Dan Mitchinson: US Correspondent on the man charged with murder after an Israeli embassy couple was fatally shot and Trump's commitment to White South African's,

A man has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after an Israeli embassy couple were shot dead in Washington.

The 30-year-old Chicago man was detained at the scene – the Capital Jewish Museum.

He shouted “free Palestine” after being taken into custody.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And finally, I'm just gonna let this clip speak for itself.
This is from the start of the morning news on
a local TV station in upstate New York yesterday.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
We do have some breaking news this morning. Literally Olivia's
water has broke and she is anchoring the news now
in active labor, early labor, early labor. We've been doing
it to track she's now, you know, timing her contraction.
I'm going to question two minutes apart. No, well, there
was one, but it's been a few minutes since then,

(00:29):
so we're still in good She her decision to stay on.
I'm happy to be here and I'll stay on the
desk for as long as they possibly.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Can tell you what her colleague is trying really hard
to be her doula and up the situation person she
Olivia did stay on air for the rest of the show.
Good on her, and then she went to hospital right
afterwards and she gave birth to a baby boys. So
congratulations to Olivia. International correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance,
Peace of mind for New Zealand Business. Dan Matsimson, US
correspondence with US. Now, Hey, Dan, I.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Would not want to be the anchor that would have
to follow her and sit now chair.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I think this is a very good point that you
actually make. There's lots of towels, lots of towels, lots
of newspaper. Hey, what's the latest on this murder?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, as you mentioned, the Elias Rodriguez was detained. There's
a video that's been making the rounds the last few
hours showing him yelfree Palestine, and a spokesperson for the
Israeli embassy said they're reviewing the security protocol. The Jewish
Federation of North America and dozens and dozens of others
are saying that there has to be more security or

(01:32):
an enhanced security measures. I'm not quite sure what that means,
because this could have very well been just like a
lot of other attacks and shootings that we've had over here,
just a one off thing. We do know that the
guy has not entered a plea yet. He's behind bars
and the next tier and he's scheduled for will happen
in the middle of next month.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
And motivation is simply that the pair were Jewish.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
That appears to be in the sad. I don't want
to use the word hook, but there's always there's always
something that you find out of these stories is the
fact that they were scheduled to be in aged and
you know that's that's, you know, one of those things,
wrong place, wrong time, unfortunately. I mean any place, anytime
would have been bad. But when you hear something like that,
it just kind of goes, oh boy, that was that

(02:12):
was hard.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Dan. Is this big enough news for you guys in
the US to sway opinion on what's happening in the
Middle Middle East?

Speaker 3 (02:21):
No? No, No, I mean I think the Middle East
is one of those those situations that over here, I mean,
we follow. Obviously you're very concerned about it. Obviously makes
news when the president, you know, has a meeting with
somebody over there. But I think it just is is
the news cycle what it is. It just sort of
is a flash in the pan unfortunately. So no, this,

(02:41):
I don't think this will have any sway on anything
over here.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Now, it turns out that some of the stuff that
Trump was using as evidence of the killing of white
farmers in South Africa was in in fact photographs from
the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Right the Reuters pointed this out, and apparently you were
showing the screenshot of the video that was taken there, uh,
and he he falsely presented it as evidence of these
mass killings. And we're finding out, well, the image didn't
quite match this story. It was a YouTube screen grab,
and the White House is not responding uh to a
request for comment right now. But the managing editor of

(03:15):
the American Thinker and the author of the post that
sid question wrote in a reply to Reuters that they
thought that the President had misidentified the image. And he,
you know, he interrupted this meeting that he had with
the President to play this video and he said, you know,
he was showing the evidence of genocide to the wife
farmers over there and the conspiracy theory, and then he

(03:35):
flipped through these copies of articles and you know what's yeah,
I mean, what's what's interesting about this, Heather, is that
this seemed like a very gotcha type moment, which President
Trump has pulled with several other world leaders. And why
he would do this in such a public environment, I
don't know. I think it's unlike anything I can remember
previous presidents in doing. But as we know, he's he's
not like any previous president we've had him. That's why

(03:57):
his followers, I think are sol Oil.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
I've been wondering about that as well, Dan, And the
conclusion that I've come to is that I think he's
just trying to draw world attention to what is going
on in South Africa. I mean, how much of it
has like, how much of the plight of the white
farmer in South Africa has actually registered with an American audience?

Speaker 3 (04:17):
I would say zero.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
So then, so is there any good that comes out
of this in that perhaps there is now a bit
of global attention on what is actually happening there?

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah, there might be. But how long will that global
attention last and what will come of it, you know,
moving forward? Or was it just a quick headline and
by this time tomorrow, I mean, it's over and done with.
But as you mentioned, I think it was when we
talked the other day, or maybe it was last week
when the UK's Prime minister decided to do a phone
call and not meet with the President and they said

(04:48):
it was a timing issue. If I was a world leader,
I'd be very you know, I'd have to be very skeptical,
perhaps making sure that everything's lined up and everything's dotted
and cross before I went in there, because I've seen
so many of these moments in the Trump presidency here
in the first three months or so.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Dan, it's good to talk to you mate. You have
yourself a lovely weekend. Thank you so much, Dan Mitchison,
US correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy, Allen Drive, listen
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