September 26, 2025 • 32 mins
Ukraine is hitting back harder than ever, as its military pushes Russia out of key regions and puts Moscow’s most significant targets in range—all while Russian gas prices skyrocket to a staggering $25 a gallon, deepening Putin’s crisis. At the same time in the U.S., late-night TV is on fire: ABC’s controversial decision to reorder Jimmy Kimmel Live! sparked massive backlash, wiping $4 billion off Disney’s market cap before Kimmel triumphantly returned to air. From Ukraine’s fight for freedom to Disney’s Wall Street disaster and Kimmel’s comeback, this episode dives into the global headlines shaking both the Kremlin and Hollywood.
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Follow Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.
Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us and follow LP on X at @ProjectLincoln. If you'd like to help us continue our critical work, visit https://action.lincolnproject.us/helplp to make a difference.
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Follow Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.
Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us and follow LP on X at @ProjectLincoln. If you'd like to help us continue our critical work, visit https://action.lincolnproject.us/helplp to make a difference.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your attack will not be an ev one.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Your enemy is well trained well. But there is not
a liberal America and is conservative America.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The United States of America.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Good luck, Hey, folks, it's Rick Wilson. Welcome back to
the Elephant in the Room, the show where once a
week we take a little mini podcast look at what's
behind the curtain, what's going on in politics, What's what's
the secret sauce underneath something you've seen as a major event.
And folks, there are two big stories this week that
(00:36):
I could put it in place for this and make
a great Elephant in the Room episode. The first is
the return of Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Moments after we taped our show last night, the Mad
Red Hatter wrote, I can't believe ABC, fake news gave
Jimmy Kimmel his job back. You can't believe they gave
me my job back. I can't believe we gave you
your job.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
At I don't even.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
All those them are. The White House was told by
ABC that his show was canceled, though they weren't. Something
happened between then and now because his audience is gone
and his talent was never there that I can't argue
with shut them up. The freedom of speeches only for me.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I did not.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Interrupt the president. You almost have to beel sorry for him.
He tried his best to cancel me.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Instead he forced millions of people to watch the show
that backfired. Bigley, he might have to release the Epstein
files to distract us from this.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now, with Disney showing some spine, some opposition, some strength,
some character, and the attention to their bottom line, that
would be one of them. We could peel that back.
But I think the bigger one, I think the more
consequential story is that Russia is collapsing. Ukraine has mounted
(02:12):
for the last three years a scrappy, innovative, brilliant, determined
battle against Russia. And there were a lot of reasons
to believe, if you were a Russia fanboy, that Ukraine
would die. Eventually, they would collapse, it would fall apart.
With the elephant in the room is that Russia is collapsing.
(02:39):
This is great news for the world. It's bad news
for China, it's bad news for MAGA, it's bad news
for Donald Trump. Let's get to it. So for months,
for nine months now, we've heard Donald Trump say over
and over again, Zelensky has to give up land. Zelensky
has to make a deal, has to give up the war.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Not in a good position. You don't have the cards
right now with us.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
You start having right now, you're.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Gambling with their lives from millions of people.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
See you're gambling with World War three. You're gambling with
World War three.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Russia will always win. They did the biggest, strongest world
World War two. All the all the talking points you
could see on on on Russian state TV, turn an RT.
You hear the same talking about's come out of the
White House. But right now Russian energy prices have collapsed,
The Russian stock market has collapsed, The energey prices are
(03:40):
collapsing because the Ukrainians can now attack almost anywhere inside
of continental Asia. The range on their drones puts them
within striking distance of almost any Russian energy facility that matters.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Ukraine doesn't have the big fat missiles dictators to show
off in parades, but we do have drone that can
fly up to two three thousand kilometers. We had no
choice but to build them.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
There's some stuff out in the Far East that they
can't hit, but for the most part, where the energy
comes from, where the distribution centers are where the refinery
centers are. Ukraine is knocking them offline, one by one,
by one by one.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
So the Ukrainians have been very strategic. They are now
targeting two kinds of oil facilities inside Russia, the ones
that are exporting oil to other countries. This is where
Russia's money comes from, and then the other depots where
they hold the oil for domestic consumption. And obviously you
could have lines in Russia if those are targeted, that's
(04:44):
political pressure. So financial pressure plus political pressure.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Russia's economy is driven by two giant factors, energy and corruption.
It's a criminal enterprise. The guy's as a country and
Ukrainians have finally reached the point the critical mass where
their drone technology is sufficient to overcome what's left of
(05:09):
Russia's air defense systems, and they're knocking the hell out
of them. Putin can only fire his way through so
many generals in a war that has cost him over
a million lives on his own people, young men Going
to die for the vanity of an old Man is
(05:29):
a story of war that goes back to the ancient
days of civilization. But Putin is losing. He's fronting he's bluffing.
He's saying he's gonna, you know, start you know, using
unconventional weapons. If this continues, all the bullshit, his fingers
(05:50):
on the nuclear trigger. It's a Russian lie as old
as time as there one big bluff. But as Russia collapses,
something else collapses too. As Russia collapses, so does a
fundamental predicate inside of MAGA, and that is that the
future was a Russia, US China division of the world.
(06:14):
We can the western hemisphere of Russia gets Europe, China
gets Asia. That was the That was the Maga like
thought leader idea what the world looked like. There was
also a Maga thought leader idea that we and Russia
were absolutely comparable nations because Maga was leading the fight
(06:38):
for white Christendom and Putin was leading the fight for
white Christendom. Putin is not religious, he is in fact
an atheist. But you know, you do you And Russia
is a corrupt country in every way. It is degenerate
in every way. Divorce, abortion, all the things that MAGA
says they hate or sky high in Russia. But Russia
(07:02):
is collabsent. But they bet big on this. Look at
the reputational damage Trump has sustained I know he cares
about reputation by sticking with Putin all this time. He
did it because they were feeding Trump and feeding trump
Allies false intelligence about the status of this war.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It does seem The one thing that is I think
also positive from Ukraine's point of view, is that President
Trump seems to have accepted that Putin was stringing him
as along. And he said, again almost a direct quote,
he said, I thought I had a good relationship with him,
but that relationship turns out not to count for anything.
That was almost humiliating for him to say that, because
he believed that he could handle Putin, and of course
(07:48):
Putin has handled him, and that recognition that.
Speaker 8 (07:52):
He is penny has finally dropped.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Do you think it's the loudest dropping penny in modern history? Yes,
and I think it has. So his attitude to Putin
in Russia seems to have changed. But being Donald Trump,
we don't know what he will think next month.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
They have been stuck. I mean, when this is over,
it will look more like a a high tech, modern
version of the some in World War One than the
mobility war of World War two or any other modern conflict.
They have been stuck. They get a little territory, they
(08:27):
lose little territory. They get a little, they lose little.
They've outgunned Ukraine from the beginning. They've olt manpowered Ukraine
from the beginning. They had air superiority. They no longer do.
And by the way, I told you a year and a
half ago that we needed to hurry the fuck up
on those F sixteens. The Biden administration made a critical
air Jake Sullivan was wrong to delay a lot of
(08:51):
US weapons going in there, but they got them in
the end. Right now, the Ukrainian F sixteens are absolutely
clearing the deck over Ukraine. They're shooting down cruise missiles
at an enormous rate, shooting down drone, shooting down incoming ballistics.
Speaker 9 (09:09):
Ukraine's eightieth Airborne Assault Brigate storming Russian positions on the
Eastern Front, using US made weapons to try and dislodge
Vladimir Putin's troops, gains that would probably be impossible if
Washington cut military assistance.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Except this soldier, whom.
Speaker 9 (09:28):
We can only name is the Seal, tells me, I
don't know what to say. That would be tough, he says.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
The troops say US.
Speaker 9 (09:37):
Supplied weapons like this Browning heavy machine gun are helping
them turn the tide because they're more accurate, more reliable,
and more robust than what the Russians have.
Speaker 10 (09:49):
And you can see just how important military aid for
Ukraine is for that country to stay in the fight.
It's everything from rifles to surface to air missile systems
to help Ukraine push Sha back.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
And Russia's air force has shot it's it's it's been
very very badly damaged. They're not mounting the same cadence
and they can't and their order of battle in the
in the in the Russian air forces is just destroyed.
It's just wrecked. But it isn't just a war that
(10:22):
Russia is going to be able to muscle it the
way through with human meat waves. Putin has destroyed a
generation of young Russian men. He has killed his country.
He has destroyed his country by doing this. And the
Iranians and the Chinese and the North Koreans who are
in this out alliance with Putin there and then the
(10:45):
humans now are sending their own young men to die there.
But they will die there, they will not win. The
Ukrainians have taught people the value of resilience and courage
and determination and the middle finger to an invasion, to
an authoritarian led genocide. And finally, as Europe decided, you know,
(11:12):
we're not going to sit here and let this happen.
We're not going to just take this. They knew American
leadership had disappeared the minute Biden lost. They knew and
didn't want to. Guys, they fought it too, thing nail,
They hated it. They did not want to. Their natural instinct,
especially the Germans, was always Okay, we can deal with Russia.
(11:35):
Let's not do that. Let's not do that whole nineteen
forties thing again. Their assistance, their help, their ability to
deploy technology in the Ukraine help fill the gap. Now
inside the Pentagon, Eldridge Colby and Pete hag Seth and
a variety of other folks have been overtly pro Russia.
Speaker 11 (11:55):
The bloodshed must stop and this war must end. That
stopping the fighting and reaching an enduring peace is a
top priority. He intends to end this war by diplomacy
and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table, and
(12:17):
the US Department of Defense will help achieve this goal.
We want, like you a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But
we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre
twenty fourteen borders is an unrealistic objective. The United States
(12:38):
does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a
realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. Instead, any security guarantee
must be backed by capable European and non European troops.
We ask each of your countries to step up on
fulfilling the commitments that you've made. Challenge your countries and
(13:01):
your citizens to double down and recommit yourselves not only
to Ukraine's immediate security needs, but to Europe's long term
defense and deterrent skulls. The United States remains committed to
the NATO Alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe
(13:22):
full stop. But the United States will no longer tolerate
an imbalanced relationship which which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship
will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Overtly, they have looked at the list of weapons that
Ukraine wants to buy and said nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
They have said about US systems We're not going to
let you do this, this, and this and strikes inside
of Russia. Well, guess what markets work. And so the
Ukrainians have gone out and either built their own and
by the Ukraine is building what will will eventually be
(14:01):
a defense industry powerhouse in Europe.
Speaker 12 (14:06):
In the past three and a half years of war,
its innovation, namely when it comes to drones that have
been one of the saving graces for the Ukrainian army.
It says that drones now account for seventy percent of
Russia's losses on the front line. This one, a quadrichopter,
can evade Russian jamming systems and drop up to six
kilos of guided explosives. Others, like the deep Joint drones
(14:27):
can travel far. With a reach of over one thousand kilometers,
they can fly deep into Russian territory. Faced with fewer
soldiers and a defense budget of sixty four billion dollars
last year, which is less than half of Russia's, Ukraine
has had to rely on the US and the EU
for weapons, but they've also been boosting their own industry
to be less reliant on changing political views. Our best,
(14:50):
you know, guarantee is not relying on somebody's will to
protect us.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
That's rather our ability to protect ourselves.
Speaker 12 (14:58):
Its own industry now produces nearly sixty percent of its needs,
according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry, manufactured locally. This decrease is
spending in Ukraine's already stretched war budget. For Ukraine's weapon makers,
they say their low production costs and their expertise could
be helpful to European allies. Now that Donald Trump has
said NATO countries should not rely too much on the US,
(15:22):
the industry is seeking to triple its production.
Speaker 13 (15:25):
I'm convinced we should not stop here and further develop
a weapons industry. This is only possible if we enter
international markets on present production designs ready well underway. It
already has a high potential and we have the ability
to produce mott Mahata.
Speaker 12 (15:40):
With concern going up in notch in Europe after Russian
drones were shot down in Polish and Romanian airspace, Ukraine's
weapon industry argues that it can scale up and export,
or in the least increase output to in sure Ukraine
be less vulnerable in the future. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and
a number of other nations have already ocaid plans to
invest one point three billion in rows in Ukraine's army
(16:01):
and defense industry to make it. As result, Underland, said
a steal porcupine.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
God bless you might as look at some out of
this horror, but you're filled up the gaps. And so
now the strikes are happening deep inside Russia. Are they
hitting apartment buildings like Russia does?
Speaker 14 (16:20):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Are they hitting schools, nursing homes. No? Are they hitting
daycare centers and grocery stores. No, they are slowly dismantling
Russia's energy and communications infrastructure. Gas in Russia is now
about the equivalent of twenty five dollars a gallon, and
(16:43):
it's getting worse as they dismantle this. The ability of
Vladimir Putin to use his influence on Donald Trump has faded.
Speaker 8 (16:54):
President Trumps signal support for Ukraine like we've really never
seen it before, Really about face, posting online that Ukraine
is capable of winning back all its land from Russia
and calling Moscow a paper tiger.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And the reason you saw this yesterday is not because
Trump has like had a moment of clarity. Is, oh
my gosh, we were on the wrong side all along.
We should have been backing Ukraine. The reason is because
his own intelligence people are clearly now telling him, Hey,
things are getting bad in Russia. Winter is coming and
(17:30):
there's no gas. Winter is coming, and the natural gas
pipelines are being blown up and disrupted. Winter is coming,
and Vladimir Putin doesn't have an answer for his people.
I read yesterday that they're having trouble bringing harvest him
because of the lack of fuel. Now, China can help
(17:51):
them a lot by you know, hard currency, and they
can try to import food and everything else. But it's
really reaching a tipping point. Putin has always been a
brilliant manipulator and has always had a chip on his
shoulder about the loss of the Soviet Union. He's like
one of the twelve people in the whole world who
regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Ukraine is winning,
(18:15):
in Russia is losing. What happens when Putin goes. He's
not going to be replaced by another Vladimir Putin. He's
not going to be replaced by a guy with Putin's
singular skill in manipulating Donald Trump. I mean, think about
this book. Just six weeks ago, we had Donald Trump
(18:36):
clapping like a trained seal as he welcomed Vladimir Putin
on a red carpet that American soldiers had to get
on their hands and knees and unroll in front of
Vladimir put Putin has embarrassed Trump. He's humiliated him over
and over, and he shamed him over and over again.
And still that wasn't enough. Trump still had whatever's on
those tapes, I don't know if it's a live goat,
(18:57):
a dead girl, whatever it is. Whatever, whatever the hold
is that Putin has on Trump, whether it's on video
or psychological or something else, whether it's actual compromantor or
just a mental manipulation, I don't know what it is.
But that hold has never been broken until now. And
you saw Trump at the UN suddenly flip the script.
(19:18):
He did not do it because he likes Zelenski. He
did not do it because he wants Ukraine to win.
He wants Russia to win. He wants Putin to win.
His people all want Putin to win. Tulsey Gabbert wants
Putin to roll through the fucking streets of Kiev in
the tank and slaughter every one of the Ukrainian leaders.
She is a overtly pro Russia shill at every level.
(19:41):
But the intelligence is obviously percolating up to the White
House now that's obviously cooking through the system. Now is
so bad for Russia that Trump is now fearing that
he will be seen as siding with a loser. And
there's nothing Trump hates more than being a loser, which
he is, but covered that another day, or being associated
(20:04):
with a loser. He has backed Putin's play over and
over and over again. But Ukraine is winning this war.
As I record this, Ukraine has been striking the Russian
fleet Romanian the Black Sea. The anti missile systems are
in Crimea, and then the other Russian ports in the
(20:25):
Black Sea are basically inoperative at this point, so Ukraine
is hitting them with land and sea drones. The idea
that a country without a navy is going to sink
the Russian Black Sea fleet almost in its entirety, should
shock you. But if you've been paying attention to the
courage and the determination, and the craftiness and the smarts
(20:46):
of the Ukrainian people, you would not be surprised.
Speaker 15 (20:50):
Ukraine's naval drones that have truly revolutionized the war at
sea lacking a traditional navy. After twenty fourteen, Key built
one from scratch, not with steel hooles and sailors, but
with silicon chips and remote pilots. We're talking about a
swarm of fast, explosive, packed drone boats that have become
the Black Sea fleet's worst nightmare.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
There are two main stars of the show.
Speaker 15 (21:12):
First, the Sea Baby, Ukraine's earliest drone developed by Ukraine's
security service, the gr the Hur. This is the heavyweight Brawler.
It's a larger drone that can carry a massive eight
hundred and fifty kilogram warhead, powerful enough to cripple the
cash bridge and smash warships in the supposedly safe harbors.
(21:33):
Then you have the Hur, the military intelligence's weapon of choice,
the Magura V five. It's faster, smaller, and more agile,
a sea skimming assassin designed to hunt and kill moving
warships in open water using swarm tactics. These drones have
(21:54):
sent numerous Russian vessels, including the missile corvette Vanovets and
the landing ship Caesar Kunikov, to the bottom of the
Black Sea.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
You know I know somebody from online. No, we don't
know w each other personally. But no, the wrongline for
years and teacher in Ukraine, college professor. And when the
invasion happened, I immediately sent him a signal message. I said,
oh my god, are you okay? Is your family okay?
Are you got to get out? You got to get out,
(22:31):
You gotta get out, because we all thought in the
beginning of this war that Russia would be in Kiev
in a day or two, it would be over. That
he would have done. You know what Putin would have
done a c Chechislovakia sixty eight. He would have done
the same thing. This will be and you did across
eastern Europe after World War two, quick march, boom bang over.
(22:57):
And he waited for a while. I saw the typing thing,
you know, And he said, I'm gonna try to get
my family out the pole and I have little kids.
Get the little kids, and he does, I'm trying to
get my wife out. They can't be without their mother.
He's but I'm staying. He said, what are you gonna do?
(23:19):
And he's a he's younger than me. I think he's
probably in his mid fifties, early fifties. His wife so
much younger. He says, I'm an old man. I don't
know if I'm ready to go fight on the front.
I don't know if i'm you know, if I would
be useful in the front. I can't run, you know,
you know five hundred yard dash anymore? Is better know
what I can do, he says. I'm keeping my students
(23:44):
for as long as they're in my classroom, and for
the rest of the year, we're learning how to make bombs.
And the rest of the year we'll learning how to
make Malotov cocktails. And for the rest of the year,
we're learning how we can how we can go at them.
This is not a guy who's like a burly, macho motherfucker.
He's not like a tough guy. I fought was If
(24:08):
that's even ten percent of Ukraine, Russia's rude. These people
won't stop. They never stopped. This is why I sort
of obsessed about Ukraine as a model against MAGA. What
did they tell you when Trump won? This time, we're
gonna do Project twenty twenty five. You're all gonna shut up.
(24:30):
We're going to destroy you. Our agenda is the only agenda.
You will be crushed. There's little green shoots out there, folks.
Right now I'm not given Disney a ton of credit
because they lost a lot of money. But the reason
they brought camel back wasn't just the money. They also
figured something out Bullies and invaders and tough guys and
bad guys. They rely more on fear and on having
(24:56):
a few key allies to enforce their will than they
do on legitimacy and persuasion and being the kind of
leaders that people want to follow. No one in Ukraine
woke up in the morning and said, man, you know
what we need is Pootin to invade. No One, very
(25:19):
few Americans wake up in the morning and say, you
know what we need is Donald Trump? And Brendan Carter
say who can be on TV? And who can speak?
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Now?
Speaker 14 (25:27):
Listen, you know, if you step back, what's happening here
is you know, I think President Trump is fundamentally reshaping
the media landscape.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
And the way he's doing that is when he ran
for election.
Speaker 14 (25:36):
He ran directly at these legacy broadcast media outlets ABC,
NBCCBS For years, you know, government officials just allowed those
entities with execs sitting in Hollywood in New York to
dictate the political narrative.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
And he has fundamentally changed the.
Speaker 14 (25:53):
Game, and you see that really having consequences that are
just rushing all through media. The thing that was really
important to me and all of this was that the
new owners.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Of CBS came in and said it's time for a change.
Speaker 14 (26:04):
We're going to reoriented towards getting rid of bias, to
looking at fact based reporting. They said they're going to
get rid of in vidious forms of DEI discrimination. At
the end of the day, that's what made the difference
for us in terms of our review at the agency.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, and so again when Anagomez writes, you're imposing never
before seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment and
direct violation to the First Amendment, you say, what, I.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Think, it's time for a change.
Speaker 14 (26:30):
And the procedures that we put in place in this
deal have lots of precedent. For instance, there's been on
Boodsman's put in place by the SEC before. We're putting
a bias on Boodsman in place. Here, we're addressing DEI.
The prior SCC during the Biden years put pro DEI
commitments in different transactions.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
And so we're unwinding that type of approach.
Speaker 14 (26:49):
And we're frankly taking a trust but verify perspective here.
I think this could do go a long way to
restoring America's trust in media. And again, the media itself,
I think is under itself over these last couple of years.
When you look at the stuff that Colbert is doing,
the idea that you know, a partisan carnival makes economic sense.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
These are business decisions at the end of the day.
Speaker 14 (27:09):
And again I think it goes back to President Trump
because this facade of gatekeeper legitimacy that was conferred on
these outletes going away, and we're just seeing a lot
of Domino's ball as a result of that.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
No one in America wakes up in the morning and says,
you know what I want is more White House control
of the economy or white House control of what businesses
get to prosper and which ones get to fail. No
one wakes up that way. No one wakes up and
says Project twenty twenty five is the greatest thing since
prepared Mustard and man, we should really have more government
(27:46):
control over the rights and liberties of every American. From
some guys in DC, I come from the Cole War generation,
the last Coal War generation, came into government in nineteen
eighty eight, Russia was still in play. The cracks were showing, certainly.
(28:08):
By the time I left government in nineteen ninety three,
Russia had fallen. The Soviet Union had collapsed for seventy years.
It looked like an edifice that would never fail, a
system that could never be broken. The inevitable victors for
seventy years, That's what they look like. Because they were immoral,
they were unethical, they were understand There were men who
(28:32):
understood power. But in the end they fall. When Russia
invaded Ukraine, it looked like nothing could stop them. They
were unbelievably masked, rolling in toward Kiev. Nothing could stop them.
(28:55):
You know what could stop them though? You know that
pair dropped the SVR guys, pair dropped into Hostemil airfield.
Nothing could stop them. You know has stop them? Ukrainian kids,
old men and women, young men and women, people who
said no to oppression, no to invasion. They're gonna win
(29:18):
in the end. Putin's gonna fail in the end. And
by the way, the moment Putin fails in Ukraine, he
falls out a window and he knows that by the way,
his survival time is measured in hours after Russia withdraws.
But that lesson of determination, sticking it out, of fighting
to the end of never ever ever, seeding the ground
(29:39):
of freedom is one we should really be thinking about now.
America is going to have a world if we fight
and stand Postmaga, post Trump. There are a lot of
tensions inside MAGA. There are a lot of cracks inside Maga.
Trump is the universe Ladhiza that held to gather this
(30:00):
horrifying coalition of terrifyingly bad people. Well you sought the
un Grandpa ramble pants, do you have to.
Speaker 10 (30:10):
End it now?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Let's see. I can tell you I'm really good at
this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.
Speaker 14 (30:17):
In America, we've taken bold action to swiftly shut down
uncontrolled migration.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Donnie in the nursing home telling more stories. It's not
going to get better, It's going to get worse. It's
a real lesson. Kranton is winning, Maga is losing, and
that's why you should keep fighting. Thanks for listening to
the elephant in the room, folks. Thanks for also reading
the Friday brief on my Substack newsletter and tuning in
(30:43):
the Lincoln Project podcast and the Enemies List Podcast, appreciate
all of you. Lincoln Square has been growing by leaps
and bounds. We're really delighted by that. Lincoln Project has
been growing by leaps and bounds. Again, We're really delighted
about that because you know, this fight for next year
is huge. The victory next year is essential. And the
reason I want to talk to you about these things
(31:04):
sometimes in this broader context than the news of the moment,
is that the fight ahead between MAGA and freedom is
real and you, my friends, are all on the front line.
I'm there with you. Talk to you soon. The Lincoln
Project Podcast is a Lincoln Project production executive produced by
(31:25):
Whitney Hayes, Then Howe and Joey Wertner Cheney, edited by
Riley Maine. Hey, folks, if you want to support The
Lincoln Project's work against Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and this
MAGA craziness, go to action dot Lincoln Project dot us
slash l LP. If you'd like to get in touch
or have suggestions for a guest or a show topic,
or just want to say hi, our email is podcast
(31:45):
at Lincoln Project dot us. For our MAGA friends, Please
no more news, Thanks so much and We'll talk to
you again next time.
Your attack will not be an ev one.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Your enemy is well trained well. But there is not
a liberal America and is conservative America.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The United States of America.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Good luck, Hey, folks, it's Rick Wilson. Welcome back to
the Elephant in the Room, the show where once a
week we take a little mini podcast look at what's
behind the curtain, what's going on in politics, What's what's
the secret sauce underneath something you've seen as a major event.
And folks, there are two big stories this week that
(00:36):
I could put it in place for this and make
a great Elephant in the Room episode. The first is
the return of Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Moments after we taped our show last night, the Mad
Red Hatter wrote, I can't believe ABC, fake news gave
Jimmy Kimmel his job back. You can't believe they gave
me my job back. I can't believe we gave you
your job.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
At I don't even.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
All those them are. The White House was told by
ABC that his show was canceled, though they weren't. Something
happened between then and now because his audience is gone
and his talent was never there that I can't argue
with shut them up. The freedom of speeches only for me.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I did not.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Interrupt the president. You almost have to beel sorry for him.
He tried his best to cancel me.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Instead he forced millions of people to watch the show
that backfired. Bigley, he might have to release the Epstein
files to distract us from this.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now, with Disney showing some spine, some opposition, some strength,
some character, and the attention to their bottom line, that
would be one of them. We could peel that back.
But I think the bigger one, I think the more
consequential story is that Russia is collapsing. Ukraine has mounted
(02:12):
for the last three years a scrappy, innovative, brilliant, determined
battle against Russia. And there were a lot of reasons
to believe, if you were a Russia fanboy, that Ukraine
would die. Eventually, they would collapse, it would fall apart.
With the elephant in the room is that Russia is collapsing.
(02:39):
This is great news for the world. It's bad news
for China, it's bad news for MAGA, it's bad news
for Donald Trump. Let's get to it. So for months,
for nine months now, we've heard Donald Trump say over
and over again, Zelensky has to give up land. Zelensky
has to make a deal, has to give up the war.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Not in a good position. You don't have the cards
right now with us.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
You start having right now, you're.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Gambling with their lives from millions of people.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
See you're gambling with World War three. You're gambling with
World War three.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Russia will always win. They did the biggest, strongest world
World War two. All the all the talking points you
could see on on on Russian state TV, turn an RT.
You hear the same talking about's come out of the
White House. But right now Russian energy prices have collapsed,
The Russian stock market has collapsed, The energey prices are
(03:40):
collapsing because the Ukrainians can now attack almost anywhere inside
of continental Asia. The range on their drones puts them
within striking distance of almost any Russian energy facility that matters.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Ukraine doesn't have the big fat missiles dictators to show
off in parades, but we do have drone that can
fly up to two three thousand kilometers. We had no
choice but to build them.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
There's some stuff out in the Far East that they
can't hit, but for the most part, where the energy
comes from, where the distribution centers are where the refinery
centers are. Ukraine is knocking them offline, one by one,
by one by one.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
So the Ukrainians have been very strategic. They are now
targeting two kinds of oil facilities inside Russia, the ones
that are exporting oil to other countries. This is where
Russia's money comes from, and then the other depots where
they hold the oil for domestic consumption. And obviously you
could have lines in Russia if those are targeted, that's
(04:44):
political pressure. So financial pressure plus political pressure.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Russia's economy is driven by two giant factors, energy and corruption.
It's a criminal enterprise. The guy's as a country and
Ukrainians have finally reached the point the critical mass where
their drone technology is sufficient to overcome what's left of
(05:09):
Russia's air defense systems, and they're knocking the hell out
of them. Putin can only fire his way through so
many generals in a war that has cost him over
a million lives on his own people, young men Going
to die for the vanity of an old Man is
(05:29):
a story of war that goes back to the ancient
days of civilization. But Putin is losing. He's fronting he's bluffing.
He's saying he's gonna, you know, start you know, using
unconventional weapons. If this continues, all the bullshit, his fingers
(05:50):
on the nuclear trigger. It's a Russian lie as old
as time as there one big bluff. But as Russia collapses,
something else collapses too. As Russia collapses, so does a
fundamental predicate inside of MAGA, and that is that the
future was a Russia, US China division of the world.
(06:14):
We can the western hemisphere of Russia gets Europe, China
gets Asia. That was the That was the Maga like
thought leader idea what the world looked like. There was
also a Maga thought leader idea that we and Russia
were absolutely comparable nations because Maga was leading the fight
(06:38):
for white Christendom and Putin was leading the fight for
white Christendom. Putin is not religious, he is in fact
an atheist. But you know, you do you And Russia
is a corrupt country in every way. It is degenerate
in every way. Divorce, abortion, all the things that MAGA
says they hate or sky high in Russia. But Russia
(07:02):
is collabsent. But they bet big on this. Look at
the reputational damage Trump has sustained I know he cares
about reputation by sticking with Putin all this time. He
did it because they were feeding Trump and feeding trump
Allies false intelligence about the status of this war.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It does seem The one thing that is I think
also positive from Ukraine's point of view, is that President
Trump seems to have accepted that Putin was stringing him
as along. And he said, again almost a direct quote,
he said, I thought I had a good relationship with him,
but that relationship turns out not to count for anything.
That was almost humiliating for him to say that, because
he believed that he could handle Putin, and of course
(07:48):
Putin has handled him, and that recognition that.
Speaker 8 (07:52):
He is penny has finally dropped.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Do you think it's the loudest dropping penny in modern history? Yes,
and I think it has. So his attitude to Putin
in Russia seems to have changed. But being Donald Trump,
we don't know what he will think next month.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
They have been stuck. I mean, when this is over,
it will look more like a a high tech, modern
version of the some in World War One than the
mobility war of World War two or any other modern conflict.
They have been stuck. They get a little territory, they
(08:27):
lose little territory. They get a little, they lose little.
They've outgunned Ukraine from the beginning. They've olt manpowered Ukraine
from the beginning. They had air superiority. They no longer do.
And by the way, I told you a year and a
half ago that we needed to hurry the fuck up
on those F sixteens. The Biden administration made a critical
air Jake Sullivan was wrong to delay a lot of
(08:51):
US weapons going in there, but they got them in
the end. Right now, the Ukrainian F sixteens are absolutely
clearing the deck over Ukraine. They're shooting down cruise missiles
at an enormous rate, shooting down drone, shooting down incoming ballistics.
Speaker 9 (09:09):
Ukraine's eightieth Airborne Assault Brigate storming Russian positions on the
Eastern Front, using US made weapons to try and dislodge
Vladimir Putin's troops, gains that would probably be impossible if
Washington cut military assistance.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Except this soldier, whom.
Speaker 9 (09:28):
We can only name is the Seal, tells me, I
don't know what to say. That would be tough, he says.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
The troops say US.
Speaker 9 (09:37):
Supplied weapons like this Browning heavy machine gun are helping
them turn the tide because they're more accurate, more reliable,
and more robust than what the Russians have.
Speaker 10 (09:49):
And you can see just how important military aid for
Ukraine is for that country to stay in the fight.
It's everything from rifles to surface to air missile systems
to help Ukraine push Sha back.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
And Russia's air force has shot it's it's it's been
very very badly damaged. They're not mounting the same cadence
and they can't and their order of battle in the
in the in the Russian air forces is just destroyed.
It's just wrecked. But it isn't just a war that
(10:22):
Russia is going to be able to muscle it the
way through with human meat waves. Putin has destroyed a
generation of young Russian men. He has killed his country.
He has destroyed his country by doing this. And the
Iranians and the Chinese and the North Koreans who are
in this out alliance with Putin there and then the
(10:45):
humans now are sending their own young men to die there.
But they will die there, they will not win. The
Ukrainians have taught people the value of resilience and courage
and determination and the middle finger to an invasion, to
an authoritarian led genocide. And finally, as Europe decided, you know,
(11:12):
we're not going to sit here and let this happen.
We're not going to just take this. They knew American
leadership had disappeared the minute Biden lost. They knew and
didn't want to. Guys, they fought it too, thing nail,
They hated it. They did not want to. Their natural instinct,
especially the Germans, was always Okay, we can deal with Russia.
(11:35):
Let's not do that. Let's not do that whole nineteen
forties thing again. Their assistance, their help, their ability to
deploy technology in the Ukraine help fill the gap. Now
inside the Pentagon, Eldridge Colby and Pete hag Seth and
a variety of other folks have been overtly pro Russia.
Speaker 11 (11:55):
The bloodshed must stop and this war must end. That
stopping the fighting and reaching an enduring peace is a
top priority. He intends to end this war by diplomacy
and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table, and
(12:17):
the US Department of Defense will help achieve this goal.
We want, like you a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But
we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre
twenty fourteen borders is an unrealistic objective. The United States
(12:38):
does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a
realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. Instead, any security guarantee
must be backed by capable European and non European troops.
We ask each of your countries to step up on
fulfilling the commitments that you've made. Challenge your countries and
(13:01):
your citizens to double down and recommit yourselves not only
to Ukraine's immediate security needs, but to Europe's long term
defense and deterrent skulls. The United States remains committed to
the NATO Alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe
(13:22):
full stop. But the United States will no longer tolerate
an imbalanced relationship which which encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship
will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Overtly, they have looked at the list of weapons that
Ukraine wants to buy and said nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
They have said about US systems We're not going to
let you do this, this, and this and strikes inside
of Russia. Well, guess what markets work. And so the
Ukrainians have gone out and either built their own and
by the Ukraine is building what will will eventually be
(14:01):
a defense industry powerhouse in Europe.
Speaker 12 (14:06):
In the past three and a half years of war,
its innovation, namely when it comes to drones that have
been one of the saving graces for the Ukrainian army.
It says that drones now account for seventy percent of
Russia's losses on the front line. This one, a quadrichopter,
can evade Russian jamming systems and drop up to six
kilos of guided explosives. Others, like the deep Joint drones
(14:27):
can travel far. With a reach of over one thousand kilometers,
they can fly deep into Russian territory. Faced with fewer
soldiers and a defense budget of sixty four billion dollars
last year, which is less than half of Russia's, Ukraine
has had to rely on the US and the EU
for weapons, but they've also been boosting their own industry
to be less reliant on changing political views. Our best,
(14:50):
you know, guarantee is not relying on somebody's will to
protect us.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
That's rather our ability to protect ourselves.
Speaker 12 (14:58):
Its own industry now produces nearly sixty percent of its needs,
according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry, manufactured locally. This decrease is
spending in Ukraine's already stretched war budget. For Ukraine's weapon makers,
they say their low production costs and their expertise could
be helpful to European allies. Now that Donald Trump has
said NATO countries should not rely too much on the US,
(15:22):
the industry is seeking to triple its production.
Speaker 13 (15:25):
I'm convinced we should not stop here and further develop
a weapons industry. This is only possible if we enter
international markets on present production designs ready well underway. It
already has a high potential and we have the ability
to produce mott Mahata.
Speaker 12 (15:40):
With concern going up in notch in Europe after Russian
drones were shot down in Polish and Romanian airspace, Ukraine's
weapon industry argues that it can scale up and export,
or in the least increase output to in sure Ukraine
be less vulnerable in the future. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and
a number of other nations have already ocaid plans to
invest one point three billion in rows in Ukraine's army
(16:01):
and defense industry to make it. As result, Underland, said
a steal porcupine.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
God bless you might as look at some out of
this horror, but you're filled up the gaps. And so
now the strikes are happening deep inside Russia. Are they
hitting apartment buildings like Russia does?
Speaker 14 (16:20):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Are they hitting schools, nursing homes. No? Are they hitting
daycare centers and grocery stores. No, they are slowly dismantling
Russia's energy and communications infrastructure. Gas in Russia is now
about the equivalent of twenty five dollars a gallon, and
(16:43):
it's getting worse as they dismantle this. The ability of
Vladimir Putin to use his influence on Donald Trump has faded.
Speaker 8 (16:54):
President Trumps signal support for Ukraine like we've really never
seen it before, Really about face, posting online that Ukraine
is capable of winning back all its land from Russia
and calling Moscow a paper tiger.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And the reason you saw this yesterday is not because
Trump has like had a moment of clarity. Is, oh
my gosh, we were on the wrong side all along.
We should have been backing Ukraine. The reason is because
his own intelligence people are clearly now telling him, Hey,
things are getting bad in Russia. Winter is coming and
(17:30):
there's no gas. Winter is coming, and the natural gas
pipelines are being blown up and disrupted. Winter is coming,
and Vladimir Putin doesn't have an answer for his people.
I read yesterday that they're having trouble bringing harvest him
because of the lack of fuel. Now, China can help
(17:51):
them a lot by you know, hard currency, and they
can try to import food and everything else. But it's
really reaching a tipping point. Putin has always been a
brilliant manipulator and has always had a chip on his
shoulder about the loss of the Soviet Union. He's like
one of the twelve people in the whole world who
regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Ukraine is winning,
(18:15):
in Russia is losing. What happens when Putin goes. He's
not going to be replaced by another Vladimir Putin. He's
not going to be replaced by a guy with Putin's
singular skill in manipulating Donald Trump. I mean, think about
this book. Just six weeks ago, we had Donald Trump
(18:36):
clapping like a trained seal as he welcomed Vladimir Putin
on a red carpet that American soldiers had to get
on their hands and knees and unroll in front of
Vladimir put Putin has embarrassed Trump. He's humiliated him over
and over, and he shamed him over and over again.
And still that wasn't enough. Trump still had whatever's on
those tapes, I don't know if it's a live goat,
(18:57):
a dead girl, whatever it is. Whatever, whatever the hold
is that Putin has on Trump, whether it's on video
or psychological or something else, whether it's actual compromantor or
just a mental manipulation, I don't know what it is.
But that hold has never been broken until now. And
you saw Trump at the UN suddenly flip the script.
(19:18):
He did not do it because he likes Zelenski. He
did not do it because he wants Ukraine to win.
He wants Russia to win. He wants Putin to win.
His people all want Putin to win. Tulsey Gabbert wants
Putin to roll through the fucking streets of Kiev in
the tank and slaughter every one of the Ukrainian leaders.
She is a overtly pro Russia shill at every level.
(19:41):
But the intelligence is obviously percolating up to the White
House now that's obviously cooking through the system. Now is
so bad for Russia that Trump is now fearing that
he will be seen as siding with a loser. And
there's nothing Trump hates more than being a loser, which
he is, but covered that another day, or being associated
(20:04):
with a loser. He has backed Putin's play over and
over and over again. But Ukraine is winning this war.
As I record this, Ukraine has been striking the Russian
fleet Romanian the Black Sea. The anti missile systems are
in Crimea, and then the other Russian ports in the
(20:25):
Black Sea are basically inoperative at this point, so Ukraine
is hitting them with land and sea drones. The idea
that a country without a navy is going to sink
the Russian Black Sea fleet almost in its entirety, should
shock you. But if you've been paying attention to the
courage and the determination, and the craftiness and the smarts
(20:46):
of the Ukrainian people, you would not be surprised.
Speaker 15 (20:50):
Ukraine's naval drones that have truly revolutionized the war at
sea lacking a traditional navy. After twenty fourteen, Key built
one from scratch, not with steel hooles and sailors, but
with silicon chips and remote pilots. We're talking about a
swarm of fast, explosive, packed drone boats that have become
the Black Sea fleet's worst nightmare.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
There are two main stars of the show.
Speaker 15 (21:12):
First, the Sea Baby, Ukraine's earliest drone developed by Ukraine's
security service, the gr the Hur. This is the heavyweight Brawler.
It's a larger drone that can carry a massive eight
hundred and fifty kilogram warhead, powerful enough to cripple the
cash bridge and smash warships in the supposedly safe harbors.
(21:33):
Then you have the Hur, the military intelligence's weapon of choice,
the Magura V five. It's faster, smaller, and more agile,
a sea skimming assassin designed to hunt and kill moving
warships in open water using swarm tactics. These drones have
(21:54):
sent numerous Russian vessels, including the missile corvette Vanovets and
the landing ship Caesar Kunikov, to the bottom of the
Black Sea.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
You know I know somebody from online. No, we don't
know w each other personally. But no, the wrongline for
years and teacher in Ukraine, college professor. And when the
invasion happened, I immediately sent him a signal message. I said,
oh my god, are you okay? Is your family okay?
Are you got to get out? You got to get out,
(22:31):
You gotta get out, because we all thought in the
beginning of this war that Russia would be in Kiev
in a day or two, it would be over. That
he would have done. You know what Putin would have
done a c Chechislovakia sixty eight. He would have done
the same thing. This will be and you did across
eastern Europe after World War two, quick march, boom bang over.
(22:57):
And he waited for a while. I saw the typing thing,
you know, And he said, I'm gonna try to get
my family out the pole and I have little kids.
Get the little kids, and he does, I'm trying to
get my wife out. They can't be without their mother.
He's but I'm staying. He said, what are you gonna do?
(23:19):
And he's a he's younger than me. I think he's
probably in his mid fifties, early fifties. His wife so
much younger. He says, I'm an old man. I don't
know if I'm ready to go fight on the front.
I don't know if i'm you know, if I would
be useful in the front. I can't run, you know,
you know five hundred yard dash anymore? Is better know
what I can do, he says. I'm keeping my students
(23:44):
for as long as they're in my classroom, and for
the rest of the year, we're learning how to make bombs.
And the rest of the year we'll learning how to
make Malotov cocktails. And for the rest of the year,
we're learning how we can how we can go at them.
This is not a guy who's like a burly, macho motherfucker.
He's not like a tough guy. I fought was If
(24:08):
that's even ten percent of Ukraine, Russia's rude. These people
won't stop. They never stopped. This is why I sort
of obsessed about Ukraine as a model against MAGA. What
did they tell you when Trump won? This time, we're
gonna do Project twenty twenty five. You're all gonna shut up.
(24:30):
We're going to destroy you. Our agenda is the only agenda.
You will be crushed. There's little green shoots out there, folks.
Right now I'm not given Disney a ton of credit
because they lost a lot of money. But the reason
they brought camel back wasn't just the money. They also
figured something out Bullies and invaders and tough guys and
bad guys. They rely more on fear and on having
(24:56):
a few key allies to enforce their will than they
do on legitimacy and persuasion and being the kind of
leaders that people want to follow. No one in Ukraine
woke up in the morning and said, man, you know
what we need is Pootin to invade. No One, very
(25:19):
few Americans wake up in the morning and say, you
know what we need is Donald Trump? And Brendan Carter
say who can be on TV? And who can speak?
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Now?
Speaker 14 (25:27):
Listen, you know, if you step back, what's happening here
is you know, I think President Trump is fundamentally reshaping
the media landscape.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
And the way he's doing that is when he ran
for election.
Speaker 14 (25:36):
He ran directly at these legacy broadcast media outlets ABC,
NBCCBS For years, you know, government officials just allowed those
entities with execs sitting in Hollywood in New York to
dictate the political narrative.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
And he has fundamentally changed the.
Speaker 14 (25:53):
Game, and you see that really having consequences that are
just rushing all through media. The thing that was really
important to me and all of this was that the
new owners.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Of CBS came in and said it's time for a change.
Speaker 14 (26:04):
We're going to reoriented towards getting rid of bias, to
looking at fact based reporting. They said they're going to
get rid of in vidious forms of DEI discrimination. At
the end of the day, that's what made the difference
for us in terms of our review at the agency.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, and so again when Anagomez writes, you're imposing never
before seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment and
direct violation to the First Amendment, you say, what, I.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Think, it's time for a change.
Speaker 14 (26:30):
And the procedures that we put in place in this
deal have lots of precedent. For instance, there's been on
Boodsman's put in place by the SEC before. We're putting
a bias on Boodsman in place. Here, we're addressing DEI.
The prior SCC during the Biden years put pro DEI
commitments in different transactions.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
And so we're unwinding that type of approach.
Speaker 14 (26:49):
And we're frankly taking a trust but verify perspective here.
I think this could do go a long way to
restoring America's trust in media. And again, the media itself,
I think is under itself over these last couple of years.
When you look at the stuff that Colbert is doing,
the idea that you know, a partisan carnival makes economic sense.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
These are business decisions at the end of the day.
Speaker 14 (27:09):
And again I think it goes back to President Trump
because this facade of gatekeeper legitimacy that was conferred on
these outletes going away, and we're just seeing a lot
of Domino's ball as a result of that.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
No one in America wakes up in the morning and says,
you know what I want is more White House control
of the economy or white House control of what businesses
get to prosper and which ones get to fail. No
one wakes up that way. No one wakes up and
says Project twenty twenty five is the greatest thing since
prepared Mustard and man, we should really have more government
(27:46):
control over the rights and liberties of every American. From
some guys in DC, I come from the Cole War generation,
the last Coal War generation, came into government in nineteen
eighty eight, Russia was still in play. The cracks were showing, certainly.
(28:08):
By the time I left government in nineteen ninety three,
Russia had fallen. The Soviet Union had collapsed for seventy years.
It looked like an edifice that would never fail, a
system that could never be broken. The inevitable victors for
seventy years, That's what they look like. Because they were immoral,
they were unethical, they were understand There were men who
(28:32):
understood power. But in the end they fall. When Russia
invaded Ukraine, it looked like nothing could stop them. They
were unbelievably masked, rolling in toward Kiev. Nothing could stop them.
(28:55):
You know what could stop them though? You know that
pair dropped the SVR guys, pair dropped into Hostemil airfield.
Nothing could stop them. You know has stop them? Ukrainian kids,
old men and women, young men and women, people who
said no to oppression, no to invasion. They're gonna win
(29:18):
in the end. Putin's gonna fail in the end. And
by the way, the moment Putin fails in Ukraine, he
falls out a window and he knows that by the way,
his survival time is measured in hours after Russia withdraws.
But that lesson of determination, sticking it out, of fighting
to the end of never ever ever, seeding the ground
(29:39):
of freedom is one we should really be thinking about now.
America is going to have a world if we fight
and stand Postmaga, post Trump. There are a lot of
tensions inside MAGA. There are a lot of cracks inside Maga.
Trump is the universe Ladhiza that held to gather this
(30:00):
horrifying coalition of terrifyingly bad people. Well you sought the
un Grandpa ramble pants, do you have to.
Speaker 10 (30:10):
End it now?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Let's see. I can tell you I'm really good at
this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.
Speaker 14 (30:17):
In America, we've taken bold action to swiftly shut down
uncontrolled migration.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Donnie in the nursing home telling more stories. It's not
going to get better, It's going to get worse. It's
a real lesson. Kranton is winning, Maga is losing, and
that's why you should keep fighting. Thanks for listening to
the elephant in the room, folks. Thanks for also reading
the Friday brief on my Substack newsletter and tuning in
(30:43):
the Lincoln Project podcast and the Enemies List Podcast, appreciate
all of you. Lincoln Square has been growing by leaps
and bounds. We're really delighted by that. Lincoln Project has
been growing by leaps and bounds. Again, We're really delighted
about that because you know, this fight for next year
is huge. The victory next year is essential. And the
reason I want to talk to you about these things
(31:04):
sometimes in this broader context than the news of the moment,
is that the fight ahead between MAGA and freedom is
real and you, my friends, are all on the front line.
I'm there with you. Talk to you soon. The Lincoln
Project Podcast is a Lincoln Project production executive produced by
(31:25):
Whitney Hayes, Then Howe and Joey Wertner Cheney, edited by
Riley Maine. Hey, folks, if you want to support The
Lincoln Project's work against Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and this
MAGA craziness, go to action dot Lincoln Project dot us
slash l LP. If you'd like to get in touch
or have suggestions for a guest or a show topic,
or just want to say hi, our email is podcast
(31:45):
at Lincoln Project dot us. For our MAGA friends, Please
no more news, Thanks so much and We'll talk to
you again next time.
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