Trump Says Sike - June 11, 2026

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Welcome to TYIT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and co-hosting with me today is Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro's absolute favorite, Dave, Dave, thank you for doing this. I'm so excited for today's show. Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Anne. I've been excited to do it too. I really, you know, as I've told you privately and I've said publicly, I really admire the work you and Jenk have done. And I'm really grateful to you guys for telling the truth about the wars over the last few years. So happy to be here. Thank you. I mean, look, I will say this, even if you had done nothing in your life, even if you didn't put together a fantastic show, your views on foreign policy weren't exactly what. speaks to my heart. If the only thing you've ever done. is dunk on Adam Sosnik, that would be enough. That would be enough, okay? So you have my endless respect. It's what I try to tell my wife every night. She doesn't buy it. But I was like, listen, I've already done my part for society. Very nice. Well, we've got a jam-pack show ahead for you all today. We're going to, of course, give you, I guess, whatever we can make of the updates on the ongoing war in the Middle East against Iran. Since we have Dave Smith with us today, I really wanted to talk about Sam Harris's substack post about how he refuses to debate anyone on the issue of Israel and Gaza. Got a lot to say about that, and I know Dave does as well. And we'll probably round off this hour by discussing some of what Tucker Carlson had to say about Trump in particular during his latest monologue. I think his statements about the decline of U.S. power. Also really important to get into. And then we have a whole host of other stories. But why don't we get started? I don't want to waste any time. Let's start with this. They're getting decimated, just decimated. And they're dying to make a deal. They want to make a deal so badly. And they're really in submission. They just don't know it yet. Okay, to be honest with you. They just don't know it yet. And we are talking to them and all. But, you know, look, my preference has always been take Carg Island. Has it, has that always been your preference to take Carg Island? Because I can remember someone else who was urging you to take Carg Island. And if you don't remember who I'm talking about, here he is. What Iran is mostly worried about at this point is that the United States permanently degrades its capacity for economic recovery. The easiest move for the United States to make right now would be to just blow up Harg Island. You could do an amphibious operation there. It's a lot riskier. Or it could just blow it up. And that means that Iran has no refinery capacity. And that means their economy is basically sunk for the foreseeable future, which means the regime has no money to pay its own people. So the real question is, what is Trump really going to do? Because he went from saying that he's going to carry out another bombing campaign against Iran today.

And then reneged on that, which I applaud. I think that bombing Iran will accomplish nothing. And now he's saying that we're very close to a deal. So let me walk through everything with you. And then we'll hear from Dave Smith on what he thinks is going on here. So this morning around 5.30 a.m. Pacific time. Trump posted on true social and said that the United States will be hitting Iran whose Navy Air Force radar, anti-aircraft, and all other forms of defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are gone. Which, by the way, just to pause right there. Saying that you are going to start bombing a country that you allege has no military capabilities whatsoever has been obliterated is not a good look, but I'll continue. He continues to say that he's going to bomb them very hard or hit them very hard tonight. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Carg Island and- other oil infrastructure points and assume total control of their oil and gas markets, much like we have with Venezuela. Okay, you get the point. But then things changed pretty quickly. Okay, so I want to go to this next clip because soon after posting that, Trump said this, A8. How confident are you that there will be a signing this weekend because you have come close to stealing a deal, but at the last minute, it has fallen in the past. It'll be soon, maybe this weekend. And has the Supreme Leader approved this deal, sir? I understand the answer is yes. And when the, and when the deal is signed, is the United States going to immediately lift the blockade? Yes, that's true. That's part of the deal. And you have oil prices dropping like Iraq. And that was a statement that he made during a White House briefing following another truth social post. I want to go to Graphic 2 here, where he announced, based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have as president of the United States. canceled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening. Discussions and final points have been in both concept and great detail approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jim Jordan, Egypt, and others. The naval blockade will remain in full force and effect until this transaction is finalized. So this is what we're hearing from Trump. This is where the war stands as of now. But Dave, the real issue here is that you can't trust anything that comes out of Trump's mouth because his, I mean, he has no strategy, but his, I guess, whatever he's planning to do next changes from each passing hour. So what do you think is happening here? Oh, I mean, it's, you know.

Donald Trump conducts a war like a drunk teenager. So it's just impossible to, you know, everything he says contradicts the last thing he said. So like even down to the minor details, which aren't even as important, but even as he brags about, oh, the oil prices are going to plummet as soon as this is over. Well, I thought you just told me yesterday that it's good when they go up and that inflation is good. And that because we're a net, you know, oil producer, therefore it's better when it goes up. So why are you bragging about the price going down now? Now, in terms of what he's going to do next, I don't know, man, this is, this is a tough one to make predictions. And I mean, it really does feel like he's fit, he's fit 20 years of war propaganda lies into two months. And, you know, even as you watch these guys, there's just so, there's like a really stunning intellectual immaturity. to even as you play the Ben Shapiro clip and just the way that Donald Trump talks about this stuff. And I know they're knock on me or Ben, I'm just a stand-up comedian or whatever. But even as they say this, like, here's what we'll do. We'll take Carg Island. You know, by the way, you didn't play the clip where Donald Trump mentioned today, which I thought was an interesting comment, where he goes, you know, he goes, that's my preference, but Americans don't really have the stomach for it. I actually want to go to that really rich. And like, okay, so what are you saying there exactly? Right, we don't have the stomach for what? For the tens of thousands of our boys who are going to get slaughtered if we try to occupy this island? What have we demonstrated in the last week here, Anna? They can still touch the region, right? So what do you mean we're going to put our boys on Karg Island? Like they're not even, and it doesn't matter what Hebrew accent you pronounce that with. And let me just say, I'm sorry, and we could go to the next clip, but, you know, there is this kind of implausible. Look, I don't know, I'm not pretending to predict the future, I have a crystal ball or whatever. I mean, you know, if they want to say, hey, we can put so much pressure on this regime that they'll crack. I mean, we are the global empire. Our bombing campaigns are devastating. Our sanctions regimes are devastating. If we were to take Karg Island, okay, the ideas that would starve their economy. But at the same time, you go, dude, just go read a little bit about the Iraq around war. and what they went through. And how long, Saddam Hussein invaded the country, slaughtered hundreds of thousands, somewhere between five and 700,000 Iranians got killed, used chemical weapons against their population, all this stuff. They hung on for like eight years. For three of the years, they wouldn't even negotiate with Saddam Hussein, just giant middle fingers. We're going down fighting. And so like, What reason is there to think that a little bit more pressure here is actually going to get them to capitulate when Donald Trump threatening to obliterate their entire civilization didn't get them to capitulate? Well, in fact, the United States had provided Iraq with literal chemical weapons to use against Iran. And so- Facilitated the sale, yeah. Yes, and the reason why I bring that up is because it's really important for people to know. why it is that a chant about America would even have a negative chant about America would happen in the context of the Iranian population. I mean, the brutality that the United States government and its military has carried out in the Middle East against Israel's perceived enemies has been pretty disastrous when it comes to hostilities directed toward the United States.

Think about it like this, Anna. It's such a good point, right? But just think about it like this. Let's just be a human being and pretend we're all equally human beings. Right. Think about the fact that Mark Levin can still say to his Fox News boomer audience, hey, remember the Marines. Remember the hostages. And that still means something to them. Because you know what, to like good people, like my father-in-law, you mentioned that. The 70s were his time. He was an adult in the 70s. He owned a house in the set. Like he remembers those days. Okay. So imagine if we can still move our boomers a little bit, talking about some Marines that got killed by a different group, but it doesn't matter because Iran did business with them while they were in Lebanon. So just picture that now from the Iranian perspective. Okay, well, their version of that. is the time that we green lit their neighbor to invade them and armed them the entire time, including, as you pointed out, the facilitation of chemical weapons, which they used against the civilian population. But just the fact that we armed them the entire time through the war, that is so much worse than anything we could ever accuse them of having done to us. Like, again, hundreds of thousands of Iranians were slaughtered in this thing, destroyed the country. Absolutely. So with that context in mind, you can understand how we got to where we are today. But previous administrations, whether we're talking about, you know, Democratic or Republican administrations, were being pressured, much like Trump was leading up to this war. to invade Iran, to go to war with Iran. And those administrations, for all of their other foibles, for all of their terrible foreign policy decisions, were at least smart enough to avoid going to war with Iran. However, Trump was given, in my opinion, disastrous intel, you know, that intel that's like so important from our special ally. convinced him, I'll be a hero. Let me go ahead and do this and it'll be easy. But it wasn't easy. It isn't easy. And now we find ourselves in a quagmire that is destroying the global economy with no end in sight. So if you're asking me what I think Trump is planning to do, I don't think he knows what he wants to do because there are no easy answers. There is no military option for reopening the Strait of Hormuz or taking control away from Iran in terms of the Strait of Hormuz. There is no possibility of regime change unless you're willing to commit.

quite a bit of your military operations in Iran, right? We're talking about hundreds of thousands of troops. We're talking about a significant amount of a weaponry that we have depleted as a result of our engagement in endless wars throughout the globe. Our support for Ukraine, of course, depleted some of our defensive and offensive weaponry. Same with the military aid that we've provided for Israel. Math is math. And when you look at the weaponry on the Iranian side, even though they have a much weaker military, and you compare it to the lack of missile interceptors for both Israel and the United States, there is no military option. The only real option here is diplomacy. But you also have that monkey wrench of the Israelis demanding that the war continue and they sabotage every opportunity at a real cessation, a fire of war, or even the possibility of a peace deal. So how do you get out of this? How do you come out of this the other side? Well, I mean, look, the whole thing, and this is why they can say that like, you know, we're obsessed or we hyper focus on Israel. But the fact is that that's the whole thing here. Yeah. The thing is that there's nothing else to this equation. Everything about this war is fake. And most, that's the case with most wars. Almost every war, you know, that old saying is that the first casualty of war is always the truth. And it's... It is the case that almost every single war is based off lies. And this gets confirmed years later. And then it's just a fact that like World War I was sold off a lie and Vietnam was sold off a lie and Iraq was sold off a lie and Serbia was sold off a lie and all of them. But this one is exactly the same. And in fact, they just used the same lie. You know, I heard the other day when Joe Scarborough was he was taunting Donald Trump because it sounded like he was going to maybe make a deal. And he said, oh, so first you're going to back down on nukes. And now you're going to back down on them shooting down a helicopter. And you're like, nukes. They don't have nukes. This is just not a thing. It's as made up as Saddam's nukes. It's as made up as Milosevic slaughtered 100,000 people. It's as made up as the Lusitania as any of this stuff. It's all just a lie. And so there is no deal that we even need to reach. What are we talking about here? That Iran can't have a civilian nuclear program or they hedged? They were a nuclear hedge state. Is that what we're fighting a war over? A threshold? It's all just ridiculous. And so the only reason why we're there to begin with is the only reason why we can. can't walk away from it, which is that for some reason, which none of us know exactly why, it just seems to be impossible to sever ties with Israel. It just seems to be impossible to just say, no, we're not going to do this anymore. And you know, even if you look back at like the Obama administration, as you correctly pointed out, he did resist calls for this war. And in fact,

Look, like what was the JCPOA really? Like all these guys know that Iran didn't have nuclear weapons and they weren't trying to develop nuclear weapons. The whole point of the JCPOA was just to take the pretext for war off the table to just say, well, look, there's an inspections regime. So now you guys can't lie and say that they're building nukes because the IA is in there inspecting them. And so, you know. But they lied anyway. But they lied anyway. Sure. Yeah. Jillian Michaels is a perfect example. She, she along with Sam Harris and anyone who is going out of their way to defend Israel will say that the IAEA confirmed that Iran wasn't following through. But what they're referring to is Iran's behavior long after Trump pulled out of the JCPOA. So when you pull out of the JCPOA, you renege on your previous agreement with a sovereign country. Why would they follow through on an agreement? that has been violated. It doesn't make any sense. And even then, like, they're misleading. Like, their ultimate conclusion wasn't that Iran was violating the agreement. They point to this one report where they were like, oh, we got some signs of radiation here and there, and we suspect that they're not following guidelines. But then if you look at the next report, they were like, oh, we came in and Iran explained what the discrepancy was, and we did another round of testing. And they concluded that they were still in good standing of the JCPOA at the time, minus America, because America had been out, as you pointed out, for years. But the agreement still. stood until the 12 day war. They're members of the NPT. There were members of the JCPOA. And in fact, as you guys covered on the show, I believe, they were offered an even better deal in the interim that the Trump administration could have gotten into. This war is not about nuclear weapons. It's not about anything other than Israeli desires for regime collapse. That's the game. And they've been talking about this for, you know, I've been opposing this war for 20 years because they've been talking about it for 20 years. It's been on their wish, and I think one of the advantages that Obama had in terms of holding out from Iran was that he gave him Libya and Syria. You know, and so like he was, they still had this list of demands and he did give them two of the major ones, or at least he gave them Libya and he started the process in Syria. He gave the green light to start that. He armed terrorists. Like let's, we have to be very clear about that. Under the Obama administration, we armed al-Qaeda terrorists and ISIS-related terrorists. Like, it's absurd that we did that. And we currently have a former ISIS, I'm sorry, al-Qaeda commander as the new leader of Syria, who, by the way, not only got invited to the White House under Trump in the second term, apparently he got another invite for Trump's birthday. We'll see if he actually attends. But that's insane. So we create terrorism. And he was complimenting him the other day. You know, for all you guys, Mark Levin so upset about our Marines who got killed back in the 80s. This dude, Ahmed al-Sharaa, he brags about how he was in Fallujah, fighting with the insurgency, killing our boys. And by the way, the other thing, Anna here, right, is that this is treason. Yeah. It's literally treason with a capital T. Like forget even the label terrorists, because they just throw that against anyone they don't like. Like you said, we're talking about al-Qaeda.

The enemies of America. The people who we have been at war with for 25 years, you're talking about giving aid and comfort to the enemy during the time of war. Obama and Brennan and Trump, absolutely guilty of treason. It's just unbelievable. But then we're supposed to move on and just pretend, oh no, our real beef is against the Shiites because we had a skirmish with them in the 80s, which wasn't too much that Ronald Reagan couldn't sell him weapons two years later, but is enough that we have to go to war in 2026. I just think that. our relationship with Israel, this alliance has been so detrimental to our country. I mean, how can anyone deny it at this point? No one is able to tell us what we get out of, we as the American people get out of this alliance with Israel. I'm not against being allies with Israel. First of all, the people of the United States are actually prioritized by our government. And we have seen in case after case after case that we are not the alliance with Israel. regardless of what we get or don't get out of that alliance is always prioritized. And if you honestly look at what we have gotten from Israel, I mean, The intelligence that we receive is beneficial for their own means, for what they want to accomplish, right? And oftentimes that intel is, I believe, intentionally inaccurate in order to convince us into carrying the water for the foreign policy that they want. And that includes arming terrorist groups in Syria to topple Bashar al-Assad's regime because Bashar al-Assad was friendly with Iran. The destruction of the Middle East, I think, is clear. As much as Coleman Hughes wants to deny, you know, the clean break memo, how are you going to deny that it's been implemented? Maybe the timeline isn't specifically, you know, tied to what the clean break memo noted. But every single country that was cited in the clean break memo has been targeted by the United States at the behest of Israel. Yeah, that's right. And, you know, I mean, like Coleman can point to things like he can say, as he did when we debated that, well, okay, Dave, but you know, you say this is all the clean break, but in the clean break memo, they said they wanted to install a Hashemite King, but ultimately they went with installing, you know, a democratic regime or something. And it's like, well, first of all, by the way, even if you look into it, and this is really laid out in coping with crumbling states, which was David Wormsler's companion piece to clean break. He mentions Cholabee like a million times. Chalabi is the guy who sold him this whole story. And so then when the Hashemite King died, they just went with putting Cholabee in there. But like, okay, it's the same thing. But listen, you can read, what was it? David Wormser's book was called, oh gosh, I can't remember.

something tyranny's ally. Tyranny's ally was the name of David Wormsler's book, and then Benjamin Netanyahu wrote a book called Fighting Terrorism. It's all like around 1995, 1996. And look, they lay it out clearly like this was. always the Benjamin Netanyahu doctrine. It was, he was a reaction against Yitzhak Rabin. He was the one who used to march around with those holding a casket. And then Yitzhak Rabin's wife, I believe still to this day, if she's still alive, she still blames Benjamin Netanyahu for getting her husband killed. She should. Well, I mean, he, unlike anything you've ever seen in America, you talk about inciting violence or whatever. I mean, it was crazy. But the whole plan was like, look, at all the global pressure is on us to have a two state solution here, to have a land for peace deal. Like the world is sick of this fight. And they say we can't keep occupying these people because this is in the 90s when it's already been going on for 30 years. You know, people are like, what are you doing? And so they go, but look, here's what we're going to do. We're going to switch this whole thing. Instead of giving the Palestinians their state, instead of saying, hey, we have to have a solution with the Palestinians so that we can normalize with the outside Arab, the broader Arab and Muslim world, what we're going to do is we'll just topple all of the Arab and Muslim. leaders who we don't like and install people who we do like, so we never have to give up the state and we can annex all of Palestine. That was always the goal. They were very open about it. I'm like barely reading between the lines. And look, when it came down to it, when all these American neoconservative Israel firsters got on board with this plan, there was no. Okay, maybe they didn't explicitly say it in the clean break, but obviously America was going to be the one overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Israel in the 90s was in no position to go do it, or they would have done it themselves. The thing about it is is that Benjamin Netanyahu may like the idea of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and Bashar al-Assad and Momar Gaddafi and now the Ayatollah in Iran, but she can't do none of it. Only we can because we're the biggest economy. We're the biggest military. We're the biggest tax base in the world. One or two, I guess at this point. And so we're the ones who can do that. They can't. And so it was always about getting America to fight wars on Israel's behalf so that they can proceed with their territorial ambitions. That's very obvious. Look at them. They're taking Lebanon. They took part of Syria. They've taken most of Gaza. They've taken huge chunks of the West Bank. Like this is what they're doing. To your point, why on earth should we help them? Right. I don't think we should. But at this point, so much of that.

strategy, so much of what was laid out in the clean break memo has been carried out. And now we're at the big Kahuna and Iran is not the same as Iraq. It's not the same when it comes to land mass. It's not the same when it comes to population. It's not the same when it comes to military capability. And unfortunately, Trump is learning that in real time and everyone else is suffering as a result of that. So we have to take a quick break. When we come back, I actually want to talk a little bit about. What this war has done to US power, this is something that was laid out by Tucker Carlson in his latest monologue. And I think he makes some really important points. So we'll get into that. We'll get Dave's reaction to it when we return. Asimov's profit in our member section sounds a lot like me. This mother effort has said there will be a deal this weekend every week for three goddamn months. Yep. This is why. Look, Jank the optimist and me, the pessimist. Like, we're such a great team because Jank is always the optimistic one who's like, maybe, maybe there's a deal. Oh, maybe, maybe, you know, maybe Trump was very harsh toward Benjamin Netanyahu in that phone call. I think it's all kabuki theater. I think it's all BS. Look. I do think that Trump wants a way out because this has been destructive for the economy. And the only thing he seems to really care about is the stock market. Every time he purports that there's a deal on the horizon, the stock market responds favorably. It's shocking to me that they haven't learned their lessons yet, right? But he keeps doing it. It keeps working. I think that those statements from Trump are very hollow. I'll believe it when he says we're willing to lift the blockade. We're willing to give Iran an inch. But you can't have a peace deal. You can't even have a memorandum of understanding to work toward a peace deal unless you show you're engaging in good faith. And there has been no indication from the Trump administration that they're engaging in negotiations in good faith at all. Iran has the upper hand here. They are controlling the strait of Hormuz. And with them having the upper hand, there's got to be a little bit of give from the Trump administration. We're not seeing that. All right, I'll read more of your comments when we come back from the break. See you there.

everyone, Anna Kasparian and Dave Smith with you. Dave, I know that you just get treated as though you're nothing more than a comedian, although being a comedian is pretty freaking hard, especially if you're successful at it. I'm going to go ahead and say that you're more of a political pundit these days in my eyes than a comedian. I'm sure you hate that. No, I don't, I'm fine with it. You know, I don't like if you come, come see me do stand up and I do like I do stand up comedy. I'm funny when I'm at comedy clubs and that's all I'm trying to be. But whenever we start talking about wars and stuff, I just, I know too much about this and I'm too angry about all of it to like be like, oh yeah, I should fit a joke in here. No, no, don't fit a joke. I mean, it is too serious to joke around about. I just I think I'm I think I'm as much a political commentator as I am anything else you know I don't know I'm just I'm me and in this this world I get to do that now Most people are lucky enough if they have one talent. You've got two. So you're multifaceted. It's a good thing. All right, I'm going to tell everyone about our sponsor to get that out of the way so we can get to the rest of the news. A Noble Mobile is one of our fantastic sponsors. And the reason why we've partnered up with them is because they're looking to provide a really great service and save you money while doing it. So for a limited time, new customers get the first three months free and there are no tricks. There's no catch, no strings attached. You'll get the whole summer for free because they want you to test out the service to make sure that you like it. And remember, one of the best perks of Noble Mobile is the fact that they will give you cashback for any data that you don't use. So check that out. Go to t.t.com slash switch. That's t.yt.com slash switch. All right. Without further ado, let's get into this commentary from Tucker Carlson that specifically points to the loss of U.S. influence and power. because we've agreed to go to war with Iran. Take a look. A deal, the President of the United States holds that a deal with Iran is imminent. Any moment now, we've been hammering out the details. Our crack diplomatic team has been traveling back and forth to Pakistan and we're very, very close. That turns out it's not true. That is, and we counted, the 38th time the President of the United States has announced since March 23rd, an imminent deal with Iran. And like the other 37 times, this one turns out to be completely untrue for whatever reason. And we are back to bombing Iran. If it wasn't already clear, it's definitely clear now that the gloves are off and Tucker Carlson hasn't really been shy about hitting President Trump's handling on the war against Iran. Now, in fact, his latest monologue has further ruffled some feathers, especially when it comes to Israel's most ardent defenders. Now, since Dave Smith is really no stranger to doing the same to Israel firsters, he joins us today.

to some of the clips from Tucker Carlson's monologue. So Dave, before I get to the clips, did you watch his monologue at all? I've seen a couple of the clips, but I have not had a chance to sit down and watch the whole thing, which I do watch almost every episode of his show. So I'm sure I will at some point. But yeah, I mean, I think he's spot on. Yeah, and he not only did a great monologue, he interviewed John Mearsheimer for his last episode. So I highly recommend watching the whole thing. Now with that in mind, the whole point of his monologue was to kind of focus and emphasize on the fact that the US has lost influence and has shown the limits of US power simply by engaging in this war against Iran. So let's go to the first clip where he kind of lays out the very beginning of his argument. As of right now, Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. It did not when this war began. Now it does. And so what do we learn from this? Well, we learn that President Trump is not a great diplomat. He's overselling this. Like it said, oh, you can eat buffet in Atlantic City. Oh, it's going to be the best. And so it's tempting to kind of lay. all of the blame at Trump's feet. And on one level, it is all his fault. He decided to do this. Whatever pressures he faced, it was his decision. And he has oversold America's position in this. And he is in some very real way not good at this. But that would be to minimize the profound nature of this moment. What we're really learning is not simply that Trump is a spotty commander in chief and certainly no diplomat and obviously not a dealmaker. If you announce a deal 38 times and it doesn't materialize, you're not a deal maker. What we're beginning to understand, unfortunately, for the rest of us, are not just the limits of Trump. but the limits of American power. The United States military has not been able to open that straight to shipping to the rest of the world to global commodities in months. And there is no promise that we'll be able to. And gas is now more expensive in your town because of this war. So after that, Tucker Carlson kind of talks about the importance of moral power. And I had never really thought about it in those terms. But he says that Trump's conduct, our conduct during this war, has weakened U.S.'s moral power. Okay. So our military may have committed war crimes in the past, but at least we denied it and acknowledged that war crimes are immoral, that they're wrong, that we want to uphold international law. But now our government, and to be honest with you, I think this started under Biden and is now on steroids under Trump. But now our government and military carries out war crimes in the open, including assassinations of foreign leaders, assassinations of military generals, as was the case with Qasem Soleimani in Trump's first term. And here's more of Tucker Carlson's argument on this matter. The United States government has.

Threatened to target and then two days ago targeted civilian infrastructure. Meaning the systems that keep people alive keep civilians alive in Iran and any country. Power, water, sewage, desal necessary for life. The lives of people who are not fighting in the war who do not make the decisions that led to the war who are innocent bystanders. The kind of people you are not allowed to kill on purpose. But when you destroy civilian infrastructure, you are killing them on purpose. And so while the U.S. government in war has destroyed civilian infrastructure at scale, by the way, during the Second World War. This has happened before, but it has never happened so openly and without apology. And never once has any American leader threatened in public to kill civilians unless the government of the country he opposes submits. That's never happened because that's barbaric behavior. That's not what civilized nations do. And there's also, of course, because why wouldn't you at this point? It's threatening nuclear strikes. Against entire populations, or as the president himself said civilizations. So note that Tucker Carlson says that Trump's behavior is barbaric behavior. I definitely agree 100%. And so that type of commentary, I think, is really important. And while it might not move most of the base that voted for Trump, you know, there's definitely like that 25% of the country that's bought into the cult of personality and they're not going to move off of their support of Trump no matter what. I think that the... Trump base has in fact fractured because a pretty significant portion of them actually meant what they were saying when it came to no new wars. We're sick of getting involved in these endless wars in the Middle East. We want you to focus on the United States. We want you to focus on affordability. What they got instead was. Honestly, a monster. I mean, when you think about what Trump posted on Easter Sunday, you know, talking about taking out an entire civilization, it's just absolutely disgusting behavior. And I'm glad we have someone who is conservative calling that out. What do you think, Dave? Yeah, well, I mean, I certainly agree with that, with all of that. And I think that, you know what, you know, I've made this point a lot, but I do think it's really significant that, well, I've just never seen anything quite like this dynamic with Donald Trump, where he has a little over a year into this, into this second term. He's lost Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jay Jones, like, I mean, he's lost like.

so many of the biggest right-wing commentators in the country. It would it would be like, I'm not exaggerating to say, it would be the equivalent of like if Obama had lost Rachel Maddow and Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, like if they had all turned on Obama over, hey, you know, promising to. run on ending wars and then starting new wars. But that never happened with him. It just, we've never kind of like really seen this before. And so I do think that's really good. I think it's very good that there's some degree of penalty because it's not like there's any other area of penalty for being a war criminal president. That's we got a pretty strong precedent set on that. You know, I do think that. There's just, you know, I agree with a lot of what Tucker Carlson's saying there. Obviously, like I guess you could say, well, I guess we did do the same thing to Japan, right? We said unless your government surrenders, we're going to total war against your entire civilian population and we're going to destroy you. It's just that things are a little bit different. You know, the 1940s were a very different time than today is. Also, Hitler's Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan just really made for much better boogeymen for a lot of obvious reasons. And they really were strong, scary empires that were slaughtering people and were threatening to take over. And so it was much easier to spin a narrative. But if you really think about it, Anna, Why is it that we even have the expectation that America should be in charge of the Strait of Hermose or that we should be calling the shots in the Middle East? Why do we think that the middle part of North America is supposed to rule over the entire world? Well, the reason we came to be in this position was for reasons. None of which exist anymore. You know, America won two world wars because we had the biggest industrial base in the history of mankind. And we transformed that from a capitalist, productive industrial base into a government weapons making machine to win back to back world wars. We also had the advantage of we got in late. So everyone else was already tired. And then we got in. And we didn't do any of the fighting on our home country. We did all of it in other people's countries. So at the end of it, they were all destroyed and we were still productive. And that gave us this crazy head story. start over the rest of the world that we've kind of milked for now. But we don't have that productive capacity anymore. We just have the fact that we can blow up the world a lot of times over, but so can other countries. And I think the really historic moment about this war seems to be that our bluff has been called. I mean, we've been picking on third world countries for. 50 years and we finally picked on a mid-size one, not even a great power. It's not like we went to war with China. It's just we picked on a country that's got some intercontinental ballistic missiles and a real government and can cause some problems and we're falling in pieces over it. So yeah, looks like a sea change.

Yeah, look, you made a lot of great points there. The thing that stands out to me the most in terms of, you know, we live in a multipolar world at this point. I think it's undeniable. Anyone who denies it is out of their mind. And I think Tucker Carlson is right when he says that this war has revealed us as, you know, kind of a paper tiger at this point. But that's terrifying because I think that we take for granted that we don't see warfare. domestically, that we don't see or experience what civilians in these Middle Eastern countries have been experiencing for many decades. And that is terrifying, especially when you consider the fact that we were already spending close to a trillion dollars a year. on the annual National Defense Authorization Act funding the Pentagon. Now Trump is asking for $1.5 trillion. And what did that money get us? I mean, the way that wars are fought has changed so rapidly in just a few short years where, you know, if you have these easy to make cheap drones and the U.S. and Israel are not prepared for that. Well, your, you know, your aircraft carriers and all your, you know, fancy military equipment that the American people have been forced to overpay for, isn't really going to do you justice when it comes to fighting against even a mid-sized power as we're experiencing. And to your point, I don't think that the United States should have control over the Strait of Hormuz. I think what would have been ideal is if the previous status quo remained. But by attacking Iran, they had threatened. We're going to shut down the straight of foremost if you attack us. And they made good on that promise. It's not like Trump didn't know. Now, the most haunting part of Tucker Carlson's monologue, if you ask me, is a question I've been asking myself a lot. It has to do with the illusion of liberal democracy and what could happen next as Americans increasingly realize that we can't really vote our way out of this. Take a look. In this war, it has become very obvious, undeniable. In fact, it's been admitted. by this administration that the President of the United States didn't decide the time and place of this war. The prime minister of Israel decided the time and place of this war. Benjamin Netanyahu was in charge. The premise of our system is that the people who live here are in charge of it and that they can control its outcomes by voting. We just had elections in a lot of the country primaries yesterday. And an ever-diminishing number of people march off to the polls with the notion in mind that I can change things with my vote. The war in Iran has taught us that actually on the big questions, the people you elect aren't even in charge. Someone else is, in this case, Benjamin Netanyahu. It's easy to imagine that radicalism, extremism, violence. would be the outcome of that. Because if people cease believing that they have any power whatsoever to change a system that is hurting them, there's no peaceful way to make the pain stop. They will use non-peaceful means to get what they want.

I think what he's saying there is undeniable because, and look, I'm super blackpilled at this point when it comes to our elections and both political parties. I think both political parties are absolute trash. I think that what we have experienced is you'll have these fantastic candidates that you have a lot of hope for and they get elected. You work really hard to get them elected and then they acquiesce to the machine, right, to the deep state. And so. I don't know what the answer is. And it's pretty terrifying because, you know, the way that our Constitution is written, the whole reason why we have the Second Amendment, right, is to fight back against a tyrannical government. But we're not going to be able to fight this government with its military with firearms. Like that's insane. So what do we do, Dave? I'm asking you because I'm hoping you have some answers here. Well, look, I don't even think necessarily the issue is that we're not going to be able to fight back with our firearms against the military. It's more like we all are just too comfortable. We just have too high a standard of living that anyone's going to actually risk throwing their life away to go. And, you know, like for the record, I'm not recommending that. I don't think a violent confrontation is, I think that's how the state wins, not how the people win, one way or the other. I think that, you know, look, certainly from my perspective, I'm sure you share this, because me and you kind of have a very similar perspective in this way. So we've been out on the front lines of this, in this new media environment, you know, debating and doing shows and, you know, for the last, obviously, two and a half years or whatever it's been since October of 23. One of the absolute biggest topics has been U.S. support for Israel's, you know, influence over the U.S. policy and Israeli policy in itself. And so it's like we go, now we finally, it's almost like we got a fair fight now. Finally, it's almost like there's this new, not controlled media environment. You know what I'm like we can get on these shows. We can get our point of view at there. We can make the counter to what the establishment narrative has been. And then over the last few years, it's like we just, when we got a fair fight, we kind of won. I mean, I know I'm being oversimplistic when I say that, but like, I don't know, there's just been so many public debates on this now, and the result has been that public opinion has drastically changed. I mean, obviously, a lot of that has to do with the actions of the Israeli government and not just how good me and you are at, you know, calling them out for it. But I'm just saying it's like, there is this feeling of like, oh, look, we won the argument. And what do we get for it? You know, the country is more critical of Israel than it's ever been in my entire life by far. And the government is more in bed with Israel than it's ever been in my entire life by far. We get the most pro-Israel regime at the most anti-Israel moment. And that's just one example. But there's like a million things here where we have like just overwhelming support of super majorities of the American people. And this is where, you know, the kind of left-right.

Like dynamic, while it's useful in a lot of different ways, like it's useful to describe you as a left winger and me as a right winger. So like you can understand your worldview opposed to mine or something like that. But on so many of these issues, it has nothing to do with left first right. Totally. You know, even like what you were just talking about, like what does this trillion dollar a year empire get us? Well, I mean, what it gets, it's a giant wealth transfer scheme. Yes. From the workers to the rich. Who defends that? Who defends, but you know, you know, like me and you may have an argument about whether we should have redistributive policies from wealthy to poor people, but we could both definitely agree we shouldn't have it the other way around. Like what, you know, even when they brag, oh, Israel has to spend all that money in America. Oh, so you mean it goes from the taxpayer to the military industrial complex. So that's what I'm supposed to be celebrating here. And so, you know, there's so many of these issues like, like, Welfare for billionaires, corporate welfare, banker bailouts and debt and money printing and forever wars. And there's just all these policies where it's like 80% of the American people are against this. Absolutely. But we get, but we still get more and more of it. Now, I will tell you, my white pill in all of this is that. Look, it's unsustainable for it to keep going like this. And it's never really been like this before. You know, governments, governments use propaganda and they do it for a reason. And we're living in a moment where our. Our regime's propaganda is completely collapsing and the people aren't buying it anymore. And it's not even like there's something exciting about the fact that the people aren't being driven back into the old box. Like it's not like people are going, oh, we should have voted for Kamala Harris instead. Everyone's like, yeah, no, she was terrible too. Biden was terrible too. But also Trump is just terrible right now. Like it's not. And I think it's going to be very interesting to see how they can keep this going. in the future. You know, the voters have been very clear. We're going to have elections coming up. We're going to have midterm elections. Then we're going to have national elections. I'm not saying someone's going to get in and fix the whole problem, but we are going to see that the pressure is just going to be mounting now. Like, I'm very interested even to see how are the Democratic candidates going to talk about Israel? You're telling me, you're going to have Gavin Newsom and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez up there walking on eggshells to like not offend the Israel lobby. And that's going to work with today's Democratic voting base. You know, Dave, to your point, some in the audience, and I don't begrudge them at all for asking this question, right? They'll be like, you play too many of these Tucker Carlson clips. But guys, the reason why I'm doing it is because he has been one of the most vociferous critics of U.S. foreign policy that's tied to our alliance with Israel. I would love to, if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were saying the same things. You think I wouldn't love to play Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's clips, but she's not. That's the problem. She's not. And whatever, people get upset. They think I'm being too harsh on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Do with that commentary what you will. But the fact of the matter is, we are experiencing something significant right now. History is being made as we speak. This is something that will be written in history books in the future.

We are complicit in mass slaughter campaigns in the Middle East. So I'm sorry. At this moment, I don't care if you are registered Democrat or registered Republican. If you are speaking out against what is taking place right now. And more importantly, if you're willing to go deeper, as Tucker Carlson did in this monologue, to talk about the failures in actually living up to. liberal democracy, what liberal democracy is supposed to be. If you're willing to talk about how broken our system is and how the people of the United States are not being listened to and what's supposed to be a democratic process, yeah, I'm going to give you credit and we do need to talk about it because we have to start finding solutions, Dave. Like I'm starting to get to a point where. I've said everything I feel that I need to say about what's happening in the Middle East. I've said everything that I need to say when it comes to how broken our political system is. But we need to start working together and to find solutions. And you're not going to be able to do that if you're hyper focused and only have like this very narrow view of the world that's framed in this partisan way. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, 100%. And I guess I would just say, Okay, so like my message to like maybe more left leaning people who would be like, oh man, but I hate all these other things about Tucker Carlson. So why do we have to promote this guy? I would just say that it's like, look, man. First of all, think about what the stakes are here. Think about what we're actually talking about. Yeah, I remember one time, this was like back in like 2016, so like a decade ago, and it was when Donald Trump was running for president, the first time I got an argument with a lefty friend of mine. And I wasn't supporting Donald Trump or anything. I didn't vote for him in 2016 or 2020. But they were saying, you got to vote for Hillary Clinton. she's the lesser of two evils. And I was like, no way. I would never, because, you know, she's voted for the war in Iraq and Libya had already happened at this point. I was like, I hated Hillary Clinton. And then he goes, he goes, well, maybe that's your white privilege that you don't have to worry about Donald Trump, you know, coming to power and oppressing all the black people in America or whatever exactly. You know, this is 2016. Think about where left winger's heads were at at the time. And I went, wait, you're telling me it's my privilege. But you can support the person who just slaughters a million Iraqis? Exactly. Hold on. Who's really got the privilege here? Like you're saying, okay, even if I grant you, whatever your views on on. racism in America and how oppressed black people are, you're not more oppressed than the people of Yemen, okay? We're not going to pretend that that's the case, okay? So you're telling me that you, so look, what we're talking about here between Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya and Syria and Somalia, in Yemen, currently in Iran, obviously in Gaza.

5 million innocent civilians have been slaughtered. Like this is what we're trying to end. We're trying to end like a modern day Holocaust of sorts, you know, which maybe doesn't work exactly the way the Germans one did, but it sure is getting up there in the numbers of innocent people killed. And so just to say this, if you want to not fight these wars, you have to win over the right wing. That's who fights the wars. That's who sends their sons to go die in these wars. However you want to feel about it. It's not male feminists in Brooklyn who are enlisting in the Marines and are going and serving tours in Afghanistan. It's not. It's the right wingers. And so you know what? It's like who do you think you are? that you would turn away Tucker Carlson, the most influential right wing commentator in the country when he is against the Holocaust. Like when he's out here speaking again, who cares where he is on every other issue? Like from your perspective, left winger, like get over yourself. There's more important things. It's I am totally in agreement with you on that. And in fact, something that isn't at all on any Americans radar. I mean, just recently, Trump carried out a bombing campaign in Nigeria, killing a village of civilians. So I'm sorry, like you care about black lives. I understand if you're worried about race relations in the context of the United States. But I also do care about black lives. And so I'm going to prioritize the black and brown lives that gets slaughtered with American bombs on a regular basis without Americans even being aware of it. All right, we got to take a quick break. Let's do that. And when we come back, I actually want to do one more portion of his monologue because this is what got the Israel firsters really upset. We'll be right back. Have you been there?

What's up, everyone? In our member section, we have Mo Larry Cheese, who says, screw this Iran, peace talk stuff. The reflecting pool is painted and only 12 million over budget. God bless America. It's hilarious. Hilarious and also very sad. In our super chats, we have 37 and thriving Pakistani-American. USA's help to Israel, $3.8 billion a year in military aid funding, endless wars, while Israeli mental health crisis spirals. By the way, that's true. a lot of IDF soldiers committing suicide because of what they themselves have carried out. Anyway, I'll just continue with the rest of the statement. So the economy struggles despite low unemployment figures. The unemployment is not as low as you think it is. Tourism remains 50% below pre-war levels as the partnership strategy destroys both nations from within. Classic case of empire supporting its proxy into oblivion. I'll take it. Israel feels like that sneaky swamp tick. You wade through murky waters, tiny itch on your leg. Suddenly, it's latched on, draining resources bit by bit. Time to check for these attachments, Trump. Unfortunately, I think he's aware of it, but for whatever reason is unable to find his way out of this situation. Ricky Rage Desario says, Israeli military intelligence, three words combined that can't make sense. Well, it makes sense for them, certainly. motivates the United States to carry out ridiculous foreign policy. All right, we got to get back to the show.

Welcome back to the show, everyone. Anna Kasparian and Dave Smith with you. Dave hosts part of the problem on YouTube. So make sure you guys subscribe if you haven't already. It's a fantastic show. I was watching yesterday when you address Sam Harris. And we're going to get to that in a little bit. But before we do, Dave, I wanted to just do one more clip from Tucker Carlson's monologue. So let me just set that up. So during Tucker Carlson's monologue, he said something that really enraged the Zionists and Israel firsters. They're all over social media trashing him for what you're about to hear him say. Take a look. Iran's image around the world will be enhanced. Already, Iran, which is bombing Arab countries and destroying Arab countries, is more popular in some Arab countries than it was at the beginning of the order. How could that be? Well, because Iran has taken a clear position on the murder of Palestinian civilians, particularly in Lebanon, but not just Lebanon, in the West Bank in Gaza also. Iran has tied its ceasefire negotiations to a ceasefire in Lebanon. Now, that's not something that resonates with most Americans. Like, who cares? But in the Middle East and in the entire rest of the world, really, which is watching this, watching Israel destroy Lebanon for reasons that are not clear at all, murder Christians wholesale in Lebanon, destroy Christian villages, Bomb Beirut. And the rest of the world is watching this in horror and no one's doing anything about it. The United States is abetting it. The United States is helping it happen despite what they tell you. Those are American weapons and weapons systems being used to murder Christians in Lebanon. Who is doing something about it? Iran. That does not hurt Iran. that enhances Iran as a state. So that led to a lot of rage among those who are very supportive of Israel. But as always, they fail to provide any real substantive argument for why Tucker Carlson is wrong in that clip. So I want to bring you on, Dave, because is there anything he said there that was incorrect? No, again, and also they don't really have any argument against what he's saying. It's we're all watching it. That's just what's happening. And now it's a matter of what we're going to do with that information. It's funny. I remember one time on Pierce Morgan, I was debating that guy, Jonathan, something. He used to be an IDF spokesman. I think you've probably gone. Conradicus? I called him a terrorist and I got fired for the job for doing that. Well, there you go. Well, I called him a terrorist, but I don't have a job to fire me from. So I got off on that. But I met at one point, like he said to me when he was there, like I said something. And he goes, listen, I can respect when you say that, but I don't respect when you say this. And I was like, dude, you're the spokesman for a terrorist organization. Like, I don't care you. Like, you're telling me the parameters of what I. Yeah, like, why are we not allowed to call this what it is? And I think that Tucker Carlson is right to highlight, I know, Treata Parsi, who they're. Going after next now for telling the truth about stuff. By the way, if you haven't, his book, Tretcherous Alliance. Fantastic. Great. So good. Oh, my God. But, you know, I think he jumped all over this and he had a piece on this the other day too. And I think they're both right to really highlight. This is a major like watershed moment that Iran.

attacked Israel over Israel attacking someone else. Right. Because as soon as you do that, then you just kind of open up Pandora's box here. And that's one of the big things about this war. It's like, okay, well, like, if Iran can close the strait of Hermuz and get everybody to buckle, like, okay, maybe they haven't done that yet. But if they can do that and then get the world to buckle and, okay, we'll call off this war. Who's to say they can't do that for other reasons, like Israel annexing the West Bank or Israel committing a genocide in Gaza. Now, they didn't do that through the entire genocide, but maybe they weren't ready to play that card, and now they have played that card, maybe they play it again. I mean, who knows, but that is a big deal. And I will say that, you know, Maybe I'll get myself in trouble here with Tucker Carlson and you, but hey, there's a good place to do it. But like, look, I don't, I'm a libertarian Jew from Brooklyn, New York. I'm not a Shiite Muslim, and I don't much like Shiite theocracy or theocracy of any kind. And I certainly, you know, like, I don't know. I don't like even know that much about, like, actually how the Houthis govern, but I'm sure I wouldn't like that either. And I don't like Hezbollah. Hezbollah, when Israel and the US launched the war against Iran, this most recent war, Hezbollah started firing rockets into Israel. Right. The reason they do that is not just because, you know, like they want to kill people or something like that, or maybe they're okay doing that, but. They're trying to use up the Israel anti-missile missiles, which are the whole game in this war. It's like who runs out of missiles first. So they came in to help out their friends, right? When after we look, however you feel about the situation, we launched an illegal war of aggression against this country. And they came in and helped. So then Israel goes, Israel and the US essentially go, oh, okay, we'll have this ceasefire, but we're going to keep humbling them. And Iran went, no. Now we're going to, however you feel about that, I haven't seen my government act with that much honor in any situation that I can think of in my lifetime. So you know what I mean? Like say what you will about them, but that is at least in that case, that is the honorable thing to do is to go down fighting with your friend who came and got your back. It'd be like if you were in a bar fight and your friend came in and got your back and then you ran away and left them there to get beat up. So say what you will. Well, look, this is the reason why I think it's super important for people across the political spectrum to just have. discourse and have conversations with each other because you're wrong. I actually do not disagree with anything you just said. In fact, I've gotten a lot of heat because I've been somewhat defensive of Hezbollah. I mean, most people don't even know how Hezbollah formed or why it formed. It formed following Israeli aggression. Israel had on multiple occasions invaded southern Lebanon attempting to annex that land. And Hezbollah in the 1980s emerged as resistance to Israeli aggression. And in regard to Hezbollah's actions after the war against Iran started popping off on February 28th, what they also said is, look, remember, there was supposed to be a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

prior to the war against Iran starting. And Israel had violated that ceasefire literally thousands of times. Hezbollah didn't retaliate. They didn't respond until the war against Iran started. And so we need to have the full context of what's going on. I don't think Hezbollah did anything wrong. And if you don't want these groups to emerge. Israel specifically needs to stop attempting to expand its borders. If you stop expanding your borders, if you stop trying to steal land from your neighbors, you're not going to have this radicalization of certain groups of people. It is what it is. It's just the truth. But going back to- You're right, you're right about all of that. But look, I mean, still the thing is that, so Hezbollah ends up being essentially the toughest gang that arose out of the Israeli occupation. And Hamas ends up being the toughest gang in the Israeli prison known as Gaza. And essentially, Anna, right, this is all gangster shit. Like all governments are gangs, police departments are gangs, corrections officers are gang. It's all just gang. So they all do awful gangster stuff at points that you're like, oh, this would be horrible. You killed innocent people. Even in terms of like if they're resisting occupation, we're still not okay with them targeting like random civilians or something like that. Or so like they've all done horrible things. But yes, I think you are correct. If you zoom out, you go, look, obviously, this is a reaction to that. Hezbollah rose up over Israel invading and occupying southern Lebanon and Palestinian armed resistance rose up over the creation of the state of Israel, the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians out of Israel, and then the military occupation that followed that. So yeah, I think that's exactly right. And I'm not going to believe anyone who tries to tell me that. Americans wouldn't do the same if we found ourselves in a similar situation. If you had, I don't know, one of our neighbors, it's hard to imagine, but Canada decides to invade Washington State and annex that land. Are we really just going to let that happen? Of course, there's going to be a response to it. And if we have a weak government with a weak military, you better believe that some sort of resistance group is going to emerge to fight back. So we got to take one more break. When we come back for the second hour, no, we don't. Yeah, let's take another break. So let's take one more break. When we come back, I actually want to get into the Sam Harris story because he says that he does not want to debate anyone on the issue of Israel and Gaza, but it's not because he's unable to defend the indefensible. He gives a really ridiculous reason, and I want to tell you what it is when we come back.

is keep fighting forward, okay? But we don't fight with arms and physical and any of that, right? We fight with love. We fight with peace. We fight with hope and belief and faith in one another. And we do that's right with knowledge and facts and truth and things that are real. Objective reality matters. So much of our audience, scientists, teachers, engineers, data analysts, people who believe in objective reality, right? So thank you guys for believing in that. Thank you for believing in hope and thank you for making it happen. I appreciate all of them. I really love what y'all do on the Young Turks, man. And it's just, it's a very refreshing, you know, voice. You know, y'all don't lean to one side. I tell people all the time, if you want to go really hear what's going on, honestly, and in our society, you should tune in to the Young Turks. Thank you, Charlemagne. We appreciate that. That's awesome. Really appreciate you.

In the bonus episode for members, we do things that are really productive and healthy and good for you, like fruit. Ah, just kidding. We get the inside scoop. Ice cream cam. Come on, man. Come inside the bonus episodes, and you're going to love it. Embarrassing details about our lives. What kind of ice cream we eat? No, way saucier than that. They're at the inside scoop. Mmm. Ice cream gam. We don't fight with arms and physical and anything of that, right? We fight with love, we fight with peace, we fight with hope and belief and faith in one another. And we do that stride with knowledge and facts and truth and things that are real. Objective reality matters. So much of our audience, scientists, teachers, engineers, data analysts, people who believe in objective reality, right? So thank you guys for believing in that. Thank you for believing in hope and thank you for making it happen. I appreciate all of them.

We love what y'all do on the Young Turks, man. And it's just, it's a very refreshing, you know, voice. You know, y'all don't lean to one side. I tell people at times, if you want to go really hear what's going on, honestly, and in our society, you should tune in to the Young Turks. Thank you, Charlemagne. We appreciate that. That's awesome. Really appreciate you. In the bonus episode for members, we do things that are really productive and healthy and good for you, like fruit. Ah, just kidding. We get the inside scoop. Ice cream cam! Come on, man, come inside the bonus episodes, and you're going to love it. Embarrassing details about our lives. What kind of ice cream we eat? No, way saucier than that. They're at the inside scoop. Mmm. Ice cream cam. You can't time travel. Have you been beat there?

Anna Casparian and Dave Smith with you. I don't want to waste any time because this show is flying by so quickly. I wanted to get into some of the latest statements from Sam Harris. And we're going to begin with what he had to say about famine. And I just want to let you guys all know that the clip you're about to watch was edited to include footage, basically disproving what Sam Harris says. Let's take a look. Israel, I think, briefly. suspended food shipments, which strategically was totally unwise, although it might have been defensible at that level of the war. But the photos that documented the so-called famine in Gaza, some of which won Pulitzer Prizes, or at least one of which, one of these photographers, won a Pulitzer Prize for this fake photo. It was absolute fakery, right? This was not, this was a sciop. There was no, no one was starving in Gaza, right? And insofar as there was massive food insecurity, a lot of that was Hamas stealing food and hoarding it. Well, that is what Sam Harris believes about the situation in Gaza, no famine. And to disprove what he's saying, we cut in some footage showing what the reality in Gaza really is. And to his point about restricting aid into the Gaza Strip, Israel restricted any aid, not a drop of food, no water, nothing, entered the Gaza Strip for three months straight, three months. And that was after aid was severely restricted to begin with. So Dave, Sam Harris makes a statement like that, but on top of that statement, he put out. A notice, a statement on his substack titled, Why I Won't Debate Critics of Israel, a note to the Making Sense community. And I believe the reason why he won't engage in a debate is because he knows what the reality really is and he would get his ass handed to him. But maybe I'm wrong. What do you think? Yeah, come bring that clip into a debate and we'll see how that goes. I mean, it's something, one of the things I just always think about when I see this and when I see a lot of things from Sam Harris is like, you know, his whole new atheist thing that was all about how irrational religion can lead to these really horrible outcomes. And you're like, I guess atheism can get you there too. It could get you right to the point where you got to defend. I mean, like, not that I don't even consider Sam Harris to be an atheist. This is a different religion here, whatever this is. There's been.

Dozens of doctors who have testified, have written, there was a huge New York Times piece putting all this together about massive food insecurity, many cases of starvation. The free press rebuttal was that it was like the sicker kids who were starving first, even though the sicknesses. By the way, one of the particular sicknesses that they were talked about, at least the mother said that the doctors told her it was because she was malnourished. pregnancy was why. Anyway, even if you just think about the logic right, as you correctly pointed out, he says, oh yeah, they did deny food for a little while, which was maybe strategically not wise. Okay, a little while was three months, was three months with Smotridge openly saying not one ounce of grain will get into Gaza and it didn't. And think about this, by the way, because I've seen this asserted. I have not read anything that backs this up. Perhaps it's out there and I just haven't seen it. But I've seen a lot of the Israel supporters assert that Hamas is stealing all this food. Now, that might be true. I would imagine that the toughest gang in Gaza would end up with their share of the aid that ends up getting in, much as the case with contraband in prison in general. So what? So imagine that's the case. Okay, so you're telling me Hamas is stealing the food and your response to that is to cut off the aid coming in. So in other words, Hamas is fine. We're not punishing them. We're not starving out Hamas. We're exclusively punishing the civilian population. And Sam Harris can try to spin this in whatever way he wants to, but maybe you don't like the term genocide. the world leading genocide scholars seem to think it's appropriate. But maybe you don't like that term, but what is this term war? Where's the other military? What military is it? What state is Israel at war with? I thought Jerry Seinfeld just told me there's no such thing as Palestine. So how is Israel at war with them? They're not at war with another army or an air force or a navy because Gaza doesn't have any of that. And so what are you talking about here, man? You're talking about the most powerful military in the region systematically destroying the people that they've held captive for 59 years. Yeah, you know, Dave, I'll tell you why he doesn't want to debate anyone on this. I'm going to give you one extra. from what he wrote in that substack post. Let's go to graphic five here, everyone. For over a decade, Hamas diverted foreign aid that was meant to improve life in Gaza and used it to build the largest bomb shelter our species has ever constructed. Hundreds of miles of tunnels, and yet no Palestinian civilians were allowed to shelter there during the war. So understand what he is conceding to. in that statement. What he is conceding to is that Israel leveled the entirety of the Gaza Strip, which would overwhelmingly kill and maim civilians, knowing that the Hamas militants that they're allegedly targeting are safe underground in the tunnels.

That's what he's admitting to. Yeah, the logic of it is so sociopathic. It's like, you know, look, there was a hostage situation down at the local bank. And you don't understand how evil this guy holding these people hostage is. He built a tunnel underneath the bank so that he wouldn't get hurt. And so we blew up the bank full of civilian. Like, wait, what? It's crazy. Your whole point here is that are this, okay, the civilians are only the victims of Hamas. But then Israel is going to slaughter all of them because they're the victims of Hamas. Well, then I guess they're the victims of both of them. Now, aren't they? You know, by the way, I should mention this since we're doing the segment because I saw you, you did a segment on Sam Harris not that long ago that I saw it, maybe like a month or a month or two ago. And you had a clip about him talking about me that I had never seen before. And I'd seen several of his clips, but I know you've covered some of them. He always just insults me and never takes on anything. I'm saying, that's kind of the game. And this is why he won't debate. But he was taught, you had the clip where Keith said, I never heard him say, where he goes, look, I watched Douglas Murray debate Dave Smith. And Douglas Murray just tore him apart. He totally won. He couldn't have done. He goes, I couldn't have done a better job myself. And then I look at the comments. And it's not that 90% of them agree with Dave. It's that 100% of them agree with Dave. And there was something so, like, look, I'm not saying it's not logically impossible that that could happen, that someone could do a really great job in a debate and 100% of the audience thinks they did a terrible job. you would think it would probably lead you to like rethink some things like if you saw that you would probably go i mean maybe he could have been more effective seeing as how the response was that but in other words this is and this is why i was telling you off there i love this because this is just blatant for everyone to see it's retreatism it's just look you know like you could just convince yourself in your mind that you're winning this debate which is what all the zionists do isn't it right anna every single time you have a debate all the zionists go edna casparian got destroyed in this debate even though The vast majority of the comments are in your favor. And even though Israel's popularity keeps going down and down and down. And every time a Jewish organization or a Zionist organization has a meeting, the whole thing they're discussing is how we're losing this propaganda war. What do we have to do about Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens and Anna Kasparian and all these people? And like what? But every time they have a debate, they act like they won it. But everyone else sees what's happening. And so the reason Sam won't come debate anyone or even just have a conversation with any of us is because he knows that 100% of the audience will see through his bullshit.

So I'm going to go ahead and read what his rationale is. And then I'm going to go right through it. So I'll start with the graphics and then we'll go to this B-roll because as I read the excerpts of his argument, I want you guys to actually see with your own two eyes what has transpired in both Gaza. and the West Bank. So he says many readers and podcast listeners have been dismayed by my enduring support for Israel and now urge me to debate someone, really anyone, drawn from a growing cast of scholars, grifters, and moral lunatics who have made it made that beleaguered country their professional or psychiatric obsession. My general attitude, I'm not interested in exploring all the ways that Israel has missed the mark from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corrupt alliance with the far right to the many crimes committed by settlers in the West Bank to the deaths of innocent non-combatants in several wars. Because none of these failings, however grave, will alter my sense that one, The ethical difference between Israel and her enemies remains vast. And two, the global preoccupation with the Jewish state as though it were the worst villain among nations is contemptible being the product of perennial lies and delusions. Now I'm going to keep reading what he wrote. Then he starts laying this out, okay? He says the following. I think militant Islam is 10 times worse than you think it is. When I talk about jihadists and their various groups, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, the IRGC, etc. I'm talking about people who I consider to be worse than Nazis. My views about the conflict in the Middle East will not fundamentally change unless my critics produce evidence, you're looking at it right now, that Israel has become as evil as her enemies. You can rest assured that if the IDF morphs into a death cult that uses its own civilian population as human shields, if the residents of Tel Aviv condone, as they have, the taking of Palestinian infants, old women, and other non-combatants as hostages. If in no other words, the Israelis begin to resemble the Palestinians, then I won't care who wins this war. If we're being honest, we must concede that there are two very different realities on either side of this conflict, culturally, psychologically, ethically, spiritually, in every way that matters. Yes, Israel has its religious fanatics too, but they aren't the same sort of fanatics we find in Hamas. and Hezbollah. By the way, some of that footage was put out by Betselam, which is an Israeli human rights organization. So that's the real reason why Sam Harris doesn't want to engage in a debate. Because he, and this is the thing that's so sick about it, Dave. He knows the truth. He knows the truth. And he's okay with it.

He's totally fine with what's going on in the Middle East. He doesn't want to say that out loud. He doesn't want to be on camera saying that out loud, but he knows it and he does support it. And so that's why he doesn't want to engage in a debate. Yeah, yeah, no, that's right. And he has always, you know, and he's always, you know, I've really always hated Sam Harris so much. Like I've, from way back in the day, and he was so big. And this is like even before I started podcasting or anything like that. But I always just hated all of his, his horseshit anti-Muslim arguments. And even all of that. And I did not think, you know, he's actually, I think, a pretty smart guy. But Ben Affleck just did not do a good job. debating him on Bill Mars show and he just kind of screeched at him too much. And Jank actually did a much better job when they sat down and had that long debate back in the day that like blew up the internet. But it was always horseshit arguments. Like it was always this like, oh, there are, you know, jihadists aren't all of the Muslims, but look what percentage of them are sympathetic to them. Look what percentage of them believe this or believe that, which is like the weakest argument ever. I mean, it's like in the same sense that. You could make an argument about America, like our version of jihadists are neocons. There are people who just always want to blow shit up, always want to kill people. We got Lindsey Graham's. He's a member of the Senate. He always wants to bomb more things and kill more people. Of course, you see this here, all Sam is doing is just demonizing the other side, and then whitewashing his side. It's the simplest, oldest trick in the book. Israel does about 80% of the things that he listed there, by the way. Maybe not every last one of them, but they take a ton of Palestinian hostages. They openly talk about how they're Amalak and less than human and all this stuff. So again, he has to just distract instead of like actually taking on the argument. And it's not working. What did we hear? I can't remember if it was Basell Smotrich or Itamar Ben-Gvir. It must have been Smotrich. Actually, don't quote me on that, but one of them just this week talked about, oh, we need to kidnap Lebanese women and children to demoralize Lebanon. That's what he said. They say it out loud. And again, Sam knows this. He knows it. He knows that modern day is real. is you want to say that they're not as bad as, you know, a jihadist group. I would say they're definitely on the level, if not worse at this moment, because they're the ones with the power. They're the ones who have a military superpower backing them and giving them 2,000 pound bombs to drop on children's heads. How are you going to argue that? The Israelis are the moral ones when they just carried out a, he won't say it to genocide, but that same Israeli human rights organization, Betzelam, they said that it is.

They said that it's a genocide. So I don't know. Do I believe the Israelis who actually have a moral compass here? Or do I believe this guy who's pretending to be an atheist and some sort of intellectual? Like what kind of intellectualism is this if you refuse to engage in the debate? And, you know, he's. Pretending to be ignorant here, right? What he's saying, when he's making those comparisons, but he's not ignorant. He knows what's going on. He knew about the blockade, three month long blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and he downplayed it intentionally. Yeah, and even like by his own stated framework, you're like, oh, just I hate the Muslims so much. I think they're worse than Nazis. And of course, you realize he just blends them all together. It's the problem in Palestine is jihad. And the problem in the Muslim world is jihad. It's all like, all right, well, I'm certainly not denying that there are major problems in the Muslim world. But has he ever spoken out against any of our alliances with the worst offenders of that? I mean, it's the female. genital mutilation in Kurdistan is horrific. Those are like our closest allies in Iraq and have been for many years. The human rights abuses of Saudi Arabia are just like off the charts. And there's, you know, but it's not the Muslims versus the Jews over there. That's not what's happening. We're in bed with all the Gulf, the Sunni Gulf states. We're at bed, it's majority US sock puppets over there, some of the absolute worst human rights abusers. And even the worst of the Iranian Shiite militias were the ones that we put in charge in Iraq. They were the ones we were fighting with that George W. Bush launched a whole war on behalf of. Of course, we mentioned before Obama supporting the headchoppers and al-Qaeda and ISIS over there. And even if you want to say like Bashar al-Assad and any of those guys are bad too, well, we were in business with them up until we weren't. You know, we propped up Mubarak in Egypt for 40 years. And so even if he, even if he wants to make this argument, where's all of your outrage about that? Oh, that's right. You don't have it. It's just the Palestinians. It's just this one stateless group of people who nobody else sticks up for. The problem is that they're all a bunch of jihadists or something like that. It's just, it's garbage. It's really, it's just dehumanizing. It's the worst, it's the worst aspect of humanity. It's demonizing a group of people who are, are being abused in the most vicious way. Dave, I appreciate your voice. I appreciate how passionate you are about this issue and just about history. So please keep doing what you're doing. Thank you for coming on. I know you have a hard out. So I'm going to let you go. But I also want to give you an opportunity to plug anything you want before you go. Well, thank you for the kind words and right back at you, Anna. And I really, as I said earlier, I really, really do appreciate you guys being so good and telling the truth about all these wars. And yeah, Dave Smith, part of the problem is my podcast. You can find that wherever podcasts are. And comicdaversmith.com, if you want to come see me do stand up. I'm on the road for the rest of the year. So I'll be around. Thank you very much, Anna. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great night. You too.

All right, everybody, we're going to take another break. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about where we are with the economy now that the war continues with Iran. Or maybe it doesn't, I don't know. Nobody knows. We'll be right back. and welcome to Suleiman al-Ameri, who is a new TYT producer. Thank you so much for supporting the show. And thank you to everybody who's been gifting memberships as well. That includes Rage Rock for now, who gifted five TYT memberships. Rosa Roscoe, total baddie. Thank you, gifted five TYT memberships. And so did cheesy finger 79 gifted five TYT memberships. Rosa Rosco also writes it in in our Superchat section and says like, share, and subscribe TYT forever. Thank you, Rose. Wouldn't hurt to listen to her if you're watching us live. Let's go to some more comments in our members section. Ronald FAN says, hey, TYT family, and to you, Dave and Anna, if Trump is very close to a peace deal, and if Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't want the war to end, how can we? And look, Ronald, that's the main question. And it's something I think about every single day. How do we end this? And really the only thing that the only positive thing I see forming in the country right now among ordinary people, ordinary voters, is they're kind of starting to see past the partisan lines and they're starting to open their minds toward working together with their fellow Americans to apply pressure and demand change from both of our parties. Whether we like it or not, we live under this two-party system. Whether we like it or not, our political system now has. legalized bribery baked in. So the only thing that can really fight back against that is a critical mass. But we're not going to get that critical mass if we're constantly fighting each other on other issues that are kind of thrown in our faces by those who want us to fight.

All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. And special thanks today for sticking around a little longer than we usually have our co-host for the first hour. So with that in mind, there's a lot more to get to. Today's been a crazy day. Why don't we talk a little bit about the economy and where we are with crude oil? The cost of crude oil has now crept past $90 a barrel in the wake of Trump threatening a total seizure of Carg Island. Now he has backed off of that, at least for now, but that did have an impact on the price of oil. Now, even before. he had made those threats. Oil prices were already rising after Trump had announced that he would retaliate against Iran after Iran was accused of shooting down one of our Apache helicopters near the Strait of Hormuz. This is something that I covered in more detail while speaking with Trita Parsi on yesterday's show. I am not convinced that Iran shot down our, or used a drone specifically, a Shahid drone to attempt to down one of our Apache helicopters, and you can go back and see the reasons why I believe that. But nonetheless, after Trump said that he was going to retaliate, already there was a spike in the price of oil. U.S. crude oil futures rose 35 cents to $90.38 per barrel at 1.15 p.m. Eastern Time. Brent Futures, the international benchmark, ticked two cents lower to $93 and zero cents. And then today, after Trump promised to take Carg Island, that's when we saw yet another increase in the price of oil. Oil prices jumped earlier Thursday as U.S. as the United States launched its latest round of strikes against Iran. There were strikes against Iran as we covered yesterday as well. Prices then briefly turned negative after U.S. Central Command said it had completed the strikes, raising hopes among investors who are way too easy to convince that the situation might not escalate further. Now, as I speak at this very moment and things are subject to change, Trump appears to have backed off of more bombing. However, he could be bluffing. We don't know. He could just be saying that in order to, you know, have the markets react favorably to his statement. Because he is worried about the economy. He is worried about the price of oil. He is worried about the markets. And that's the main reason why he taps his little buddy over at Axios to amplify his BS messaging about how a peace deal is on the horizon. Clearly, a peace deal is not on the horizon. Nonetheless, in retaliation, Iranian media reported that Tehran carried out several attacks on US facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as attacks on US vessels that were attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz. So my point is, even this limbo that we find ourselves in, this like war purgatory, is already

bad enough for the economy. And really, there is no end in sight. And what makes matters worse, there's quite a bit of censorship in the media. So even if you want to dig deeper, go past whatever's being reported by legacy media and figure out what's really taking place, it's hard to figure it out because of how much information is being suppressed. And I just honestly don't believe that we're close to an end. Every time it seems like maybe Trump is being you know, honest about reaching out to Tehran to reach an MOU, a memorandum of understanding, which would pave away to actual good faith peace negotiations, Israel will do something to sabotage that, right? So still, prices will likely surge as oil inventories decrease. Because if... You have Iran attacking U.S. vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. You have the Trump administration saying that we will keep that blockade, our blockade of the blockade in place. No matter what you think of this entire situation. The main point here is that oil and gas supplies have been limited thanks to this ongoing conflict. So oil industry officials are also warning that prices are about to soar as the commercial and government inventories are rapidly declining. And what that's referring to is our strategic oil reserves. Trump has been tapping into those strategic oil reserves in order to mitigate some of the wild swings in oil prices. And even though he's doing that, we're still experiencing a rise in the price that we're paying at the pump. There's no question about that. But the point is that it would be a lot worse if we weren't tapping into our strategic oil reserves. Now, eventually we're going to run out. And there have been estimates in regard to when we run out. Some believe it'll happen at the end of summer. Some believe that this will happen earlier. But nonetheless, some investors could be wiped out within weeks. The executives have warned coinciding with peak summer travel season. Disaster. Absolutely disastrous. So industry projections indicate that decline of these inventories could see oil prices rising upward of 50%. Remember, this is what's being said during investor calls. Just yesterday, we shared with you what the executives over at Bank of America are telling their investors about the stock market. For those who are heavily invested, might be time to take your money and run. I mean, by the way, that's what they're telling their investors. You decide to do whatever you want to do with your own investments. Now, with all that in mind, you have Donald Trump.

you know, commenting on the pain, the economic pain, the American people are experiencing, this war-related inflation. And his response to it was not good. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now. Something you did not. You know, we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran until right now. We took out the other night, 22 ships. Late night with no lights, because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out. That's why oil is $85 a barrel. Oh, wow, that was definitely a persuasive message that will ease any tensions that the American people are feeling toward the Trump administration and its handling of this disastrous war. Why don't we actually hear from the American people? Yeah, I would just say if I'm an American based upon the polling, I'm saying, I hear the president who I go, what the heck did I just hear? What the heck is going on? One of the most politically toned deaf statements I've ever heard, and you can see it in the numbers right here. Americans don't think, don't like the inflation. They hate the inflation. They don't love the inflation. They hate the inflation. Inflation net approval, minus 50 points are worse. 50 points underwater or worse. Total polls per president. Trump in 2026, already eight polls. already at least eight polls in which his net approval rating on inflation or the cost of living is negative 50 points or worse. Every other president in every other year, the answer is zero. Trump is not only the first one to reach negative 50 points or worse, net approval rating on inflation. He's done it many of times. So when I hear Trump's statement, I just, I feel like Mrs. White and Kluke going, what is what is happening here?

I kind of love Harry Anton. I just, I love his energy. Make of that comment what you will. But nonetheless, I mean, what he's saying there is obviously true. There's growing rage among the American people. Because remember, this guy, as controversial as he might be, people crossed party lines in some cases to vote for Trump in 2024 because of the affordability issue. And Trump took those concerns and he wiped his ass with it. That's what he did. That's just the fact of the matter. How can you deny it? And it has hurt his popularity. It's hurting the Republican Party, but he continues to do it anyway. So the real question is, why? Why? What could possibly motivate this guy to continue carrying water for Israel and its desires for regime collapse in Iran? I mean, that's the question we should all be asking ourselves. Because there's something more happening here than just money in politics, if you ask me. Now, some people think like, oh, he's always just been, you know, one of those pro-war boomers. And if you go back in time enough, you'll see some of his comments where he's, you know, adversarial in his commentary, antagonistic in his commentary toward Iran. Okay, fair enough. But you can't deny the fact that the guy has. really positioned himself as like an anti-war hero, anti-interventionist hero. I'm not going to start any new wars. We all knew it was a lie if you paid close attention to his foreign policy in his first term. But he made bold promises. He repeated them again and again and again. I'm going to do something about affordability, no new wars. And he betrayed the people who voted for him. Trump also previously claimed to have conducted some sort of secret military operation where a hundred million barrels of oil were removed from the straight. And though, by the way, some of the experts and those who do the tracking do show that there was some oil transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. It's nowhere near 100 million barrels of oil. Like, come on. And Brett Erickson, who's actually the managing principal at the obsidian risk advisors and closely tracks and monitors oil shipments in the Persian Gulf, spoke to the Washington Post. And here's what he said. The president is making a remarkably dubious claim. And even if some ships are getting through, this is not a long-term solution. Are we going to perpetually be the chauffeur for the Gulf? I don't know. And what worries me the most is I don't think Trump knows. We got to take our final break. Let's do that when we come back. I'm going to tell you about the Trump administration's latest.

Peace target, pro peace target. And it was someone who was on the show this week. We'll be right back. Special thanks to both Box and Woman AF. They both gifted five TYT memberships. Thank you so much for your support, everyone. You know, doing the type of commentary we do, we have become a target, as you can imagine. And while I can't get into details about any of that, your support really, really matters right now. So thank you. Box also writes in and says, Islam is in fact still icky. But now I see why Sam railed against it for so long. for so long, so hard for so long. Sam radicalized the generation into deep distrust of Islam for what appears to be nothing more than his love of Judaism. Can't pass an amendment without both sides coming together to do it. Totally agree with you on that. I would say, look, the Muslim religion, it's just like any other religion. It depends on... how a person interprets it. And so if you have a fundamentalist or extremist interpretation of any religious doctrine, yeah, you're gonna. carry out things that I obviously do not favor. That goes for, by the way, evangelical Christians. I mean, it goes for anyone that has a fundamentalist understanding of their religious doctrine. Congressman Bang Holio says, if you made peace with Tucker Carlson and Candace, why not Jimmy Dor? My disagreements with Jimmy Dorr are not political. It's about the way he treated me. And I'll just leave it there. But in terms of his politics, I think on foreign policy, he's right about a lot. So I'll give him that.

I feel like Mrs. White and Kluke, what is what is happening here? I have to read a few comments from Ecclactic miscellaneous because I love them so much. Eclectic is in our member section. I understand why Israel is featured so much on the show, but will Graham Platner's landslide be covered? With the midterms heating up, I think it's important to hear about other issues voters are concerned about. Yes, Graham Platner 1. It's great. Jank and I are a little bit different when it comes to electoralism. Jank is very optimistic about electoralism. I am not. So that's not to say that, you know, I have like bad thoughts about Graham Platner. I'm glad that Graham Platner beat Susan Collins. There's no question about that. But let's wait and see. Like I think. Look, I'm going to be honest with you guys. I don't want to find myself in the same situation I found myself in after I provided cover for John Fetterman. He had that stroke. He had a terrible debate performance. And let's just give these people a chance to show us what they're really made of first. And then we'll give them their flowers if and when they deserve it. But I want you guys to remember. Like don't fall into the cult of personality. Like these are people who signed up to be public servants. They signed up to serve you. So let's wait for them to show what they're going to do. And then we'll judge. You get what I'm saying? So I am happy he won. I think he's better than Susan Collins. We've seen what Susan Collins is made of. And I'm not a fan. Let's just put it that way. But here's the other comment I wanted to read from Eclectic. I think the youngsters would say Sam Harris is low-key-de-lulu. They would say that. They would say that. But I doubt the youngsters are watching Sam Harris to begin with. Anyway, I want to talk a little bit about something that caught my attention over at... the free press. They had an exclusive, gee, I wonder how. And I'm concerned about this. So let's get into it. Israel and the lobby have a deep-seated interest in making sure that the United States is militarily involved all over the world because they want an American military. that's at the ready if Israel gets into trouble. So whenever you talk about restraint, like the Quincy Institute in Washington talks about restraint, this raises the hackles of the lobby. John Mearsheimer's timing couldn't be better. When he made that statement on Tucker Carlson's show, which was just published yesterday, the free press also published something.

Their piece, titled Exclusive, Will the U.S. deport Treata Parsi is very much in line with what John Mearsheimer said in that video. Because it turns out that Treata Parsi is the co-founder of the Quincy Institute and has been a target of the pro-war Israel defenders for a while now. And what's really concerning is that there appears to be a campaign. to get Trita Parsi deported from the United States because he has the audacity to call for restraint in our foreign policy. I'm not kidding. So we're going to get into some of the excerpts here. It turns out that the warthirsty sinus surrounding Donald Trump have Parsi in their crosshairs. And that's what concerns me the most. Because if you look at who has been targeted by this administration already, simply for protesting the genocide in Gaza, simply for having a last name. that makes lunatics like Laura Lumer think that these individuals in America are somehow related to military generals in Iran. These are the people that the Trump administration has deported, has tried to punish. And I believe them when they say that they're going to go after treat a policy. So here's what we know based on what the free press is reporting in there. exclusive. And gee, I mean, really ask yourselves, how did the free press get this inside look into what the administration is planning to do when it comes to a man who co-founded an organization that's trying to, you know, prevent us from all of these foreign entanglements that has destroyed our country? We're drowning in debt because we've spent trillions of dollars fighting Israel's wars in the Middle East. But okay. Jay Solomon, who wrote this piece in the free press, says, in the eyes of some inside the Trump administration, Parsi isn't just another Washington pundit eager to share his point of view. The State Department has launched an investigation of Parsi and could try to deport him, according to U.S. officials and documents reviewed by the free press. Parsi was born in Iran, grew up in Sweden. has lived in the United States for over 25 years and holds a green card. So I didn't know that Treata Parsi had a green card. I thought he was already a U.S. citizen. This is concerning because Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student who was involved in the anti-war protests, remember he was a green card holder. He was targeted by the administration. He was imprisoned by the Trump administration over his protests against.

the slaughter campaigns Israel's been carrying out against the Palestinian people. He wasn't able to witness the birth of his first child because he was behind bars, a political prisoner in the United States of America. So apparently that Secretary of State we have Marco Rubio, who I think is better referred to as Tremendo Come Pinga. is involved in this. So the secretary has been very clear, said a Trump administration official, about Secretary of State Marco Rubio's efforts to combat Iranian influence inside the U.S. Iranian influence inside the U.S. So hold on, let's pause for a second. They consider it Iranian influence if you happen to be advocating against wars. If you happen to be advocating against wars on behalf of a foreign country, by the way. Interesting. Good to know. Good to know. But let me give you more. Let's put that back up again. So they say, anyone who seeks to undermine the United States, we're taking a hard look at. That includes people who support adversaries of ours and whose work furthers their agenda and undermines our security. I'm going to go ahead and say this as an American citizen who's protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. I support Iran over Israel. I do. Iran is not engaging in slaughter campaigns in multiple countries. Iran didn't go out of its way to overthrow leaders of sovereign nations in order to turn them into failed states, much like Libya, or turn them into countries that are now led by former al-Qaeda terrorists, as is the case in Syria. Israel has destroyed the Middle East. All because they want to expand their borders. So if I'm doing a comparative analysis here, which country do I think is better in the Middle East? I'm going to go with Iran. Come for me, come for me. Just absolute garbage. The secretary has been very clear, said a Trump administration of, oh, I already read that. So last year, Marco Rubio declared that. The way the law is written, it allows him to personally determine that the alien's presence, by the way, I mean, okay, aliens presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest. That's a direct quote from Marco Rubio. Even when what that person says or believes is entirely legal, as is the case with Trita Parsi, by the way. Solomon then provides examples of others who have been targeted for deportations because they refuse to choke on Israel's nut sack all day. And so in April, the state department said that federal agents had arrested the niece and grandniece of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian terror commander, killed in a 2020 airstrike ordered by Trump.

The women are fighting their deportation and deny that they're related to Soleimani, story that we covered here at TYT. They're not related to Qasem Soleimani. And by the way, even if they were, why are they being punished for something Qasem Soleimani did in another country? Is there any evidence that they supported that, aided and abetted that? No, of course not. But it doesn't matter. They have the last name Soleimani, so they must be deported. Disgusting. But back to Parsi. So since its inception in 2019, Quincy, meaning the Quincy Institute, which he co-founded, had advocated scaling back the US's military footprint around the world. Oh my gosh, that's so terrible. and ending what it describes as Washington's Forever Wars in the Middle East. The think tank has also promoted a more accommodating approach toward traditional American adversaries like China and Russia. In other words, hey, maybe we don't need to gear up toward war. Maybe we find a way of working together. Maybe there could be a partnership, a give and take. Maybe through diplomacy, we can find a way to change some of the behaviors we don't like. But unfortunately, that's sacrilege here in the United States with this military industrial complex we have, with all the money and profits that flow from working class Americans to just a handful of executives over at Raytheon, Northrop Garmin, Boeing. You get the point. Palantir. Remember, there are real moneyed interests at play here. And then you have the Israelis who were all supposed to be cattle for. And it has aggressively, as Solomon writes, pushed for the U.S. to minimize its military support for Israel. Boom. That's the real issue here. That's the real issue. This is the reason why that... Laura Lumer has made Treata Parsi a target. And if I know one thing about Donald Trump, he listens to lunatics like Laura Lumer. In 2024, many Iran hawks and Parsi critics were stunned when JD Vance, then a U.S. senator from Ohio, delivered a major foreign policy address at a conference co-hosted by Quincy and the American conservative. Parsi sat in the front row. See, I didn't know that JD Vance gave a speech at that event. And now I have a little more clarity as to why it is that the Israel firsters in America are under the impression that JD Vance is a dove, is an anti-war person. I don't believe he is. I think he wanted to position himself or brand himself as someone who is because he's young enough to know how young conservatives feel about our endless foreign entanglements.

One of the other main reasons why Trudey and the Quincy Institute has become a target is because the message of restraint has been appealing for Americans across the political spectrum. The Quincy Institute has provided an opportunity for people on the left and the right to work together toward anti-war means. And so, Parsis loathe by a faction of the Iranian diaspora who revel in the bombing of their homeland and the slaughter of the Iranian people. That's the reality. I know I'm supposed to say, oh, the Iranian diaspora, it's just a faction within the diaspora. I'm supposed to pretend as though they're concerned about the Iranian people, which is why they want to bomb them to death. Yeah, I'm not going to regurgitate their lies. Some Republicans and anti-regime activists have been pursuing Parsi for years. In 2020, Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Braun of Indiana and Ted Cruz, all these Israel firsters, of course, said the National Iranian American Council, NIAC, a separate group that was started by Parsi in the early 2000s and supported diplomatic accommodation between Washington and Tehran was amplifying regime propaganda in the U.S. So they literally sought a DOJ investigation into whether NIAC was illegally working as an unregistered foreign agent. It's amazing, right? Looks like Ted Cruz is worried about unregistered foreign agents operating in the United States. Not the Israeli ones, of course, but. any organization that might be favorable toward the Iranian regime, which there's no indication. There's no evidence that Nyak was a foreign agent or is a foreign agent at all. It's just that it's one of the only organizations here in the United States that advocates for peace in the Middle East as opposed to us constantly carrying out wars on behalf of Israel. Nyak called the letter by the U.S. senators a McCarthyite targeting of an Iranian American civil rights organization and said, It is a crucial voice for those who don't want war in their home country. But again, in the context of the United States, which is dominated and controlled by the warmongers, that's sacrilege. Parsi and the Quincy Institute are taking these threats seriously. So as the Free Press writes, the CEO of the Quincy Institute, Laura Lumpay, told their employees and financial supporters back in April that its chairman had agreed with her request to cover legal costs to prepare for and, if necessary, fight a deportation attack on Trita Parsi. The memo said that Quincy was in the process of retaining an immigration lawyer who had advised that we immediately prepare a writ of habeas corpus to have at the ready if Parsi were suddenly detained by immigration officials. So you tell me, does this sound like a liberal democracy? Are we living in a liberal democracy? Are we really protected by the First Amendment?

I mean, in theory we are. But if you upset the precious, war-thirsty, bloodthirsty Iranian diaspora that wants their homeland bombed, you'll be a target. If you don't want to do the bidding of Israel, you'll be a target. They'll censor you. They'll destroy your livelihood. And if you're unfortunately merely a green card holder as opposed to a naturalized American citizen, they'll try to find a way to deport you. Here's the thing. I mean, if the United States and Israel were confident in what they're doing, if they genuinely believe that they were doing the right thing and they had the people backing them in what they're doing, I mean, certainly the Israeli people back all of this chaos and slaughter, that ain't our country. But I want to talk about my country. I lost my trade of thought because it's just such a fury. It's an infuriating story, but it just shows you how you have to fight to protect what we are supposed to have in terms of liberal democratic values. Because the second you become too complacent, our government will try to find ways to violate your rights. And that's what they're trying to do right now to treat a I just, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. I'll stay on the story for any future developments. But you guys have seen Trita on the show. I was co-hosting with him yesterday. He is the most mild-mannered, calm. All he calls for is, first of all, he does analysis that's accurate. But aside from that, he talks about what the options are. to get to a place of peace. And nothing offends the Israelis and the U.S. war machine more than that. All right. In our bonus episode today, there's a lot to get to. I want to do right by our super producer Taylor Ellis and talk a little bit about the rug pull that we're all about to experience in our retirement accounts. And it is linked to Elon Musk and his company, t.com slash join to become a member. I'll see you there.

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