July 13, 2026 • 29 mins
Krystal and Saagar discuss Ro Khanna detained by Israel, Trump freaks over Air Force One.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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We need your help to build the future of independent
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Speaker 2 (00:33):
Joining us now is Congressman Rokhana, who is just back
from his trip to the occupied West Bank where he
was detained by illegal settlers and then by the IDF.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Great to see you, sir, Good to see you, sir.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Thank you thanks for having.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Me back on Yeah, of course. So let's just start
with what happened here.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I can put these images and videos that you shared
on Twitter up on the screen and just tell us
what we're seeing and what happened to here.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
We were at Zanuda Village.
Speaker 6 (01:00):
It's a village that was destroyed by Ynan Levy and
his group extremist settlers. And we were looking at an
elementary school that had been raised to the ground. Other
members of Congress actually had been to that exact site.
And when we were there, these violent settlers start.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
To yell at us, curse.
Speaker 6 (01:23):
Us, they tell me, and the other Americans and some
of the Palestines with us get into our van. We
get into our van and we see twenty one twenty
two year olds brandishing m force kicking our tires, wiping
our windows, taking video of us. This lasts about twenty
twenty five minutes. Our interpreter goes out, speaks to them,
(01:45):
and they say, we don't care that they're Americans, we
don't care that there's a member of Congress. Now, the
IDF comes about twenty minutes into it, and I said, okay,
finally we're going to get through because they had blocked
our van from exiting the area on the road entrance,
and the IDF shockingly sides with the settlers. Now, at
(02:07):
first this was just my account, the security guard's account,
the New York Times photographer's account. It turns out this morning,
to break some news, there's actually body cameras of one
of the people in video one minute and fifteen minutes
video that just came out on Acts, which shows that
these IDF officers were siding with the settlers and further
(02:29):
blocked us in, and we were there seventy five minutes.
We had to call David Brownstein, who's the number two
or three person career person at the American embassy, who
reached someone senior in the Israeli government, and finally the
police came, and then the settlers left and the IDF left.
But it was a very tense situation. If we were
(02:50):
a Palestinian, I believe there would have been damage herrets
the Israeli papers as I got the VIP detention that
if we were Palestinian, it probably would have been beaten
or even killed.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
But it just was awful.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
And the fact that there is not international outrage that
Americans were detained, and that there's no investigation, no consequence,
it's just shocking. The Prime Minister's an ambassador were on
TV yesterday is lying.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
But the Prime Minister of Israel, Prejident Netnyahu, was asked
about this your specific situation yesterday, he defended Israeli's conduct
let's take a listen.
Speaker 7 (03:25):
Yeah, we're a country of laws, and people who break
the law, we take them to court. In the West Bank,
in Judean Siberia, we've had thousands, thousands of attempted attacks
and warnings against terrorist activities against innocent Israeli's families. Mother
where their children driving along the road, they're stopped by
(03:48):
terrorists and they killed them. And this has happened again
and again and again. There is a vigilante effort, not
by the settler community. They're ninety nine point nine percent
law abiding citizens. They work, they serve in the army,
and so on. There are one hundred and fifty juvenile
delinquents that are not part of that community. They come
(04:10):
from the other parts of Israel. We are I don't
want vigilantes of any kind, and we are working to
put them under the law. But I think if we
put things in perspective, we should see that we have
thousands of attacks and some few but obvious breaking of
the law. Then we apply the full measure of the
law against them.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
A few bad apples, Congressmen, But he's saying, ultimately, their
nation of laws, how does it comport with your experience?
Speaker 4 (04:39):
It's just a total untruth.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
First of all, is he committed to arresting these extremest
settlers because their pictures are on social media. They are
affiliated with Janon Levy, who is not a delinquid youth.
Janon Levy murdered a Palestinian caught on camera in actually
met with Ottawa the Palestine, and he murdered his brother.
(05:04):
Khalil I saw the spot where Janan Levy murdered his brother.
I saw and heard the story of Ottawa's children, and
Khalil said that he has to see Janan Levy one
hundred two hundred feet and an illegal outpost, still a
free man, even though he murdered his brother. In that
(05:25):
same group of Junan Levy are the people who are
affiliated with the detaining US, detaining Americans in any other
if any other nation did this, the first response would
be for the American President, American investador to demand the
arrest of these settlers who did this and demand an
investigation for why the Israeli military four of those soldiers
(05:49):
assided with these settlers, So you know, the Prime mister
can call them juvenile delinquents.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
They're not.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Obviously, they're connected to Janon Levey but he hasn't even
arrested them. Where are the arrests, Where is the investigation
into the IDF soldiers.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Some people are also saying that you wanted this to
happen to draw attention to yourself and to try to
create some political gain. Respond to that and also talk
about what was the reason that you decided to make
this trip and what impact did it have on you,
separate apart from this detention, which I'm sure was genuinely
a terrifying situation.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Well, those conspiracy theorists are as absurd as the people
who say that President Trump wanted to get shot at
it a butler, I mean, who wants to have people
with enforced surrounding them parked outside a van, threatening them,
cursing at them, and then being detained for seventy five minutes. Obviously,
(06:46):
you know it was pales and compareson to what Palestinians
go through. But it's the most unsafe I felt in
my entire life, and the most powerless I felt in
my entire life. And the fact of this is that
what makes it inconvenient for the Israelis is that a
New York Times photographer was there, and people who speak
Hebrew It Israeli security guard was there, and there were
(07:10):
both Israelis and Palestinians. So there were about ten eyewitness
accounts of what took place. Now here's what bothers them.
Here's what they're calling a stunt. What bothers them is
that I went to Palestine to get the Palestinian perspective
in a Palestinian led tour, and that I didn't do
the obligatory visits to the Israeli government and to Israel.
(07:33):
I have been to Israel three times, I've done the
obligatory visits, the curated tours. I met with the two
Israeli prime ministers, including Prime Minister net Nyahu.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
I have met heartbreaking.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Stories of Israeli hostage families, including John and Rachel poland
And who lost their son Hirsh and I condemned unequivocally
the October seventh terrorist attacks. But what they want to
say not because of me, because really they're fearful of
this is no American politician should go to Palestine in
(08:05):
the West Bank and get the Palestinian perspective. That they
should all come through Israel, that they should all come
through the advocacy groups and my cardinal sin while they're
calling it a stunt, as.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I refuse to do that.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
And this is why for seventy five years, the American
people haven't had the facts because when our videos come out,
and I appreciate that this has been about Americans and me,
but the real story I want to come out is
the daily life of Palestinians. And I hope the platform
I have and the attention this trip has garnered will
allow people to watch some of these videos. They are
(08:37):
going to be horrified. It is clear apartheid. I used
to toss that word around academically.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I felt it. I saw it.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
I saw Palestinians who don't have enough water to flush
their toilets or wash their clothes, while Israeli settlers are
getting four times the water. I met the father of
someone who had lost a fourteen year old son Palestinian American,
who admits that the Palastine American kid was throwing rocks,
but the idea of soldiers shot him twenty one times.
(09:06):
And you know what, his bedroom is still left the
same way because the parents are grieving and there's no justice.
He can't get any justice for his son. I saw
the school shooting. I saw the blood of a kid
who was murdered, and talked to the principal that was
never asked about what happened that day. Doesn't know whether
the shooter is going to face justice. I saw Palestinian homes.
(09:29):
The people were multimillionaires. You know, someone saying, oh, ro
you were in a village with multimillionaires. Yeah, they're Palestinian
Americans were multimillionaires who when they get to Palestine are
treated as Palestinians and dirt. Whose houses are being vandalized,
who are being beaten up or telling me the stories
of being beaten in checkpoints. This is not politics, this
is humanity.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Congressman, did anybody from the US government say anything on
your behalf, the ambassador, the President, the Vice print, Did
anybody do anything to help you after your illegal detention?
Speaker 6 (10:03):
You know, I want to again recognize David Brownston, who's
a career person at the embassy, and I'm not sure
that we would have made it out if it were
not for his courage and his follow up. I mean,
he was on the phone with us and on the
phone with the Israeli government pushing for the police to come,
and he was gracious to check in with us afterwards.
(10:23):
But while I've had colleagues from both sides of the
isle in the House reach out to me and other
elected officials, I have not heard anything from the administration.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
And it shouldn't be just about me.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
There were four Americans on that bus. Now this happens
to Palestinians in a much bigger way all the time.
But there are four Americans on the bus. There's an
American government official. We're being illegally detained and threatened, the
foreign government's militaries involved, and we're just going to stand
(10:53):
quiet while the prime minister of that country is lying
about any accountability, I mean to everyone with an American passport.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Congressman, I really appreciate you highlighting the stories of the
Palestinians that you met, and we look forward to seeing
the videos that you put out about their experiences and
the oppression they experience. You also mentioned to The New
York Times how much you felt that your brown skin
impacted your treatment there, and I assume when you said
that you could feel the apartheid yourself, that's part of
(11:23):
what you're referring to. Could you just elaborate on that
and what that experience was like for you.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I've never felt my race as acutely. You know.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
I was born in nineteen seventy six. I grew up
in Pennsylvania. Was there a time that someone said, hey,
go back to India on a basketball court? Sure, but
by and large in this country, while I'm aware of,
of course, our history of race, I personally haven't felt that.
As soon as I got into the West Bank.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I started to feel it the first.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Time when I was on the Israeli occupied side of Hebron,
and I was there with one of my aides, a
young guy, Cam Caski, white Jewish American Ben Linder. A
friend was also Jewish and in Israeli a Nadav, a
white Israeli And there were the four of us and
we were walking and suddenly the guards come up and
(12:12):
they don't say anything to the other three people, but
they single me out and they say, are you the
son of Isaac or the son of Ishmael? Meaning am
I a Christian or a Muslim? And I say I'm
a Hindu. And they have no idea what that is.
And I could tell that they were so troubled that
this person, brown person was in this delegation, even though
(12:32):
I was in a suit and addressed as I usually
dressed as a member of Congress, and every checkpoint we
were going through, suddenly the security guard would spend more
time talking to me. And the look in those settler's eyes,
the laughter that they had, the disdain they had, I
don't think they could believe someone like me was in Congress,
(12:56):
or perhaps even American.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Look.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
I don't want to make this about me, because the
indignities that the Palestinians face are hundreds of times worse.
But what I will say is that it is apartheid,
and it's apart tid through a racialized lens, and that
if you are brown in Palestine you are going to
face that kind of racism in their first day.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
There last question for you, sir, I know you have
to go in a minute. We can put the quote
up here. You did describe yourself here to the New
York Times as a long shot presidential candidate. So do
you want to make any news here with your intentions.
It's not very often you hear a politician describe themselves
that way.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Well, I think I should have said potential, But you know,
here was my point. I want everyone who aspires to
run to lead this party, to lead our country to
actually go and see the facts on the ground and
what Israel. Why is Israel being so vehement in taking
(14:01):
me on, Why are they having DFMI in all releasing videos?
They want to discourage other politicians from doing this. And
the point I was really trying to make is free
advice to the Israelis. It's not going to work to
be detaining American politicians, and it's not going to work
if they try to tighten up their policies and prevent
(14:21):
others from taking the trips that I did. The only
reason this situation has continued for seventy five years is
because Americans haven't gotten the look on the ground that
I did. I feel like I didn't know what was
really going on until I got there, and I feel
guilty for having been to Israel a few times and
not done that. And I hope in this point that
(14:45):
my evolution on this issue should give others a sense.
I did not start out as an activist on this issue.
I didn't have the clarity that Crystal had on genocide
right away. We've had arguments on this show where it
took me a while to take get there. But when
I saw this firsthand. These are stories I will never forget,
(15:06):
and I just wish more Americans would go there on
the ground and see this or listen to the voices
that some of the journalists are trying to uplift. And
if they did, they would see the gross injustice of
what's going on.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, well, I think you're right that that's exactly what
they're afraid of. That's why I no international journals are
allowed in Gaza. That's why there's all this social media
crackdown and criminalization of descent here in the US, because
when people truly absorb what is happening in the humanity
of Palestinians completely changes the way that they are viewing
(15:39):
the world. So convers from Rocannor thank you so much,
first money some time with us this morning, and for
taking this trip and taking the risk that was involved
with it.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thank you, sir, app share your.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Time, thank you, appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So, in a significant escalation in his war against the media,
that Trump dooj has subpoenaed a number of New York
Times journalists. Let's go ahead and put this tear sheet
up on the screen. Times journalist subpoena as Trump escalates
pressure on media. The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday
to several journalists for The New York Times after the
news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President
(16:12):
Trump's new Katari donated air Force one.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
The subpoenas, which seek to.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury
in Manhattan on Wednesday, were an extraordinary escalation in Trump's
efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations. In some cases,
those subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up
at reporters' homes. The Times denounced the administration's actions, quote,
the appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep
(16:38):
of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American
who believes and the Constitution and the press freedom that
it protects. Our journalists report the facts in advanced American
public's right to know how their government is operating and
their taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Are being used.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
This brazen actually be seen as nothing more than an
attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening
in their country by intimidating journalists and from doing their jobs.
They go on to say that there weren't a lot
of details in terms of what the subpoenas contained, but
they were in regard to an alleged violation of federal
criminal law. And we do know that this tracks back
(17:15):
to this report on the fact that Trump had to
depart Turkey on the old Air Force One rather than
the new Katari Air Force One out of some unspecified
security concerns. It appears that this may be related to
the Israeli claims that Iran was planning some sort of
assassination attempt on Trump. I guess the idea being that
(17:37):
they were going to try to assassinate him while he
was on route, and they had more capability to avoid
that or detect that on the old Air Force One
versus the new one. But needless to say, the specter
of federal agents turning up at journalists homes New York
Times journalists homes for reporting reality about what was going
on here is a very very troubling situation.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
That's scary. I mean, prepared as well, lockdown mode.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Everybody should use it, highly recommend But yeah, I mean,
what you can what's crazy about this? It is all
just about this Air Force One situation is that Trump
is humiliated and embarrassed because he hyped up this Qatar
what was it, the Boeing seven thirty seven, which was
gifted by Katar, gifted which they then had to I apologize, Yes,
(18:27):
seven forty seven eight, which was gifted by Katar, which
then I believe we spent several billion dollars retrofitting said
jet to meet Air Force one requirements. Because air Force one,
I mean, some of this is like cinema, but it
genuinely does have Oh it can survive a nuclear blast,
it can do this, it can do that. And that's
(18:48):
what's crazy expensive. It's all highly classified and all of that.
I actually saw Air Force one a couple of times
and there is like, you know, all this stuff that's
around it.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So what it means, though, is that this had to
be retrofitted because it wasn't built to specification. Well recently,
what happened is that this Israeli intelligence was given to
the United States, and I guess Secret Service US you
have to take that all very seriously. And so what
they did is they looked because Trump was abroad on
(19:19):
the Qatari Air Force one, and he said, oh, the
Secret Service apparently told him, you can't use it. You're
not allowed to use this because it doesn't have whatever
the anti missile defense system that you properly need in
order to fly on it. So they actually had to
bring the old Air Force one over to Europe and
Trump had to use that to fly to his next leg.
What you'll notice is, as a frequent reader of Trump's
(19:42):
truth social is that he had justified it basically saying
he was going to use it as a museum piece.
He's like, well, we're bringing it so that people can
see it as part of the museum. Maybe that's a
whole kakamami story. But it turns out that it's all
about this now. According to more recent reporting from Maggie
Haberman and other that was just released after these subpoenas
were released, is Trump was humiliated and embarrassed by the
(20:05):
revelation that it's about his personal project. Air Force one
was not up to snuff as Air Force one, and
so he has then ordered Cash Patel, let's put E
two up here on the screen. Cash Patel has now
been directed by the White House to oversee this investigation,
so much so that the investigation is not being led
(20:26):
out of the FBI building, but from the white House itself.
Trump Cash was mister Patel scuttled a planned trip to
Chicago and spent roughly eight hours at the White House
on Friday. Apparently he was on the tarmac even Cash
it was actually working.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, well, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I don't know if it's working on his plane to
whether it was to go see his girlfriend perform or something.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Quote running the investigation from the White House rather than
FBI headquarters quote a departure from his historical practice. Patel
had then briefed multiple administration officials the white House's deep
involvement comes from Trump was enraged about the coverage of
the Katari donated plane. Patol's role in the investigation quote
(21:14):
reflects a further dismantling of the wall that had previously
separated the White House and FBI, and the government's effort
to immediately seek information from journalists when such cases are
typically centered first on identifying internal wrongdoing, comes as the
Trump administration has intensified pressure on news organizations.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So that's what this entire stupid thing was about.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
We wish that we could say it was all a
very about something actually important.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
You know, it's not so imagine all this.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Is interesting the things that actually get under Trump's.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Because think think about that, how much classified information has
been reported by Ryan on this show, by the New
York Times about Iran.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They don't do anything. Nobody's knocking anybody's out.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
And you maybe I'm not saying you should, but you
could make a call for that whenever, like for munition's inventories,
whenever it would report about the amount of munition.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I could see. I'm not saying you justify it.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It would probably be popular in another day and age,
like if the war was popular, like yeah, he's helping
the enemy or something like that.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They don't bust anybody's door down for that. It's some
stupid shit about this Katari jet. Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry,
who cares? Yeah, nobody think.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
By the way, if you hadn't brought attention to it,
nobody would have cared at all.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
But now now it's the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
You're going to bust a guy's doordown and try to
break the First Amendment because of your jet doesn't isn't
up to snuff.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
It's crazy, yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And so apparently the situation with this original article is,
and this is very common when you're reporting anything with
regard to national security. There's this whole dance where if
they can persuade a news outlet that it genuinely would
compromise national security to put publish this information, then they won't.
And so there's this, you know, dance that goes on
where the administration tries to persuade the journals like no, no, no,
(22:49):
you really can't put this out because here's the problem
that is going to cause. And so apparently a senior
official at the FBI had contacted a reporter and a
senior editor at the Times. They had asked that the
article be held, calling it an issue of national security.
The Times was like, no, I don't think that it is,
so we're going to go forward and publish. And then
you know, after that, they also asked the Times to
(23:11):
disclose their sources for the article, which obviously the Times
is not going to do, and the newspaper refused to
do so. So then now we have these subpoenas where
you're trying to intimidate journalists. I mean, you know, you
imagine a federal agent shows up at your house, starves you.
A subpoena you got to go testify before this grand jury.
That's the idea here. It's not the first time that
they've used this tactic, by the way, They're not the
(23:32):
only administration that has done this sort of thing either,
but they have done it more frequently than past administrations
have done. Earlier this year, they had tried to compel
testimony from journalists at the Washington Post. You remember that
one same thing, they showed up at our door. They
seized I think her laptop and some other information from
her house, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
The Justice Department then withdrew those subpoenas after both news
(23:55):
organizations fought back and sealed filings. So we'll see where
this one goes if these journalists actually end up having
to testify. But not a good situation and also very
revealing about what sorts of things get under Trump's skin.
I do want to quickly bring up and we should
probably spend another day, some more significant time on this.
But they're also targeting Sean Fain, who's the president of
(24:17):
the United Auto Workers. You can put E five up
on the screen. This is Sean Fain's statement saying you
know that he's remained silent on political infighting in his
union over the past two years. It only distracts from
our mission, but people deserve to know the truth. He
says that Rich Boyer, who is a political adversary of
(24:38):
Sean Fain's within the Union, has fed the Federal Monitor
false allegations and is now trying to weaponize these bogus
allegations to steal the upcoming UAW election. He knows he
can't win a fair fight because he has no real
platform to run on the TLDR here because the Trump
DOJ is also investigating Sean Faine, put the sixth up
(25:00):
on the screen. This is some details from local news
about the DOJ probing Sean Fain assessing legal options. Faine
is assessing legal options after the DOJ investigation was launched.
The TLDR here according to Sean Fain is that this
other guy who is challenging him for UAW president was
(25:21):
very unhappy about the fact that the Union came forward
and took a stance against the genocide in Gaza, and
Sean Fain has been the labor leader who has been
most outspoken about the genocide and Gaza. In fact, I
can't really think of another labor leader who's said anything
about it. So he's really been quite unique in that regard.
There was a process through the board to issue a statement,
(25:42):
and so they've been quite clear cut. They've endorsed anti
genocide candidates like Abdellahl Sayad in Michigan for example, and
so this guy, Rich Boyer is running against him, was really.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Pissed off about that. They are also outther.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Why was you mad?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I know, yeah, apparently it was pro Israel, and so
he was upset that they had taken a stance on
the issue. And so separately, UAW is under one of
these consent decrees. They have to be monitored from some
prior some corruption that happened before Sean Faine's tenure. So
they have to always be interacting with this federal monitors
(26:17):
always checking, you know, making sure that they are incorrupt
dealings going on. So his rival within the union fed
the monitor these allegations that Sean Fayne's claimed. But in
any case, he's being targeted and investigated and courting to him,
it's based on his you know, his outspoken advocacy for Palestine.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, it's well, that's according to Faine. I don't know,
I mean, this is all internal uada. I'm not saying
it's justified or whatever. But obviously Sean Fain is going
to be a target of Trump because he endorsed Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
He was probably I would say, the biggest left leader
to back Biden.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I can't really think of another person.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I mean, you could say Bernie and AOC, but like
he went to the mat for Joe Biden.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Well it's interesting though, because I don't know if you recall,
during the whole Tariff Liberation Day thing, Sean Fayn came out,
yeah he's know this, which was you know, I mean
I disagreed with him, but he was looking out for
I think this will benefit auto industry and we need
to you know, we need to not just throw tariffs
out entirely.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
There was a lot of we talked about it at.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
The time, a lot of neoliberal like this is why
tariffs are just bad, period, end of story, which I
also profoundly disagree with. So in some ways, it's not
like he's been a hardline Trump derangement syndrome. Anything Trump
does is bad. But obviously this administration has targeted any outspoken,
you know, supporters of Palestine opponents of the genocide in Gaza,
(27:34):
and so that appears to be according again to Sean Faine,
that appears to be what's.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Going It could be here.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I seem to think, I feel like there's something bigger
at play. It could be that this whoever guy is
made a deal with Trump. That makes a lot more
sense is that whoever his internal opponent is made a
deal about up and.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Was like, look, we can use this as you.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Know, they could get away in the Teamsters exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, you go to the Dreamsters at the very I
find it hard to believe, you know, this current age
because you know, as popular as Trump was with some
of the UAW members and we won a decent portion
of the actual membership vote this time around. I mean,
I can't imagine that being massively pro Trump is like
going to be all that popular, yeah, or even within.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
The team Shirts.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I mean, Sean O'Brien he made a huge bet, you know,
that he could extract some stuff from Trump.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I don't think it's been all that successful. It had
a chance.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I mean, I'll defend his ability to do so, but
it had a chance.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
But at this point it hasn't really worked out.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It made some more tactical sense when Sean O'Brien did it.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, exactly, But Trump was going to get.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Way one right, You're like, Okay, I'll be close to
him and maybe I can get a little something and
the teamsters can be protected, which again hasn't really happened
in terms of Trump's been terrible for labor, terrible for
the economy in general.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
And his labor sack left. I mean, we hadn't. We
didn't spend enough time covering because I think that happened
during Iran.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
But his labor secretary, she was pushed down because of
corruption and also her husband was apparently like running around
the Department of Labor like harassing, sexually asking women, so
allegedly alleged they got pushed down.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
But yeah, it has not been a pro labor administration
in any way, which of course was predictable. But yeah,
at this point, if you're a labor leader coming in
when Trump is dismally unpopular, losing support among every you know,
certainly working class demographic, to then be at this time
like let me cozy up to Trump wouldn't make a
lot of sense, but it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it.
We're about to do AMA, and we'll see you all
tomorrow
Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election,
and we are so excited about what that means for
the future of the show.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
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So if that is something that's important to you, please
go to Breakingpoints dot com. Become a member today and
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Speaker 3 (00:25):
We need your help to build the future of independent
news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints
dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Joining us now is Congressman Rokhana, who is just back
from his trip to the occupied West Bank where he
was detained by illegal settlers and then by the IDF.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Great to see you, sir, Good to see you, sir.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Thank you thanks for having.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Me back on Yeah, of course. So let's just start
with what happened here.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I can put these images and videos that you shared
on Twitter up on the screen and just tell us
what we're seeing and what happened to here.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
We were at Zanuda Village.
Speaker 6 (01:00):
It's a village that was destroyed by Ynan Levy and
his group extremist settlers. And we were looking at an
elementary school that had been raised to the ground. Other
members of Congress actually had been to that exact site.
And when we were there, these violent settlers start.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
To yell at us, curse.
Speaker 6 (01:23):
Us, they tell me, and the other Americans and some
of the Palestines with us get into our van. We
get into our van and we see twenty one twenty
two year olds brandishing m force kicking our tires, wiping
our windows, taking video of us. This lasts about twenty
twenty five minutes. Our interpreter goes out, speaks to them,
(01:45):
and they say, we don't care that they're Americans, we
don't care that there's a member of Congress. Now, the
IDF comes about twenty minutes into it, and I said, okay,
finally we're going to get through because they had blocked
our van from exiting the area on the road entrance,
and the IDF shockingly sides with the settlers. Now, at
(02:07):
first this was just my account, the security guard's account,
the New York Times photographer's account. It turns out this morning,
to break some news, there's actually body cameras of one
of the people in video one minute and fifteen minutes
video that just came out on Acts, which shows that
these IDF officers were siding with the settlers and further
(02:29):
blocked us in, and we were there seventy five minutes.
We had to call David Brownstein, who's the number two
or three person career person at the American embassy, who
reached someone senior in the Israeli government, and finally the
police came, and then the settlers left and the IDF left.
But it was a very tense situation. If we were
(02:50):
a Palestinian, I believe there would have been damage herrets
the Israeli papers as I got the VIP detention that
if we were Palestinian, it probably would have been beaten
or even killed.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
But it just was awful.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
And the fact that there is not international outrage that
Americans were detained, and that there's no investigation, no consequence,
it's just shocking. The Prime Minister's an ambassador were on
TV yesterday is lying.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
But the Prime Minister of Israel, Prejident Netnyahu, was asked
about this your specific situation yesterday, he defended Israeli's conduct
let's take a listen.
Speaker 7 (03:25):
Yeah, we're a country of laws, and people who break
the law, we take them to court. In the West Bank,
in Judean Siberia, we've had thousands, thousands of attempted attacks
and warnings against terrorist activities against innocent Israeli's families. Mother
where their children driving along the road, they're stopped by
(03:48):
terrorists and they killed them. And this has happened again
and again and again. There is a vigilante effort, not
by the settler community. They're ninety nine point nine percent
law abiding citizens. They work, they serve in the army,
and so on. There are one hundred and fifty juvenile
delinquents that are not part of that community. They come
(04:10):
from the other parts of Israel. We are I don't
want vigilantes of any kind, and we are working to
put them under the law. But I think if we
put things in perspective, we should see that we have
thousands of attacks and some few but obvious breaking of
the law. Then we apply the full measure of the
law against them.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
A few bad apples, Congressmen, But he's saying, ultimately, their
nation of laws, how does it comport with your experience?
Speaker 4 (04:39):
It's just a total untruth.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
First of all, is he committed to arresting these extremest
settlers because their pictures are on social media. They are
affiliated with Janon Levy, who is not a delinquid youth.
Janon Levy murdered a Palestinian caught on camera in actually
met with Ottawa the Palestine, and he murdered his brother.
(05:04):
Khalil I saw the spot where Janan Levy murdered his brother.
I saw and heard the story of Ottawa's children, and
Khalil said that he has to see Janan Levy one
hundred two hundred feet and an illegal outpost, still a
free man, even though he murdered his brother. In that
(05:25):
same group of Junan Levy are the people who are
affiliated with the detaining US, detaining Americans in any other
if any other nation did this, the first response would
be for the American President, American investador to demand the
arrest of these settlers who did this and demand an
investigation for why the Israeli military four of those soldiers
(05:49):
assided with these settlers, So you know, the Prime mister
can call them juvenile delinquents.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
They're not.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Obviously, they're connected to Janon Levey but he hasn't even
arrested them. Where are the arrests, Where is the investigation
into the IDF soldiers.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Some people are also saying that you wanted this to
happen to draw attention to yourself and to try to
create some political gain. Respond to that and also talk
about what was the reason that you decided to make
this trip and what impact did it have on you,
separate apart from this detention, which I'm sure was genuinely
a terrifying situation.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Well, those conspiracy theorists are as absurd as the people
who say that President Trump wanted to get shot at
it a butler, I mean, who wants to have people
with enforced surrounding them parked outside a van, threatening them,
cursing at them, and then being detained for seventy five minutes. Obviously,
(06:46):
you know it was pales and compareson to what Palestinians
go through. But it's the most unsafe I felt in
my entire life, and the most powerless I felt in
my entire life. And the fact of this is that
what makes it inconvenient for the Israelis is that a
New York Times photographer was there, and people who speak
Hebrew It Israeli security guard was there, and there were
(07:10):
both Israelis and Palestinians. So there were about ten eyewitness
accounts of what took place. Now here's what bothers them.
Here's what they're calling a stunt. What bothers them is
that I went to Palestine to get the Palestinian perspective
in a Palestinian led tour, and that I didn't do
the obligatory visits to the Israeli government and to Israel.
(07:33):
I have been to Israel three times, I've done the
obligatory visits, the curated tours. I met with the two
Israeli prime ministers, including Prime Minister net Nyahu.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
I have met heartbreaking.
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Stories of Israeli hostage families, including John and Rachel poland
And who lost their son Hirsh and I condemned unequivocally
the October seventh terrorist attacks. But what they want to
say not because of me, because really they're fearful of
this is no American politician should go to Palestine in
(08:05):
the West Bank and get the Palestinian perspective. That they
should all come through Israel, that they should all come
through the advocacy groups and my cardinal sin while they're
calling it a stunt, as.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I refuse to do that.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
And this is why for seventy five years, the American
people haven't had the facts because when our videos come out,
and I appreciate that this has been about Americans and me,
but the real story I want to come out is
the daily life of Palestinians. And I hope the platform
I have and the attention this trip has garnered will
allow people to watch some of these videos. They are
(08:37):
going to be horrified. It is clear apartheid. I used
to toss that word around academically.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I felt it. I saw it.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
I saw Palestinians who don't have enough water to flush
their toilets or wash their clothes, while Israeli settlers are
getting four times the water. I met the father of
someone who had lost a fourteen year old son Palestinian American,
who admits that the Palastine American kid was throwing rocks,
but the idea of soldiers shot him twenty one times.
(09:06):
And you know what, his bedroom is still left the
same way because the parents are grieving and there's no justice.
He can't get any justice for his son. I saw
the school shooting. I saw the blood of a kid
who was murdered, and talked to the principal that was
never asked about what happened that day. Doesn't know whether
the shooter is going to face justice. I saw Palestinian homes.
(09:29):
The people were multimillionaires. You know, someone saying, oh, ro
you were in a village with multimillionaires. Yeah, they're Palestinian
Americans were multimillionaires who when they get to Palestine are
treated as Palestinians and dirt. Whose houses are being vandalized,
who are being beaten up or telling me the stories
of being beaten in checkpoints. This is not politics, this
is humanity.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Congressman, did anybody from the US government say anything on
your behalf, the ambassador, the President, the Vice print, Did
anybody do anything to help you after your illegal detention?
Speaker 6 (10:03):
You know, I want to again recognize David Brownston, who's
a career person at the embassy, and I'm not sure
that we would have made it out if it were
not for his courage and his follow up. I mean,
he was on the phone with us and on the
phone with the Israeli government pushing for the police to come,
and he was gracious to check in with us afterwards.
(10:23):
But while I've had colleagues from both sides of the
isle in the House reach out to me and other
elected officials, I have not heard anything from the administration.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
And it shouldn't be just about me.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
There were four Americans on that bus. Now this happens
to Palestinians in a much bigger way all the time.
But there are four Americans on the bus. There's an
American government official. We're being illegally detained and threatened, the
foreign government's militaries involved, and we're just going to stand
(10:53):
quiet while the prime minister of that country is lying
about any accountability, I mean to everyone with an American passport.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Congressman, I really appreciate you highlighting the stories of the
Palestinians that you met, and we look forward to seeing
the videos that you put out about their experiences and
the oppression they experience. You also mentioned to The New
York Times how much you felt that your brown skin
impacted your treatment there, and I assume when you said
that you could feel the apartheid yourself, that's part of
(11:23):
what you're referring to. Could you just elaborate on that
and what that experience was like for you.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I've never felt my race as acutely. You know.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
I was born in nineteen seventy six. I grew up
in Pennsylvania. Was there a time that someone said, hey,
go back to India on a basketball court? Sure, but
by and large in this country, while I'm aware of,
of course, our history of race, I personally haven't felt that.
As soon as I got into the West Bank.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I started to feel it the first.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
Time when I was on the Israeli occupied side of Hebron,
and I was there with one of my aides, a
young guy, Cam Caski, white Jewish American Ben Linder. A
friend was also Jewish and in Israeli a Nadav, a
white Israeli And there were the four of us and
we were walking and suddenly the guards come up and
(12:12):
they don't say anything to the other three people, but
they single me out and they say, are you the
son of Isaac or the son of Ishmael? Meaning am
I a Christian or a Muslim? And I say I'm
a Hindu. And they have no idea what that is.
And I could tell that they were so troubled that
this person, brown person was in this delegation, even though
(12:32):
I was in a suit and addressed as I usually
dressed as a member of Congress, and every checkpoint we
were going through, suddenly the security guard would spend more
time talking to me. And the look in those settler's eyes,
the laughter that they had, the disdain they had, I
don't think they could believe someone like me was in Congress,
(12:56):
or perhaps even American.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Look.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
I don't want to make this about me, because the
indignities that the Palestinians face are hundreds of times worse.
But what I will say is that it is apartheid,
and it's apart tid through a racialized lens, and that
if you are brown in Palestine you are going to
face that kind of racism in their first day.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
There last question for you, sir, I know you have
to go in a minute. We can put the quote
up here. You did describe yourself here to the New
York Times as a long shot presidential candidate. So do
you want to make any news here with your intentions.
It's not very often you hear a politician describe themselves
that way.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Well, I think I should have said potential, But you know,
here was my point. I want everyone who aspires to
run to lead this party, to lead our country to
actually go and see the facts on the ground and
what Israel. Why is Israel being so vehement in taking
(14:01):
me on, Why are they having DFMI in all releasing videos?
They want to discourage other politicians from doing this. And
the point I was really trying to make is free
advice to the Israelis. It's not going to work to
be detaining American politicians, and it's not going to work
if they try to tighten up their policies and prevent
(14:21):
others from taking the trips that I did. The only
reason this situation has continued for seventy five years is
because Americans haven't gotten the look on the ground that
I did. I feel like I didn't know what was
really going on until I got there, and I feel
guilty for having been to Israel a few times and
not done that. And I hope in this point that
(14:45):
my evolution on this issue should give others a sense.
I did not start out as an activist on this issue.
I didn't have the clarity that Crystal had on genocide
right away. We've had arguments on this show where it
took me a while to take get there. But when
I saw this firsthand. These are stories I will never forget,
(15:06):
and I just wish more Americans would go there on
the ground and see this or listen to the voices
that some of the journalists are trying to uplift. And
if they did, they would see the gross injustice of
what's going on.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, well, I think you're right that that's exactly what
they're afraid of. That's why I no international journals are
allowed in Gaza. That's why there's all this social media
crackdown and criminalization of descent here in the US, because
when people truly absorb what is happening in the humanity
of Palestinians completely changes the way that they are viewing
(15:39):
the world. So convers from Rocannor thank you so much,
first money some time with us this morning, and for
taking this trip and taking the risk that was involved
with it.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thank you, sir, app share your.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Time, thank you, appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So, in a significant escalation in his war against the media,
that Trump dooj has subpoenaed a number of New York
Times journalists. Let's go ahead and put this tear sheet
up on the screen. Times journalist subpoena as Trump escalates
pressure on media. The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday
to several journalists for The New York Times after the
news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President
(16:12):
Trump's new Katari donated air Force one.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
The subpoenas, which seek to.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury
in Manhattan on Wednesday, were an extraordinary escalation in Trump's
efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations. In some cases,
those subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up
at reporters' homes. The Times denounced the administration's actions, quote,
the appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep
(16:38):
of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American
who believes and the Constitution and the press freedom that
it protects. Our journalists report the facts in advanced American
public's right to know how their government is operating and
their taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Are being used.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
This brazen actually be seen as nothing more than an
attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening
in their country by intimidating journalists and from doing their jobs.
They go on to say that there weren't a lot
of details in terms of what the subpoenas contained, but
they were in regard to an alleged violation of federal
criminal law. And we do know that this tracks back
(17:15):
to this report on the fact that Trump had to
depart Turkey on the old Air Force One rather than
the new Katari Air Force One out of some unspecified
security concerns. It appears that this may be related to
the Israeli claims that Iran was planning some sort of
assassination attempt on Trump. I guess the idea being that
(17:37):
they were going to try to assassinate him while he
was on route, and they had more capability to avoid
that or detect that on the old Air Force One
versus the new one. But needless to say, the specter
of federal agents turning up at journalists homes New York
Times journalists homes for reporting reality about what was going
on here is a very very troubling situation.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
That's scary. I mean, prepared as well, lockdown mode.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Everybody should use it, highly recommend But yeah, I mean,
what you can what's crazy about this? It is all
just about this Air Force One situation is that Trump
is humiliated and embarrassed because he hyped up this Qatar
what was it, the Boeing seven thirty seven, which was
gifted by Katar, gifted which they then had to I apologize, Yes,
(18:27):
seven forty seven eight, which was gifted by Katar, which
then I believe we spent several billion dollars retrofitting said
jet to meet Air Force one requirements. Because air Force one,
I mean, some of this is like cinema, but it
genuinely does have Oh it can survive a nuclear blast,
it can do this, it can do that. And that's
(18:48):
what's crazy expensive. It's all highly classified and all of that.
I actually saw Air Force one a couple of times
and there is like, you know, all this stuff that's
around it.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So what it means, though, is that this had to
be retrofitted because it wasn't built to specification. Well recently,
what happened is that this Israeli intelligence was given to
the United States, and I guess Secret Service US you
have to take that all very seriously. And so what
they did is they looked because Trump was abroad on
(19:19):
the Qatari Air Force one, and he said, oh, the
Secret Service apparently told him, you can't use it. You're
not allowed to use this because it doesn't have whatever
the anti missile defense system that you properly need in
order to fly on it. So they actually had to
bring the old Air Force one over to Europe and
Trump had to use that to fly to his next leg.
What you'll notice is, as a frequent reader of Trump's
(19:42):
truth social is that he had justified it basically saying
he was going to use it as a museum piece.
He's like, well, we're bringing it so that people can
see it as part of the museum. Maybe that's a
whole kakamami story. But it turns out that it's all
about this now. According to more recent reporting from Maggie
Haberman and other that was just released after these subpoenas
were released, is Trump was humiliated and embarrassed by the
(20:05):
revelation that it's about his personal project. Air Force one
was not up to snuff as Air Force one, and
so he has then ordered Cash Patel, let's put E
two up here on the screen. Cash Patel has now
been directed by the White House to oversee this investigation,
so much so that the investigation is not being led
(20:26):
out of the FBI building, but from the white House itself.
Trump Cash was mister Patel scuttled a planned trip to
Chicago and spent roughly eight hours at the White House
on Friday. Apparently he was on the tarmac even Cash
it was actually working.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, well, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I don't know if it's working on his plane to
whether it was to go see his girlfriend perform or something.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Quote running the investigation from the White House rather than
FBI headquarters quote a departure from his historical practice. Patel
had then briefed multiple administration officials the white House's deep
involvement comes from Trump was enraged about the coverage of
the Katari donated plane. Patol's role in the investigation quote
(21:14):
reflects a further dismantling of the wall that had previously
separated the White House and FBI, and the government's effort
to immediately seek information from journalists when such cases are
typically centered first on identifying internal wrongdoing, comes as the
Trump administration has intensified pressure on news organizations.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
So that's what this entire stupid thing was about.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
We wish that we could say it was all a
very about something actually important.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
You know, it's not so imagine all this.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Is interesting the things that actually get under Trump's.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Because think think about that, how much classified information has
been reported by Ryan on this show, by the New
York Times about Iran.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They don't do anything. Nobody's knocking anybody's out.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
And you maybe I'm not saying you should, but you
could make a call for that whenever, like for munition's inventories,
whenever it would report about the amount of munition.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I could see. I'm not saying you justify it.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It would probably be popular in another day and age,
like if the war was popular, like yeah, he's helping
the enemy or something like that.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They don't bust anybody's door down for that. It's some
stupid shit about this Katari jet. Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry,
who cares? Yeah, nobody think.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
By the way, if you hadn't brought attention to it,
nobody would have cared at all.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
But now now it's the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
You're going to bust a guy's doordown and try to
break the First Amendment because of your jet doesn't isn't
up to snuff.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
It's crazy, yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And so apparently the situation with this original article is,
and this is very common when you're reporting anything with
regard to national security. There's this whole dance where if
they can persuade a news outlet that it genuinely would
compromise national security to put publish this information, then they won't.
And so there's this, you know, dance that goes on
where the administration tries to persuade the journals like no, no, no,
(22:49):
you really can't put this out because here's the problem
that is going to cause. And so apparently a senior
official at the FBI had contacted a reporter and a
senior editor at the Times. They had asked that the
article be held, calling it an issue of national security.
The Times was like, no, I don't think that it is,
so we're going to go forward and publish. And then
you know, after that, they also asked the Times to
(23:11):
disclose their sources for the article, which obviously the Times
is not going to do, and the newspaper refused to
do so. So then now we have these subpoenas where
you're trying to intimidate journalists. I mean, you know, you
imagine a federal agent shows up at your house, starves you.
A subpoena you got to go testify before this grand jury.
That's the idea here. It's not the first time that
they've used this tactic, by the way, They're not the
(23:32):
only administration that has done this sort of thing either,
but they have done it more frequently than past administrations
have done. Earlier this year, they had tried to compel
testimony from journalists at the Washington Post. You remember that
one same thing, they showed up at our door. They
seized I think her laptop and some other information from
her house, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
The Justice Department then withdrew those subpoenas after both news
(23:55):
organizations fought back and sealed filings. So we'll see where
this one goes if these journalists actually end up having
to testify. But not a good situation and also very
revealing about what sorts of things get under Trump's skin.
I do want to quickly bring up and we should
probably spend another day, some more significant time on this.
But they're also targeting Sean Fain, who's the president of
(24:17):
the United Auto Workers. You can put E five up
on the screen. This is Sean Fain's statement saying you
know that he's remained silent on political infighting in his
union over the past two years. It only distracts from
our mission, but people deserve to know the truth. He
says that Rich Boyer, who is a political adversary of
(24:38):
Sean Fain's within the Union, has fed the Federal Monitor
false allegations and is now trying to weaponize these bogus
allegations to steal the upcoming UAW election. He knows he
can't win a fair fight because he has no real
platform to run on the TLDR here because the Trump
DOJ is also investigating Sean Faine, put the sixth up
(25:00):
on the screen. This is some details from local news
about the DOJ probing Sean Fain assessing legal options. Faine
is assessing legal options after the DOJ investigation was launched.
The TLDR here according to Sean Fain is that this
other guy who is challenging him for UAW president was
(25:21):
very unhappy about the fact that the Union came forward
and took a stance against the genocide in Gaza, and
Sean Fain has been the labor leader who has been
most outspoken about the genocide and Gaza. In fact, I
can't really think of another labor leader who's said anything
about it. So he's really been quite unique in that regard.
There was a process through the board to issue a statement,
(25:42):
and so they've been quite clear cut. They've endorsed anti
genocide candidates like Abdellahl Sayad in Michigan for example, and
so this guy, Rich Boyer is running against him, was really.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Pissed off about that. They are also outther.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Why was you mad?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I know, yeah, apparently it was pro Israel, and so
he was upset that they had taken a stance on
the issue. And so separately, UAW is under one of
these consent decrees. They have to be monitored from some
prior some corruption that happened before Sean Faine's tenure. So
they have to always be interacting with this federal monitors
(26:17):
always checking, you know, making sure that they are incorrupt
dealings going on. So his rival within the union fed
the monitor these allegations that Sean Fayne's claimed. But in
any case, he's being targeted and investigated and courting to him,
it's based on his you know, his outspoken advocacy for Palestine.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, it's well, that's according to Faine. I don't know,
I mean, this is all internal uada. I'm not saying
it's justified or whatever. But obviously Sean Fain is going
to be a target of Trump because he endorsed Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
He was probably I would say, the biggest left leader
to back Biden.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I can't really think of another person.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I mean, you could say Bernie and AOC, but like
he went to the mat for Joe Biden.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Well it's interesting though, because I don't know if you recall,
during the whole Tariff Liberation Day thing, Sean Fayn came out,
yeah he's know this, which was you know, I mean
I disagreed with him, but he was looking out for
I think this will benefit auto industry and we need
to you know, we need to not just throw tariffs
out entirely.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
There was a lot of we talked about it at.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
The time, a lot of neoliberal like this is why
tariffs are just bad, period, end of story, which I
also profoundly disagree with. So in some ways, it's not
like he's been a hardline Trump derangement syndrome. Anything Trump
does is bad. But obviously this administration has targeted any outspoken,
you know, supporters of Palestine opponents of the genocide in Gaza,
(27:34):
and so that appears to be according again to Sean Faine,
that appears to be what's.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Going It could be here.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I seem to think, I feel like there's something bigger
at play. It could be that this whoever guy is
made a deal with Trump. That makes a lot more
sense is that whoever his internal opponent is made a
deal about up and.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Was like, look, we can use this as you.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Know, they could get away in the Teamsters exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, you go to the Dreamsters at the very I
find it hard to believe, you know, this current age
because you know, as popular as Trump was with some
of the UAW members and we won a decent portion
of the actual membership vote this time around. I mean,
I can't imagine that being massively pro Trump is like
going to be all that popular, yeah, or even within.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
The team Shirts.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I mean, Sean O'Brien he made a huge bet, you know,
that he could extract some stuff from Trump.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I don't think it's been all that successful. It had
a chance.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I mean, I'll defend his ability to do so, but
it had a chance.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
But at this point it hasn't really worked out.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It made some more tactical sense when Sean O'Brien did it.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, exactly, But Trump was going to get.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Way one right, You're like, Okay, I'll be close to
him and maybe I can get a little something and
the teamsters can be protected, which again hasn't really happened
in terms of Trump's been terrible for labor, terrible for
the economy in general.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
And his labor sack left. I mean, we hadn't. We
didn't spend enough time covering because I think that happened
during Iran.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
But his labor secretary, she was pushed down because of
corruption and also her husband was apparently like running around
the Department of Labor like harassing, sexually asking women, so
allegedly alleged they got pushed down.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
But yeah, it has not been a pro labor administration
in any way, which of course was predictable. But yeah,
at this point, if you're a labor leader coming in
when Trump is dismally unpopular, losing support among every you know,
certainly working class demographic, to then be at this time
like let me cozy up to Trump wouldn't make a
lot of sense, but it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it.
We're about to do AMA, and we'll see you all
tomorrow
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