in a you know, in favor
of an agenda that's pretty favorable to you know, in
priest War and also for the state of Israel in
(11:02):
the Middle East. It's just, you know, that's that's part
of noticing I think today here for overall Washington policy,
and it's about what we're gonna have to get to
with the Iran deal, because that is where things are
going to be very interesting. Tomorrow hopefully we'll cover the
Hamas negotiation spat that's currently happening. But you know, the
amount of pressure right now from the pro Israel groups
is unbelievable on the Trump administration. And you know, there's
(11:25):
no indication that they'll be silenced so that they're going
to take even you know, their Colombia deportations. Enough of
his victory. That's not that's just the tip of the iceberg.
For what these people want. They want much much more.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Than Oh, absolutely, they want all of the West Bank.
I mean, they're mobilizing to you know, allow Israel and
they're likely to get that. I mean, they they want
the Trump Gaza ethnic cleansing plan that he has floated.
So yeah, they you know, they won't be satisfied with
just some show trials and some deportations or Colombia having
(11:57):
their funding stripped. They have much larger goals in mind.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Well, let's get to that Iran deal the question, because
this is going to be one of the central parts
for the Trump administration. Now, let's go ahead and play
this from Donald Trump talking about how he wants to
have a deal with Iran rather than go to war
with them.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Let's take a listen, there are two ways Iran can
be handled militarily or you make a deal. I would
prefer to make a deal because I'm not looking to
hear Irun. They're great people. I know so many Runians
from this country. Well, not the leadership, no, not the
leadership people, very evil people. No, but the people of
Iran are great people. But they had a tough regime
(12:37):
and they meet and they'd be shot in the streets.
I mean, it was a tough it was a tough deal.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So as you can see, it's like, we would rather
have a deal. But the problem that they're finding is
that Iran actually just rejected the deal. Let's go ahead
and put this up there on the screen. The Supreme
Leader of Iran rejected any nuclear talks with the quote
so called bully states of the United States, and they're pursuing,
you know, they're continuing their nuclear program. We don't know
(13:03):
how much of this is bluster yet per se. But
part of the problem is we talked about this with
treat de Parsi, the renegging on the original Iran Deialm.
It's like, okay, well, to what end, for what purpose?
The purpose was to increase the sanctions regime and to
hopefully see the country fall the regime. That didn't happen.
You know, in terms of their nuclear program, they're so
called breakout time or whatever apparently remains relatively static to
(13:26):
their ability to create it, their ability to conduct war
abroad and or in the near abroad as they call it,
you know, in that area. Well, you know, it seemed
to be doing pretty well in Iraq, seemed to be
doing okay enough in Syria, Hezbola. Of course in Lebanon.
Have they taken some hits. Yeah, absolutely, especially with Israeli's
(13:47):
being able to you know, assassinate people literally in the
middle of their capital. And of course they had that
whole back and forth with Israel, and but then Israel
retaliated against some of their nuclear missile defense systems near
their basis. But you know, they haven't fallen, which was
the ultimate deal of what they wanted. So now we're
in this situation basically of everyone's neokon making, where we've
(14:11):
tried the maximum sanctions, I mean, what sanctions could possibly
be even left to levy onto the country. And Trump
is in some ways in a problem of his own making,
because now what do you do. You know, if they
do get a nuclear weapon or pursue that that nuclear program,
you've said explicitly that we'll go to war for that,
that would be a nightmare for most Americans. Also, though
(14:34):
you're saying that you want a deal, and so two
sides of your mouth, and especially full of an administration
which historically has been incredibly hawkish on the Iran question.
It's one of those where you could easily find ourselves
in a major crisis over this issue if we don't
revert to what I hope is Trump's best instincts, Like
with the North Korea deal, there's no reason that we
(14:54):
can't go and sit down with these people. And at
the very least that's what Trump has shown his ability
to o overcome. You know, these previous idiotic statements like
we will never negotiate with a Moss, will never negotiate
with the North Koreans. It's like while they're in power
and the ones with the gun, so you know, what
are you supposed to do? Yeah, So anyway, I hope
that we pursue this. Maybe we can get over it.
And it is it is still important that he's saying
(15:15):
he wants it. I'm still worried, especially with Mike Wallas
and some of these other folks in that administration, because
if there are those people doing the deal, there's never going.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
To be in a deal well, and you can understand
the Iranians perspective as well, like, dude, you're the one
who walked away from this, How can we make a
deal with your country? We did that before and got
stabbed in the back by you. So like, you know,
when they're responding with like, no, we're not going to
do another deal with you, that's part of the background
that you have to understand. That and the fact that
(15:43):
the Trump administration has put on even more sanctions than
existed under the Biden administration. They're targeting oil exports, in
particular to China, and also apparently there was previously a
waiver that allowed a rack to buy Iranian oil and
they've gotten rid of that waiver. And obviously Aron is
heavily depointment dependent on their you know, their oil exports.
(16:04):
That's a key part of their economic picture. Apparently there
were also sanctions that were put on Iran's metal industries.
So they are going all in in what he calls
the maximum pressure campaign, which means amping up the sanctions
even further and really trying to destroy the economy. So
when the Iranians are talking about you know, you're treating
us like a bully. Wood that's what they're ultimately referring to.
(16:27):
So yes, obviously it would be much better to like
the best. One of the best things that the Obama
administration did, certainly in terms of international policy, was the
Iran nuclear Deal. One of the worst things that Trump
did was getting out of the Iranian nuclear deal. One
of the failures. There were other worse ones, but one
of the failures of the Biden administration was not jumping
(16:47):
back into the Iranian nuclear deal, especially in the early days.
This is something we did multiple segments with Tree to
Parsi about like they had four years to try to
restart these negotiations to try to get back into a deal,
which for a time Iran continued to it here to
even after Trump had pulled the US out of the deal,
and they didn't do it, And now the Iranians, you know,
(17:07):
are feeling disinclined to want to go.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Back to this rodeo.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
So, you know, I hope the the I hope Trump's
instincts to negotiate and desire to avoid war in this
region to the extent that he has one. I hope
that's what prevails. But I think there's still a lot
of big question marks here there are, and the Israeli
is obviously like they know what.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
They want in the worst possible situation for me.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, they they want us to be shoulder to shoulder
with them in a war against Iran.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
That is the longtime dream.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And you know they have a lot of purchase in
terms of power in the Trump administration. You know, you
have Miriam Maidelson who has already gotten quite a lot
in terms of her hundred million dollar investment in the
Trump campaign. And Boebe is a savvy operator as well
in terms of getting what he wants on of whoever
the political leader is in charge in the un So
(18:00):
I would say at this point, you know, there's certainly
nothing off the table.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Let's get on to the next one, the situation in
columb with Columbia University.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, so there's a bunch of stuff going on here,
but let's start with this. We can put this reporting
up from our friends over at drop site on the screen.
So on Saturday night, DHS agents entered a student residential
building at Columbia University and they detained Mahmud Khalil. He
was one of the lead negotiators on behalf of pro
Palestime protesters at twenty twenty fours Gaza Solidarity encampment. I'm
(18:35):
reading this from drop sites article here and in what
they describe as a sweeping attack on the First Amendment,
the Trump administration said this week it would begin revoking
visas of quote Hama sympathizers, specifically citing Columbia University students.
So now they have arrested Khalil reportedly had no warrant.
(18:57):
Khalil has not been charged with any crimes. He is
not here actually on a student visa. He's here on
a green card, so he is a legal permanent resident,
and at least as of this morning, he has been
effectively disappeared. His lawyers and his wife, who is eight
months pregnant, have no idea where he is. They originally
(19:19):
thought that he was at an ice facility in New Jersey.
His wife went there to try to find him. The
you know, the officers there said no, no, he's not there.
So they have no idea. And so it really is
We can put the two up on the screen which
explains that situation about you know, really having no clue
where he is. This is from from Thacker. He says
Machmou's attorney says they do not know where he is.
(19:41):
They were first told he was sent to an ice
facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. When his eight month pregnant
wife tried to visit him, she was told he's not there.
They receive reports he may be sent as far away
as Louisiana. So Mahmoud Khalil again, who is a Green
card holder, set to be deported over pro Palestine activism,
(20:02):
meaning that if he had criticized, if he had been
involved in protests criticizing.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
The US government, he'd be fine.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But because he was involved in protests targeting Israel a
foreign nation, now he's been disappeared and set for deportation.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah. And I actually looked to see if he'd even
been charged with the crime. He was not even charged
with the crime. That would be see, that's another thing.
It'd be one thing. It's like, oh, you were arrested.
You know, you're here on a visa, you're guest in
this country. It's like okay. But literally just being a
student protester, it's like I'm not seeing this because there
are plenty is Israeli students who are out on the
streets and UCLA and all that protesting on behalf of Israel. Okay,
(20:41):
we're going to start revoking there set or you know
there student visas or any of that anytime soon. They
got great universities in Tel Aviv. I've seen him. You know,
I'm not why are you even over here if you
need to come protests? Right, So that's the problem that
I really have with this thing, and I was looking
into it. You know, he is a lawful permanent resident,
as he said, he's a green card holder. He actually
is entitled with hearing with an immigration judge. So the
(21:02):
judge would have to buy that not because the thing
is for DHS to initiate deportation against a green card hoole.
And this is very different than student visa or other
temporary visas. Temporary visa can be basically revoked about cause
the student a green card, legal permanent resident holder effectively
has like they have very similar rights to a US citizen,
(21:23):
and for their deportation they have to prove that they
violated criminal procedure. Now, their claim here is that this
was a violation of President Trump's executive orders on anti Semitism.
So that's where this whole thing falls apart. And like
I said, it would be one thing. It's like, okay,
(21:44):
you commit a crime, Sure, get out of here. You
have done this? Is that fine? You know, I have
no issue with that. If we want to apply a
blanket standard against all ford and students aren't allowed to
I even would be okay with that because it would
include some of these other But this is just capricious,
and it's on behalf clearly of a foreign state who
(22:04):
just wants these people to be deported for having the
audacity to protest against them. That's where I really have
an issue broadly, because it just is so blatant. And
I'll just continue on this. This is the end result
of the Bill Ackman faction joining the Republican Party. Let's
not forget why did Bill Ackman become political. The day
(22:25):
after October seventh, he publicly started docxing students who were
protesting Israelly military campaign in Gaza. Did some of them
say a lot of stupid shit? Absolutely? But he, you know,
is compiling Google doc dossiers of these folks saying, oh,
we shouldn't even hire them. We got to, you know,
(22:45):
deport all of these folks. And that is again where
you know, we have an American billionaire here basically agitating
to deport people who are protesting a foreign nation. And
that is where it's just so unbelievable, you know, to
watch this all happen in the power of the United
States government when, yeah, if you were protesting I don't
(23:06):
know the US policy in Syria, nobody even cares, right,
you know, you see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Protest Trump.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I was telling us about Bidy I apposed to Ryan.
You know, we live here in DC. You know, you
go down the embassy roads, there's protests about everything. You know,
the Mayan mar protest, outside the Burmese embassy. There's protests
outside darfour. Always there's always a protest outside of a
I don't know, I've seen protests like Cambodian Embassy. Nobody cares.
Nobody's you know out of here's like, oh, let's deport
these folks or whatever. Go outside the White House. Any
(23:35):
time you're here in Washington, there's some stupid protests. Sorry,
but there's some protests outside of the White House. It's
not usually Palestine or whatever relate. It's like, I don't know, Turkey,
something like that. Nobody even blinks an eye. It's just
the average, everyday part of life, but somehow for this one,
the full force of the US government comes down on
their side. I was just I can't deal with it.
I really can't. It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, and the way that this all got spun up,
as we can put E to B up on the screen.
This is our old friend Shidavidai, who is this absolutely
psycho professor at Columbia who actually I think he was
what he was forced to be removed from campus because
he was being so aggressive and abusive towards students.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Doctor.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yes, anyway, I don't want to misspeak because I'm sure
mister Devidai I will come after me. But you guys
can google you know the extent of what he was
involved with their Columbia University and the abuse he was
hurling at his own students there at the school. But
so he had tweeted this, he says, Dear Secretary Rubio,
thank you for your strong statements.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Now we want to see strong action.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Illegally taking over a college in which you're not even
a role in distributing terrorist propaganda should be a deportable offense. No,
I would love to see what this quote unquote terrorist
propaganda is, by the way, because they always say this
and I have yet to see, you know, what this
alleged terrorist propaganda was, because that's what Machmud Khalil from
Columbia SJP did yesterday at Barnard College. So this guy
(25:03):
makes Mahmud Khalil, who again has been charged with no crimes,
but was a lead negotiator in terms of like the
Palestinian Rights movement encampment on campus, et cetera, So targets him.
Next thing you know, DHS is coming in without a
warrant onto campus and arresting Khalil. Apparently when they first
(25:24):
were interacting with him and his wife, they were under
the impression that he was there on a student visa,
which again I would find unconscionable to you know, criminalize
like First Amendment.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Speech and whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
But it is a very different deal when you're there
on a student visa and they find out he's a
Green card holder. But they've been given instructions to target
this guy, so they just continue forward. And when Drops
Site and other news outlets asked DHS for comment on
the fact that this was a Green card holder, a
legal permanent resident, not a student visa, holder. They said,
(25:59):
you need to talk to the White House, meaning this
came from the top. This came directly from the White House.
And so now Rubio has put on a tweet, let's
put this up on the screen, saying doubling down on this.
What is also to Sober's point about the process that
you have to follow here, like this is all brazenly
illegal when it comes to green card holders, because there
(26:22):
is they do have.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
A right to do process.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You cannot just arrest and disappear someone with no warrant
and deport them without going through a process and coming
in front of an immigration judge and proving that you
have cause to revoke their green card and ultimately deport them.
But Rubio doubles down here saying we will be revoking
green card and student visa holders of quote unquote Hamas supporters.
(26:48):
What's more, actually put E five up on the screen.
They're using AI to sift through all of these students
social media accounts to find ones who are quote unquote
pro Hamas.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
And again, when you see that some of the things.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That have been offered as proof that Khalil himself was
quote unquote pro Hamas, was him participating in rally chance
or leading rally chance like from the river to the sea,
Palestine will be free.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
That's what we're talking about here.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Okay, we're not talking about he's you know, joining up
and he's you know, like an actual material supporter of
Hamas or any other terrorist organization in any way. We're
talking about rally chance and handing out flyers on campus.
That's what they deem quote unquote pro Hamas. And so
this is incredibly dystopian, Like, I don't care what you
think about this particular issue. If you support basic speech rights,
(27:45):
you can see the way that this is an authoritarian overreach,
a governmentss government censorship effort to try to quash speech
that they and their donors specifically do not like. And
the fact that this was so lawless as well, like
if they don't have to follow the laws in this case,
(28:07):
they don't have to follow the laws in any case.
It doesn't have to just apply to you know, people
who are green card holders. It could apply to literally
anyone if you're just going to throw the laws out.
So if you're someone who's positioned yourself or claim to
support the First Amendment, this and the revocation of Columbia's
four hundred million dollars in federal funding. Like this is
(28:28):
all a blatant attack on basic First Amendment right to speech.
So it is outrageous, and I hope people understand what
the stakes are here because it also is really a
test case.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
We can put E four up on the screen.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
This is the Trump administration again without any process here
says it was cutting off about four hundred million dollars
in federal contracts and grants to Columbia University. This, by
the way, after Colombia did really everything you could want
them to do. They suspended a bunch of students, they
suspended faculty that were quote unquote anti submitting or shared,
you know, had had some text message exchange that they
(29:03):
found to be problematic.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
They've instituted some sort of like rude.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Out the Anti Semitism task Force that's going after students
for things like the crime of writing a pro Palestine
op ed. They invited the cops onto campus to you know,
get get to arrest people who were involved in the
takeover of Hindhall. Like they have done everything that a
Biden and now Trump administration would want them to do,
(29:30):
but it's never enough. They're going to be made an
example of and there are many other schools that are
also on the target list for the Trump administration. You've
got Harvard University, George Washington University, JOHNS Hopkins, New York University,
Northwestern University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Minnesota, and University
of USC University of Southern California are the ones that
(29:51):
are particularly being targeted by the Trump administration here. So
you know, spare me your your lectures about one A
support if you don't have anything to say about this.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
One A fire did speak up on behalf, so I'm
fires great fires off. Yeah, we love them. By the way,
the ADL did come out with a new statement on
the situation. Let me go ahead and read this because
it's just good. It's delicious.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
We firmly believe there should be swift and severe consequences
for those who provide material supports, affair and tourists or
organizations insight violence in support of terrorist activities, or conceal
their identities. We appreciate the Trump administration's broad, bold set
of efforts to counter campus anti Semitism, and this action
further illustrates that resolved by holding alleged perpetrators responsible. Obviously,
any deportation action or revocation of a green card or
(30:36):
visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections.
We also hope this action serves as a deterrent to
others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses
or anywhere. And so, yeah, I mean, you know, this
is the law charge, That's what I was saying. This
is the irony of it. You remember that whole UCLA
thing when you had those guys who you know, they
(30:57):
got into a clash or whatever you want to call
it in the middle of Ucla. How many of those
people were Israeli citizens? You know, how many of those
people or duel Israeli citizens. It's like, well, well, we
don't want to talk about that one. It's like, that's
my point with all of this, is that the capricious
standard is just applied on behalf of this form. It's
just it makes me want to throw up. As an
American citizen, you know, we could protest India, puxta whatever,
(31:18):
nobody cares at all our own governments, and you should,
you know, you should protest your government. But it's just
like with this one, it's just so naked the way
that it all were, and it's all again because of
this genuine obsession. And I know a lot of these
people who are obsessed. They really believe that all of
these folks are like paid assets to protest on behalf
(31:39):
of Palestine. And it's just such cope because you know,
even look, you know people here now, I couldn't stay
I even told advise people not to do this because
of you know, potential blowback in your personal life. But
if not only is it a right, they believe that
they're only doing it because of being paid like further action,
and they just can't grapple with It's just as organic
(32:01):
as any right wing protests that we've seen. You can
offer support camps, you know, any of that other stuff,
but if people don't actually feel outraged about it, then
they're not going to show up. So you know, there's
always this AstroTurf argument, and they really believe like America
is just all like okay with what's all happening in Israel.
And I mean to the extent that they are if
they don't even know anything about it, I don't think
(32:22):
about it that much. With the people who are it's
like okay, fine, let them do whatever they want to do.
And you know, Trump even said prior to that, do
we have that the thing about him expelling people? Do
we have that? It is?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I don't. Okay, we didn't pull it over Ryan and
I did a segment about it. I mean, he's basically
saying a US citizen would be expelled from their college,
you know. And I remember I was engaged in all
these fights back in the twenty fourteen twenty fifteen time
period over these kangaroo courts over like me too, allegations
that would expel students, and it was similar mass hysteria
(32:57):
over this basically denying not only do process rights, but
literally expelling students for some he said, She said incident. Well,
you know, here you have the government in a similar position,
just coming in and saying, even if you haven't committed
a crime, that expressing an opinion or doing wrong think
will get you expelled from college. Is That's the part
(33:17):
where I just can't take it, you know. And I'm
somebody who hates higher education. I'm happy to see Columbia
bother with the kank course. I my network benefit would
be cut, slash them all. I think it would be great,
but you know, to do it on behalf of Israel,
that's too much. That's too much. You got to at least,
(33:37):
you know, try and do it from the perspective of
what's good for us. That's the part that I can see.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
It's it's it truly is outrageous. I mean, right now,
right now, Israel is cutting off They already cut off
aid to Gaza, and they're cutting off electricity to Gaza.
This makes it very like, this severely limits the amount
of just clean drinking water because you know, the salinization plants,
like the water purification obviously you need electricity. You're not
(34:05):
allowed to protest that. You're not allowed to have a
problem with that. Like you can have your status like
as a legal, lawful permanent resident here revoked without any
due process. You could be kicked out of school without
any due process. Total cart blunch for the government to
sift through your social media post and see if you're
engaged in any sort of wrong think. I mean, this
(34:25):
is I mean, this is truly some of the most
authoritarian anti First Amendment overreach that I have seen. And
we've laid the groundwork for many administrations, starting with the
Patriot Act, probably starting before that, but really ramp it
up with.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
The Patriot Act.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
You know, every administration has increasingly, you know, sought to
censor those who they you know, they found their voices
or their opinions to be inconvenient.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
This is another level. It truly is another level.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And what they have done here it clearly elates this
Mahmu Khalil's rights to do process. The fact that they
have no idea where he is is terrifying and outrageous.
And the message that they are to trying to send
here also is terrifying and outrageous because many people will
(35:17):
think twice about speaking out for their own job and
school prospects, etc. And certainly if they are you know,
certainly if they are Green Carter student visa holders, etc.
And that's exactly the point the ADL said, like, I
hope this serves as a deterrent and that's exactly what
the goal here ultimately.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Is, Crystal, what are you taking a look at.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
One of the weirder mysteries of the Kamala Harris campaign
was what the hell happened to Tim Wells?
Speaker 3 (35:43):
So he came out of.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
The gays hot, was turning his cable news campaign his
stellar Minnesota record into a vice presidential slot. He honestly
seemed like the perfect choice. He's an affable Midwesterner history
of electoral outperformance. He translated a down to earth vibe
into an incredible record in a purple state. In fact,
with his selection for the ticket, it seemed like Kamala
was aeshewing her previous cautious positioning to go bold with
(36:07):
a character who resonated on TV. It did not shy
away from using power. Walls had a natural talent for
pitching progressive policies in a way that felt moderate, and
characterized Trump and Vans in a way that went instantly viral.
These guys, they're just weird.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
You know, there's something wrong with people when they talk
about freedom, freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom being
your zamroom, freedom to tell your kids what they can read.
That stuff is weird. They come across weird. They seem
obsessed with this. They continue to try and tell you.
And look, the thing that I find the most weird
about it is is they never do the things they say.
I heard one time, very early on, you do not
(36:42):
need your elected officials to give you a sermon, but
they should try and live one. And these guys are
weird on how they frame it. They are obsessed. And
I said it the other day the he Man Woman
Haters Club. I don't know where this is coming from.
And I have to tell you today here in Minnesota,
joyous day. I just appointed our newest Associate Justices Supreme Court,
Sarah Hennessy. Minnesota was the first state and we have
a majority women on the Supreme Court and we have
(37:04):
a woman of color as the Chief Justice. That scares
the hell out of these guys. That just terrifies them,
and then they start being weird. They think they have
to listen to their stories. They think they're connecting with
people and they tell things and everybody feels uncomfortable around them.
So I'm sticking with that because I don't know what
else describes it, but I know that it's more cynical
and it's deeper, and it's hurtful and hateful. But I
(37:28):
think one of the things you point out to this,
they're not offering us anything. They're not going to come
with a plan. And this is my thing. Every day
I ask where's your healthcare plan? So, yeah, they're weird,
and I am not changing that.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
But of course he did not ultimately stick with that.
After what was a phenomenal launch, she quickly became a
massive draw on the campaign trail, and the Harris campaign
looked like they were set to use Walls's Minnesota record
as a way to fill in the gaps on Kamala's
own ideological vagueness. They released even a solid proposal to
go after price gougers, which caused a glorious Right We.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Meltdown about supposed price controls.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Wall suggested himself a focus on bread and butter issues,
things like paid leave, which had been really popular in Minnesota.
He leaned into JD vance mockery, even made some couch
jokes down on the campaign trail. But then sometime around
the DNC things really seemed to flip. Price gouging was out,
Opportunity economy was in, weird was out, Fascist was in,
and Sean Faine, head of the UAW was out.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Liz Cheney, Neocon was in.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Now Politico has revealed what many of us have long suspected.
Tim Walls was sabotage by an insecure Kamala Harris who
didn't want him to outshine her, and by dim witted
arrogant consultants who thought they knew better about what would
resonate than the organic response, which had originally graded Tim
Walls and his framing of the race. So, according to
Politico quote, after he was selected in early August, Harris
(38:48):
was not yet doing interviews, and aids did not want
Walls to get out ahead of her. Several former campaign
aids said Harrison Walls would not appear together for their
joint interview with CNN.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Until three weeks later.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Even into October, the Washington Post described him as a
quote surprisingly bubble wrapped campaigner, and as for his signature
framing of Republicans as weird quote, there were also efforts
to curb some of his signature lines, including casting Trump
and Republicans as weird, which slipped out of Walls's speeches.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
He was encouraged to stop focusing on the weird criticism,
said another former Harris aid, I think it is fair
to ask whether, even if weird wasn't quite right, his
instinct about how to approach Trump to make him seem
small and a huckster wasn't closer to correct than the
more self serious tone that may have made us sound too.
In defense, of the status will now. In an interview
(39:40):
with Politico himself, Wall slams the play it safe tactics,
which led them to position the campaign as if they
were sitting on a big lead rather than desperately trying
to pull off an upset quote.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
We should have been playing this thing so safe.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
I think we probably should have just rolled the dice
and done the town halls where voters may say, you're
full of shit. I don't believe in you, Walls continued.
I think there could have been more of that. We
as a party are more cautious and engage in the media,
both mainstream and non traditional, Walls said, and during the
twenty twenty four campaign, he said, in football parlance, we
were in a prevent defense to not lose when we
(40:13):
never had anything to lose, because.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
I don't think we were ever ahead. Now.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
One thing you can say about Trump is he is
happy to tell campaign consultants and other advisers to piss off.
If he tests a line out on the campaign trail
and it gets a big response, he goes with it.
He's got a gut instinct about these things, yes, but
he also buys much more into the wisdom of the
crowd than what some focused group, poll tested suit tells
him he should be saying. Walls actually had a similar approach.
(40:39):
He didn't just invent weird for the Kamala campaign. He
had done a bunch of town halls. He talked to
voters all around Minnesota, and that was the Trump characterization
that he found really worked. So he brought it to
the national stage and an immediately hit. Bernie actually has
a similar approach. He's not out there checking his lines
over with a pollster. He is getting rockstar receptions, leaning
into the same mesage that has resonated with Americans.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
He's spoken with for over fifty years. Now.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
It helps that they both seem like they actually believe
in something too. There's new data that should further strengthen
Democrats resolve to get rid of all of these ariant, grifting,
idiotic consultants who think that they know better. A recent
Yale study found they literally don't. Random people do just
as well predicting what political messages will resonate as do
(41:24):
paid political professionals.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
These people, they are literally worthless.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
You will be just as well off to throw darts
at a dart board and pick your policies as to
listen to these people. Now, there are signs that Walls
remains one of the Democratic Party leaders with the best
instincts in the country. In a recent interview with Molly
on Fast, he told her that Democrats need to stop
messing around with small ball and actually give voters real
change they can sink their teeth into.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Take a listen, look, I hear.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
The thing out there is is that when we get back,
which we will, will fight. I'll tell you what people
are going to expect is they're not going to expect
to tinkle around the edge with the ACA. They're going
to expect universal healthcare. And if there's a lesson here,
I always said this. We had a one vote majority
in Minnesota. When we move clean energy, we move reproductive rights,
we moved. We moved a whole slew of progressive very popular,
(42:16):
including things around guns and gun safety, very popular thing.
We moved it with a one vote majority. And people ask, well,
what do you call a one vote majority a majority?
Simple as that.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Now, if you need a demonstration of how popular that
message is, how much energy there is behind it, just behold.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
The response to an eighty three year old.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Bernie Sanders, who's been hosting overflow crowds on top of
overflow crowds in Midwestern swing districts.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
It's actually insane.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Biden's average crowd is pointed out here when he was
president and running for reelection was thirteen hundred. Here is
Bernie in Warren, Michigan on a random March day, attracting
more than ten thousand people. Now, as far as his
twenty twenty eight plans goes, Walls is playing koy keeping
it options open. I think opening up about the Harris
campaign's failures, I albeit in a diplomatic way, is definitely
(43:05):
step one. Getting back out there on the road for
town halls and districts where Republicans are too scared to
show up is step two. And then we'll see a
man definitely doesn't need to work on his debate skills.
But if she ditches the consultants, leans into his instincts
to be visible and to be bold with his economic agenda,
he might still yet be the future of the Democratic Party.
(43:26):
And I mean this is the big thing for him
is people are.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Going to be and if you want to hear my
reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at
Breakingpoints dot com. Thank you guys for watching. We appreciate you.
We'll have a great show for everybody tomorrow and we'll
see you later.
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