Jonathan Kearsley: US Correspondent on Venezuela, Sabrina Carpenter, and Putin

Grammy award winning popstar Sabrina Carpenter has slammed the White House after using her song 'Juno' in a video of immigration raids. 

She called the video 'evil and disgusting'.

US Correspondent Jonathan Kearsley told Heather du Plessis-Allan, "I think the administration posts these videos, with music from vocal critics of their own campaign and administration, knowing full well the response they're going to get."

Kearsley also chats about the backlash to US strikes on Venezuelan boats, and Witkoff and Putin's unsuccessful meeting in Moscow.

He summed up the meeting saying, "essentially there is no compromise, there is no deal."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jonathan Kursley, US correspondent, Hello Jonathan, Hello, Heather made I'm good.
Have you recovered from your Thanksgiving? Well, I want to
say feast, but it was really it was more than that.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Wasn't it. I think they're still turkey leftovers floating around
the place somewhere. I think I've been eating turkey sandwiches
for about five days now.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
The word and if you didn't like it at the start,
what a crime? Punishment? Listen, tell me what's going on
with the Venezuelan bozies and the pressure on the government?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, turning from foodies to conflict. Yeah. Look, this is
becoming a real issue for the Trump administration. They essentially
have faced a lot of criticism and questions over this
sort of double strike that took place on the first
of the Venezuelan boats back on September two. There had
been allegations put to the Department of War that, at
the request of Pete haiks At, the US had carried

(00:51):
out the first strike on the boat saw survivors, and
carried out a second now killing those survivors. The Defense
Secretary has denied that today. It was his first opportunity
in front of cameras to speak publicly about this, and
essentially he said, look, yes he saw the first strike,
but then he disappeared off for another meeting. Didn't see
the second strike. That was actually overseen by a senior
official at the Pentagon, and he was all perfectly fine

(01:15):
with that. Now there are questions as to whether this
needs further investigation by Congress, whether we need to see
the military officials hauled in before Congress to answer questions
over this, whether the Defense Secretary is going to be
called up to answer questions over this, But both the
President and the Defense Secretary are saying essentially, look, we
need nothing about this second strike on survivors. We weren't there,
we didn't see it. The Defense Secretary going as far

(01:36):
today as to say, you know that this is the
fog of war. And so I think you are likely
to see Democrats continue to ramp up the pressure on
the administration over this issue, and that's no surprise. But
when it comes to Venezuela, well, the President has been
trying to push this line. He's trying to stop drug trafficking.
He's promised said that there would be a ground invasion,
a ground strike coming very soon. Whether or not that

(01:59):
actually happens remains to be seen. Whether this is actually
just a ploy by him to ramp up diplomatic pressure
on Nicholas Maduro, the socialist authoritarian leader inside Venezuela is
probably more likely.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
And listen, what are we hearing from the meeting with
Whipkof and Peerson in Moscow.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, you touched on it briefly there, and that is
essentially there is no compromise. There is no deal. That
is the headline coming out of it. Where we've seen
these pictures of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, president Trump's
son in law, paraded around Moscow essentially like tourists off
to a Michelin starred restaurant and various sites around the
Red Square in Moscow itself, and then they would take
an inside for the meeting that lasted round about five

(02:37):
or six hours. But nothing of significance came of it.
They don't appear to be any close. You heard the
fighting words from Vladimir Putin before the meeting even started,
that this is Europe's fault, that he is ready to
go to war. I mean, this is the language he
has used previously when he finds himself in a tough
position trying to negotiate with the United States. But he's not.

(03:00):
He's not budging his ground whatsoever. And right now, if
you were the US sitting looking at these negotiations, thinking
you've spent months and months of these, you'd have to
start wondering what is it that Vladimir Putin is actually
going to compromise on, if anything, And if he's not
going to compromise, what's the next step?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, well, fair point, fair question there. What's Sabrina Carpenter
not happy about?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Mate, Well, she's not happy about the president. This is
yet another figure from the world of entertainment. Of course,
many of the Swifties across the network would know that
Sabrina was accompanying her and her on a recent eras tour. Now,
Sabrina is not happy about the Trump administration using one
of her songs in a video that was about ice

(03:45):
raids and deporting people. She essentially took to social media
to say, you know that, to stop this. She doesn't
stand by it. She wants them to remove her music
from this. We've seen artists say this to the administration,
and I think the administration posts these videos with music
from vocal critics of their own campaign and administration, knowing

(04:07):
full well the response they're going to get, and they
certainly got a rise out of Saprina Carpetal.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Didn't they. Just Hey, Jonathan, thank you so much. Really
enjoy joy talking to you, and enjoy your turkey sandwich.
Is Jonathan Cursley, US correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy
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