'BradCast' 3/30/2026 (Encore: New World Democracy Report Warns U.S. Facing 'Unprecedented Autocratization' Under Trump)

This is Bradcast producer Desi Doyen. We're off today. Today's broadcast was originally recorded on March 19th, 2026. There is a void out there now. It'll be filled by the voices of Moscow, the voices of Beijing, the voices of Pyongyang, and the voices of Tehran. And now, maybe that void will finally be filled by... Voice of America. Well, I don't know why I came here tonight. That's why. I got the feeling that something right. I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair. And I'm wondering how I'll get down with stairs. From Pacific Radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast, as heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, and on dozens of other fine affiliate stations on both the public airwaves and the internets around the country and the world, filling that void, blanketing planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker. And all-round, swell fellow says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us today for another thrilling edition of the Bradcast. Before we get into the full muck and mire of today's show, I want to spend a second here. This is something that came up briefly as sort of an aside during my conversation on yesterday's show with Ryan Cooper of the American Prospect in our... Conversation about whether Trump's dumb war in Iran would finally, finally make the national security case. For moving the world, the U.S. and the world, I guess, to finally to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar so that we don't have to rely on the unpredictability of stupid forever wars in the Middle East for oil and natural gas or whatever this war is actually for out there. this quagmire that we seem to be in once again today, which seems to be both expanding and, yes, continuing to spike the price of oil and gas today. But we also, we mentioned, so I mentioned that point with this point with Ryan, and we also will mention it necessarily, quickly, in today's Green News report a little bit later with Desi Doyen later this hour. Yes, we will. Hi. Hi. But again, even there, you know, goes by very quickly. So I just, it's, this story is so insane, insane that I just want to stop for a second, make sure that we all get this. The New York Times, I believe, broke this story originally this week. It begins this way. The Trump administration is considering a new strategy.

for throttling the country's offshore wind industry, after federal judges blocked each of its five previous attempts to stop major wind farms under construction off the East Coast. Wind farms, by the way, that would provide energy to millions of homes and businesses. At a time when energy prices are spiking, thanks both to Trump's dumb war and the insatiable drive for energy required by artificial intelligence data centers and so forth. So amid all of that, Trump is still trying to prevent the construction of clean, cheap. renewable energy from wind because one time years and years ago he got mad that a wind farm would you know sully the view he thought of of the ocean from one of its golf courses in Scotland so now we all have to pretend that wind kills whales causes cancer and is some sort of a national security threat to the nation or whatever idiocy that he is still out there claiming even now back to the times Senior administration officials are drafting settlement agreements that would pay nearly $1 billion to total energies, the French energy company behind two planned wind farms off of New York State and North Carolina, according to documents reviewed by the Times, including copies of the agreements. Pay them. Pay them with taxpayer dollars, a billion dollars to not develop those wind farms. Under the terms of their proposed settlements, the Interior Department would cancel the leases in federal waters that were struck during the Biden administration for these two projects known as attentive energy and Carolina Long Bay. According to the documents, the Justice Department would then pay more than $928 million to total energy. reimbursing the company for its winning bid in lease sales during the Biden administration. So we are paying them money to not build. Energy farms, wind farms. Right in the middle of an energy crisis, paying them to go away. Which is mind-blowing. This is what Ryan, when we spoke to him yesterday, sort of quipped about, that he would not build wind farms off the coast of New York for half that much. Yeah.

So in exchange, total energy would abandon its plans to begin building the wind farms. It would also commit to investing in natural gas infrastructure in Texas. So stop building the clean energy and you must invest in dirty fossil fuel energy down in Texas as the Trump administration prioritizes the production of fossil fuels over renewables like wind and solar power. So we will be using taxpayer money to pay a French company to not build clean, renewable energy here. And I just thought that that was so incredible. And we sort of keep, you know, speeding by it on this show. We mentioned it. But so I wanted to slow down, take a second to make sure you understood what the Trump administration is hoping to do here. It's unclear whether total energies will accept the proposed settlements if the company refuses the offers, though the Trump administration would still cancel the leases. The documents show, according to the Times, leading to costly litigation that both sides might be eager to avoid. I know I might be. Attentive energy would sit in federal waters off 54 miles south of Jay Jones Beach, New York. Once fully operational, it would produce enough electricity to power more than one million homes and businesses. But not if Donald Trump has his way. So, hey, if you live in New York, if you live anywhere around there where you're seeing your energy prices spike. Well help was on the way until Donald Trump decided to use your tax money to stop that help. To justify the sweeping move, Interior Official said the Defense Department had produced a classified report that found the wind farms threatened national security, the developers, the projects, and several states sued thereafter. Federal judges repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration in the five cases where he tried to stop these already. partially built or almost completed wind farms. He lost in all of those cases. Several of the judges said that they were unpersuaded by the government's national security claims. After reviewing the classified reports, the report which has not been made public, so all we can do is go by what the judges said, who were not impressed. Until now, the administration is... Zero for five in its efforts to stop wind farms under construction. These settlements here would be the first time that it targeted wind farms that have not even yet to begin construction, but have won these leases.

Just, I mean, unbelievable. So, as noted, more on this later in the Green News report. Yes. But I wanted to make sure that you heard this story, understood it, because this is, of course, the sort of thing that happens in kleptocracies under authoritarian governments. But guess what? Quote. The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history. That, according to one of the world's top democracy researchers in a brand new report out this week. Quote, by magnitude of decline on the annual reports index, the 2025 plunge in Democratic values here in the U.S. is the largest one-year drop in American history going back to 1789. That is, in other words, the entire period covered by data in this annual report. Only Trump 1.0, his first term, compares. The varieties of Democracy's Institute, or VEDEM, as it's known, a research group based at Sweden's University of Gothenburg, cites, quote, suppression and intimidation of media and dissenting voices, unquote, has a key reason for the, quote, derailment of democracy in the United States. The researchers say that freedom of expression in the U.S., quote, is now at its lowest level since the end of World War II. The findings are featured in the 26 edition of VDEM's annual democracy report, which finds that the U.S. and 43 other countries are, quote, autocracizing. which I did not even realize was a word until today, while only 12 are becoming more democratic. The researchers compiled detailed data sets and they produce so-called liberal democracy index or LDI scores for more than 200 countries and territories around the globe. This year's report describes what the researchers call a, quote, bleak reality for citizens, finding, quote, the center of gravity for human experience in global governance has shifted heavily toward authoritarianism. By V. Dem's assessment, four of the five most populous countries in the world are now autocracies, India, China, Indonesia, and Pakistan. And the fifth, the U.S. is now, well, still sort of an electoral democracy, though it has lost its status as a liberal democracy due to changes during Trump's first year in office.

The researchers say Trump's first term was, quote, laying a foundation, but that his second term has been much more significant with a, quote, rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency. So this report, 52 pages, is alarming for a whole bunch of reasons, for a whole bunch of nations, but mostly for the U.S. In a special seven-page section that is included in the report, the section is titled In Focus Autocracization in the USA. Can't even say it. It's a hard word. The group named the steady state, one of the experts in the group, they're an organization of over 300 former national security and intelligence professionals. They are cited for their report, finding that the USA is moving into competitive authoritarianism, pointing to executive overreach and erosion of judicial and legislative checks. Some of the bullet points from that special section on U.S. autocratization. Under Trump's presidency, the level of democracy in the U.S. has fallen back to the same level as in 1965. Yet, the situation is fundamentally different than it was during the civil rights era. In 2025, the derailment of democracy is marked by executive overreach, undermining the rule of law, along with far-reaching suppression. and intimidation of media and dissenting voices. Legislative constraints, the worst affected aspect of U.S. democracy cited by the scholars, is losing one-third of its value in the U.S. in 2025 and reaching its lowest point in over 100 years, according to this index. Civil rights and equality before the law are also... rapidly declining, failing, falling to late 1960s levels. Freedom of expression, as I noted, is now at its lowest level since the end of World War II. And though the report finds electoral components of U.S. democracy remain stable in this year's liberal democracy index, election-specific indicators are reassessed only in electoral years. And so the 2025 scores are actually based on the quality of the 2024. elections so don't be fooled the report notes given the worsening quality of elections under trump 1.0 his first term electoral aspects of u.s democracy now deserve a closer assessment as they try to carry out in this special report

Within the annual report, focused on the U.S., they talk about during the first term in office, indicators for electoral violence, election government intimidation, voting irregularities, electoral management, body autonomy. That worsened during Trump's first term. And now in the second, the international report warns, Trump is seeking control over elections. Actions taken in 2025 raised concerns regarding the integrity of the 26 midterms. This primarily concerns attempts to assert federal control over election processes. which must be decentralized and state run, according to the Constitution. It then runs through a whole bunch of stories that we have covered weekend, week out, month in, month out over the past year. It's a stunning to see it all collected together. It's quite a big body of work there. Well, yeah. I mean, like I say, stories of the DOJ demanding election records and voter registration lists from nearly every state. The FBI executing a warrant in Fulton County. After, you know, Trump in that same place back in 2020, encouraged the Georgia Secretary of State to find enough votes to help him steal the election. March 2025, Trump signing an executive order on supposedly election integrity to mandate proof of citizenship for registration and other things, much of which has been blocked by the courts, thankfully. But he's now trying to get. Congress to pass these things, which is actually the right way to do these things instead of by executive order. But these are not good things. These are things that will end up disenfranchising potentially millions of Americans. And almost all of that, we have covered on the broadcast over the past year or more. But yeah, seeing it pulled together in just a few paragraphs from this international group of experts from the outside looking in is kind of a bit startling, it seems to me. More warnings from the special U.S. section of this year's V-DEM report. They cite federal government rollbacks of civil rights protections, attempts to suppress left-leaning groups, and a steep drop in legislative constraints on Trump owing to a Republican-controlled Congress. Many aspects relate to freedom of expression. VDEM calls government censorship of the media the, the quote, preferred weapon of choice for dictators.

and aspiring autocrats around the world. So, yeah, naturally, he would try to tamp down freedom of expression. Furthermore, this year's report says free speech rights are, quote, often the first domino to fall when countries autocratize. VDEM points to media self-censorship, quote, a preemptive measure to avoid direct censorship or persecution when countries are becoming less democratic. They note that self-censorship is a growing issue in nearly 40 countries, including the U.S. Though this VDEM report was originally brought to my attention by CNN's Brian Stelter. some of whose summary I am sharing with you along with a text from the report itself. But one wonders how many punches the folks at CNN. are now pulling in acts of self-censorship because they know they're about to be taken over. They are being taken over by a top Trump ally in this guy, David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, which has just purchased Warner Brothers, which owns CNN. And Ellison is believed, you know, likely to dismantle the news network, CNN, or at least turn it into something more like Fox News.

and defense secretary Pete Hegseth over the weekend. While he was complaining about CNN's accurate reporting regarding the Iran war, said, quote, the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better. So you think folks at CNN are aware of that? Are becoming more careful about what they say about this administration, knowing that their jobs and potentially their entire news network at this point is on the line? Trump notes Stelter frequently claims that news organizations and other institutions are biased against him, a view that has motivated many of his actions criticized in the report. And to be sure, the group's ranking for freedom of expression in the U.S. remains far higher than in most countries. Stelter took pains to point out for some reason. But Trump-era, quote, attacks on the press, academia, civil liberties, and dissenting voices, unquote, are all having an impact. The report asserts in its special section focused on the U.S. They, the report's authors, also say that, quote, the judicial system, and in the end, the Supreme Court, is likely to be vital in stopping the Trump administration's autocratic advances. Well, at least the judicial system everywhere but the Supreme Court up until now over this past year or so has frankly been heroic in their efforts to, with judges, you know, enforcing the rule of law or trying to, enforcing constitutional rights or trying to by and large. Arguably the lower courts. including appointees by Democrats and Republicans alike, and yes, even a number of Trump appointees. They frankly have been saving us as far as I can see it over the past year from most of the worst excesses of this administration. The corrupted Supreme Court majority, there are a different matter. They have, you know, for now, largely gone the way of the corrupted Republican majority in Congress, though from time to time, even the Supreme Court has managed to do the right thing once or twice, as the report cites in its section on the most dramatic Democratic decline in American history. They note the Trump action tracker. led by Professor Christina Pagel documents actions and statements of President Trump and his administration echoing those of authoritarian regimes. They report 2,651 such instances, 704 directly undermining democracy, 459 weakening civil rights, 689 remarks by Trump suppressing dissent. And 172 hollowing the state, as they describe it. Perhaps the most illustrative example they note is the president's own declaration that the only limits to his powers are, quote, his own morality and that only the courts, not Congress, have the power to restrict his domestic agenda, quote, under certain circumstances. Yet when the Supreme Court.

imposed restrictions on his worldwide tariff regime. The report notes he called the ruling, quote, terrible and lambasted the justices, quote, fools and quote, lapdogs, beholden to foreign countries. President Trump then imposed a new 10% global tariff under a different legal provision, in effect circumventing the courts. So is there any hopeful news, Brad? Anything hopeful from this report, pretty please? Well, yeah, sort of. The researchers say that they have studied numerous examples of countries, quote, making U-turns away from autocracy. And that, quote, elections were often pivotal windows of opportunity. And the first electoral cycle after autocratization or attempted autocratization was often decisive. Whatever happens in that first cycle, that first election cycle, after an autocratic takeover. That is often decisive as far as where the country moves from here. So in case you're wondering why we spend so much time focused on elections or why I refer to this year's midterm elections so frequently as the critical 2026 midterm elections, well, there you go. Take it to the bank. Or in this case, take it to the ballot box. Please. So that's the new report from VDEM. All is going well. But it does give us, again, a way out. Yes, a pathway. At least it offers us one. Will we take it? That's a different question. We'll find out. But speaking of Trump's attacks on the press and defiance of Congress and the rule of law and the courts, the lower courts anyway, diligent efforts to prevent Trump from being able to do that, trying to supply a check to his runaway attempted autocratization. Well. Here's the story. I realize now for regular listeners that this story might sound like one that we already covered last week, but it's actually a new part of this story. It follows a new court hearing this week on the same and or similar topic that we covered in last week's story related to this. This is also, I should note, very good news in a story that we have been covering closely at this point since the very early days of Trump's second term. regarding the unlawful shuddering of the 84-year-old, congressionally mandated worldwide news service known as the Voice of America, that the U.S. has been proud to offer around the globe now for decades. We have been joined several times on this show by Steve Herman.

The longtime voice of America journalist and chief of its Asian bureaus originally, he then went on to serve as its White House bureau chief. Here was Steve being interviewed by 60 minutes on this topic just last year. The Nazis wanted to shut down the voice of America during World War II. The communists in the Soviet Union and in China. The Ayatollahs and North Korea wanted to see the voice of America silenced. It was done finally by people in our own government. Right. The Nazis couldn't do it, but Donald Trump could. So it was done by the people on our own government. But guess what? It is also being undone by at least some of those same people, the people in our government in our courts, at least. A federal judge this week ordered the Trump administration to restore the government run Voice of America's operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave. back to work. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, by the way, gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media, or U.S. AGM, that's Voice of America's parent agency, gave them one week. To put together a plan for putting Voice of America back on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since Trump issued an executive order, an unlawful order to shut it down in violation of governmental statutes, mandating the operation of VOA as a reliable, authoritative source of news that must be accurate, objective, comprehensive, and must not be a source of U.S. propaganda. By law. Despite that mandate, twice-failed Arizona Republican candidate, Kari Lake, a former news anchor herself, local news anchor in Phoenix, who you would think would give a damn about the news, but apparently not. Or at least she, you know, cares about being in power more than I don't know. She was tapped by Trump to lead the VOA, and then she somehow also put herself in charge of its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting networks, and other sister networks of VOA. Kari Lake then fired pretty much everyone. at both the parent organization, U.S. Agency for Global Media and at Voice of America, stopped paying the contractors at all of those other networks and only kept enough people around so that she could say that, well, the agencies, they're still running by law.

And she unlawfully began broadcasting, at least over some of those airwaves, U.S. right-wing media outlets, with, yes, pro-Trump, pro-administration propaganda around the world. Well, last week we covered Judge Lamberth ruling, finding that Kari Lake did not actually have legal authority. to lead the parent company, USAGM, at all, and therefore did not have the authority to fire its employees and those at Voice of America. In this week's decision, Judge Lamberth ruled on the actions that she had taken to respond to Trump's order, essentially shelving, firing more than a thousand of VOA's 1,147 employees. Quote, Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision, Lamberth wrote in his decision, ordering the reinstatement of all Voice of America and USAGM employees and mandating a plan to put the network back up on the air as required by law as soon as possible. Lake, quote, repeatedly thumbed her nose, unquote, at legal requirements as the Trump administration dismantled voice of America, said the judge. The judge wrote that Lake had said that she, quote, has no opinion about which countries censor and repress their people, or even the basic question of which regions of the world qualify as significant as would be required. Just to feign compliance, unquote, with the law, said the judge. He also called out the government's arbitrary and capricious actions and its, quote, hasty, indiscriminate approach. Notably, in light of the war in Iran, Among the failures listed by Judge Lamberth is that Voice of America was unable to operate its service in that country at current staffing levels, despite it being legally required to do so. And by the way, despite the fact that more than 3 million people in Iran have been dislocated by this war, and despite Donald Trump out there calling on them a few weeks ago saying, you know, trying to get the message out to the Iranian people. to stand up and take over their government, well, normally the Voice of America would be reporting on that, would be reporting on Trump's calls, not because it was a call coming from the U.S., not because they supported it, but because it was news. It was a factual thing that occurred. It was a factual thing that occurred, and that message could have gotten out to the people that Donald Trump probably wanted to get it to, but it was not gotten out to them apparently because... Voice of America's Donald Trump ordered that Voice of America be taken apart. Brilliant.

Lake had denounced Judge Lamberth's ruling last week back on March 7 saying that it would be appealed. Since then, Trump has nominated a woman named Sarah Rogers, the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, to run U.S. AGM. That requires Senate approval, however. That was a step that was not taken by Kari Lake. She never had Senate approval, therefore she was running it unlawfully. The judge ordered that all employees placed on leave pursuant to a government directive last year, return to work by March 23. Patty Witticuswara, the Voice of America's current White House Bureau chief. She took the job after Steve Herman left that. And she's also a plaintiff in this lawsuit to restore Voice of America. She said she's deeply grateful for the decision. Quote, we are eager to begin repairing the damage. Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues. to return to our congressional mandate and to rebuild the trust of the global audience that we have been unable to serve for the past year, she said. We know the road to restoring VOA's operations and reputation will be long and difficult, she said. We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda, unquote. Voice of America has transmitted news coverage to countries around the world since its formation during World War II, often in countries with no tradition of free press, setting an example for the world of how such a press should work in a free and liberal democracy, such as the one that the U.S. apparently used to have. Before Trump's executive order, VOA had operated for decades in 49 different languages broadcasting to 362 million people around the globe. It was one of the nation's best expressions of soft power. It led countless people to look towards the USA as a beacon as a light, either for wanting to come here and come after the American dream or... by bringing many of those values to their own countries, particularly in autocratic countries, authoritarian countries, where there was no such thing as a free press. They were able at least to turn to VOA. Now, well, they may be able to turn to it again. I guess we're going to have to as well. All right, let's take a quick break and we will come back with, oh, I don't know, more madness, more madness and more madness. That's straight ahead on the broadcast. I'm Brad Friedman.

The Bradcast and the Green News Report are 100% independent, 100% listener supported. But we can't do it alone. We need you. Please help us bring real facts to listeners at independent stations around the nation. Please drop by bradblog.com slash donate. That's bradblog.com slash donate. And thanks. Hey, this is Brad. You're listening to an encore presentation of the Bradcast. Welcome to spies came out of the water. But you're feeling so bad because you know. But the spies hide out and never recall. Welcome back. It's the Bradcast, Brad Friedman, from bradblog.com. U.S. Director of National Intelligence, incredibly enough, Tulsi Gabbard declined to say on Wednesday during a Senate hearing of Iran's nuclear program actually presented an imminent threat to the United States, deflecting questions from lawmakers about whether the U.S. intelligence community or IC. whether their assessment actually backed up White House statements on the rationale, one of them anyway, for starting the war in Iran. Tulsi Gabbard's congressional testimony on Wednesday at an annual hearing on worldwide threats came a day after a top deputy, Joe Kent, a far-right Maga-Trump loyalist and, yes, white supremacist. The day after he resigned supposedly in protest over the war. I'll explain that supposedly remark in a bit if I have time. With Kent saying that the Tehran regime actually posed no imminent threat and the joint U.S. Israeli air campaign was unnecessary. Kent and Tulsi Gabbard, both military veterans and reportedly close friends, had found political common ground over their opposition to foreign military interventions. regime change wars like Iraq and Afghanistan. Tulsi Gabbard even ran for the Democratic presidential nomination before dropping out and then switching parties. She ran on the basis of ending foreign wars. You can still buy a Tulsi Gabbard 2020 t-shirt reading No War with Iran out there on the Internet if you want. Anyway, Tulsi Gabbard, now the Donald Trump's top intelligence officer, incredibly enough, has not publicly endorsed the decision to go to war. She stayed most of quiet on the U.S. Israeli air campaign that began on February 28. So her appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday got a lot of eyes. It took place as the war enters its third week with no clear end in sight and even as it's expanding now by the day.

As NBC News gently describes it, the White House has offered shifting rationales for launching the offensive, and Iran has retaliated, essentially shutting down a critical passageway for commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf's Strait of Hormuz. But Tulsi Gabbard's reluctance to offer a full-throated endorsement of trump's decision to wage war on iran unlike most of his other cabinet officials raised fresh questions about her standing within the administration in her opening statement to the committee Tulsi Gabbard this week omitted language that was included in her written remarks, saying that Iran had not tried to rebuild its uranium enrichment capability after U.S. airstrikes last June. In other words, it did not present an imminent threat of nuclear attack, as Trump and the White House have been falsely claiming. So that was in her written remarks, but she left those out of... Her actual spoken testimony, her prepared remarks read, according to her written statement, still posted on the Senate Intelligence Committee website, quote, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. Now, that assessment appeared to contradict Donald Trump, who has said Iran was working to rebuild its nuclear program. Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked Tulsi Gabbard why she omitted that paragraph during her spoken open remarks. She replied, quote, I recognize that time was running long, and so I skipped through some of the portions of my oral delivered remarks. Seems like kind of important ones to skip. But when she was pressed by Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia on the supposed threat by Iran's nuclear program that Donald Trump had been citing, well, Tulsi Gabbard echoed an online statement that she posted Tuesday. right after her friend Kent's resignation, saying that only the commander-in-chief could decide what represented an urgent and imminent threat to the country, certainly not her or the huge U.S. Intelligence Committee, I'm sorry, community, that she oversees at like a dozen federal agencies whose job is actually to assess intelligence for imminent threats to U.S. security and then to let the president know about it. Well, Senator Assoff wasn't having it. The White House stated on March 1st of this year that this war was launched and was, quote, a military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, end quote. That's a statement from the White House. Quote, the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?

The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no? Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president. False. This is the worldwide threat steering where you present to Congress national intelligence. timely objective and independent of political considerations. You've stated today that the intelligence community's assessment is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated and that, quote, there had been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. Was it the intelligence community's assessment that nevertheless, despite this obliteration? There was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime. Yes or no? It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. Okay. That is up to the president based on a volume of information. No, it is precisely, it is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States. This is the worldwide threats hearing where. As you noted in your opening testimony, quote, you represent the IC's assessment of threats. You are here to represent the IC's assessment of threats. That's a quote from your own opening statement. And so my question is, as you're here to present the IC's assessment of threats. Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that as the White House claimed on March 1st, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no? Once again, Senator, the intelligence community has... provided the inputs that make up this annual threat assessment. You won't answer the question. It is the nature of the imminent threat that the president has to make that determination based on a collection and volume of information and intelligence that he is provided with. You're here to be timely, objective, and independent of political considerations. Exactly what I'm doing. No, you're evading a question because to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House. I had no idea that Tulsi Gabbard was such a good tap dancer. Very impressive. There was your Director of National Intelligence under questioning from Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia. Democrats at the hearing also pressed Tulsi Gabbard about what intelligence was conveyed to Donald Trump, if any, about how Iran would react to a potential U.S. attack prior to his decision to attack, saying the president has expressed surprise at Iran's strikes on neighboring countries in...

in response. In fact, as Trump said earlier this week, nobody expected that response. We were totally shocked, he said. Look what happened. In the last two weeks, they weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were set to go after them. So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shot. No, we weren't. Everybody expected it, including your own intelligence community. Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was also testifying on Wednesday at the same Senate hearing, said that before the U.S. launched air attacks on Iran, U.S. intelligence indicated that, yes, Iran would possibly launch strikes on energy sites in the Middle East region, and yes, would try to close off the Strait of Hormuz, which also contradicts the claims by Trump that nobody knew that they were going to shut down the strait. Or that Iran would attack other neighboring countries if they were attacked. We'll see if Tulsi Gabbard and or John Ratcliffe get pushed out or jump out before long, I guess. Tulsi Gabbard might. I don't suspect John Ratcliffe will. But Semaphore apparently had this scoop last night. The FBI has opened a leak investigation into a former top intelligence official who resigned on Tuesday in protest of the war in Iran. The investigation into former National Counterterrorism Center director, and yes, Tulsi Gabbard's pal, Joe Kent. It's said to be focused on allegations that he improperly shared classified information that, according to four people with direct knowledge of the investigation. In his resignation letter, Kent wrote that Iran, quote, posed no imminent threat to our nation, and he accused President Donald Trump of starting the war because of, quote, pressure from Israel. Other vaguely anti-Semitic claims from this guy who, yes, has a background of white nationalism and no background that would actually qualify him to be our national counterterrorism center director. But he was a huge Maga loyalist. He claimed that I think the CIA or the FBI was really behind Trump's incitement of insurrection on January 6, etc. So he resigned, claims that it's because he's so troubled by Trump's war on Iran, and then the next day, boom, a criminal leak investigation is made public against him. That said, according to semaphore, and apparently the New York Times, which also confirmed this story, the investigation into Kent and these leaks actually predates his departure.

One of the four people that spoke to semaphore described this investigation as being months long. Trump aides and allies denounced Kent as a leaker, however, immediately after his resignation became public. So yes, someone was using this to try and distract or downplay from Kent's resignation. The first Trump officials to seemingly, the first Trump official in this case, Kent, to seemingly show some backbone and resign in protest of one of Trump's policies. But as this reporting suggests, Kent might have already been in trouble. and on his way out because of the leak investigation and actually used this resignation opportunity on supposedly policy grounds to, in fact, preempt that criminal investigation. So take your pick. Even if it was the White House trying to use that investigation to attack Kent, it may be a real investigation for all we know, and Kent may have been using... The attack on Iran as an excuse to distract from that. Which one is sleazier? I don't know. Take your pick among the rats at this sinking White House. One is worse than the other. I don't know. And it's damn near impossible just to keep track of it all. Anyway, quick break. We're back with Green News Report. That's next. I'm Brad, and you are listening to the Bradcast.

Hey, this is Brad. Please consider supporting whichever progressive media outlet is serving you. Most, just like us, do not receive corporate or political support. We all need your support to counter the powerful corporate media echo chamber. From Desi Doyen and myself, thank you. You're listening to an encore presentation of the Bradcast. As we continue to melt and swelter out on the West Coast out here in Los Angeles in the middle of March, let's get to it. Our latest Green News report. The global economic crisis sparked by the war with Iran just got worse. Oil and gas prices continue to spike as Iran war continues to escalate. This is a really radical and unprecedented way of using the Defense Production Act. Trump administration orders restart of oil pipeline off California coast in violation of state law. Plus, I'm proudly telling you that we're going to try and have no windmills built in the United States during my... Trump administration weighs new strategy to use taxpayer funds to block new offshore wind farms. What a dope. All of those stories and more straight ahead from brandblog.com. I'm Bradfredman. And I'm Desi D. Stand by for six minutes of independent green news, politics, analysis, and snarky comment. Gas prices have gone up every day for the past 11 days. But our president, ExconMobil, says there is nothing to worry about. He must think we're as dumb as he is. The man who campaigned on the promise he would get gas prices under $2 a gallon is now trying to convince us that higher prices are better. You know, you hear the term gas lighting a lot. But rarely when it comes to actual gas. This is a gem. This is your Green News report. I'm going to soak up the sun. Okay, Desi Toyin, we began speaking about this about a week ago, and looks like we were right. Crazy weather across the country. Especially out here in the West where it continues to swelter. Yes, the unprecedented historic heat wave broiling the western U.S. has shattered multiple high-temperature records for March. And climate scientists say the extreme summer-like heat is definitely intensified by man-made climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels. It has not just broken records. It has smashed these records. Trump might even say obliterated. but then you don't know if it's true or not. And speaking of fossil fuels, the global fossil energy crisis escalated on Wednesday after Israel bombed Iran's South Pars natural gas field, the largest in the world. Iran retaliated with new missile strikes on neighboring countries. Global oil and gas prices rose sharply again as markets responded to the growing risk to fossil fuel infrastructure amid Iran's ongoing effective closure. of the Strait of Hormuz. Who could have foreseen it? The United Nations World Food Program warned this week that prolonged conflict could trigger record global hunger due to rising prices for food and fertilizer sparked by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The analysis released this week found that an additional 45 million more people could be pushed into acute hunger if the Iran war continues through June.

Here in the U.S., the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped by 87 cents a gallon since the U.S. and Israel launched the Iran War. That's according to AAA. It's the sharpest spike in U.S. gas prices since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Fantastic. The Trump administration's policies are also measurably increasing costs for consumers. The administration's crusade to force aging coal plants to stay online. has spiked electricity prices for rate payers. According to a new analysis by the Sierra Club, the Energy Department's emergency orders to force retiring fossil-fueled power plants to remain online has collectively increased Americans' utility bills by $235 million since May. I'm just wondering how long we have to tolerate the aging fossil in the White House staying online at this point. In Southern California, you... U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has ordered a Texas-based oil company to restart offshore oil production and a pipeline that caused one of the worst oil spills in California state history back in 2015. Wright invoked the Defense Production Act, citing oil supply disruption risks to order the pipeline to restart in direct violation of state law and authority. The Center for Biological Diversity is suing to stop the pipeline. Here's attorney Talia Nimmer on the broadcast. This is a really radical and unprecedented way of using the Defense Production Act to benefit an individual oil company that's repeatedly broken the law and to green light a single oil project that California doesn't want or need. This is... Just another example of a radical power grab by the administration. It sets an extremely dangerous precedent for all state laws. In stupid news... You mean this hasn't been the stupid news yet? The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is drafting a new strategy to sabotage the nation's offshore wind industry with settlement agreements to pay an offshore wind company nearly $1 billion in public funds to not build new wind farms off... the coasts of New York and North Carolina to ensure that less energy gets produced during an energy crisis caused by Trump's war on Iran. And costing us a billion dollars to do it. Yep. Or in this case, not do it. For much more on all of these stories and the ones we couldn't get to today, check out our website at greennews.bradblog.com. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. And this has been your Green News Report.

I will not do it for $50 million, and that is my final offer. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yes, but there is some good news about that, at least somewhat mitigating all of that stupidity, is that two of the offshore wind projects that the Trump administration had tried to stop. That he failed to stop? That he failed to stop? That judges, it was one of those five wind farms that the Trump administration tried to cancel, and judges let them go through anyway. Well, two of them. Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island announced that it has begun delivering power to New England's electric grid. Nice. And vineyard wind off the coast of Massachusetts has now completed its construction and the workers have installed the last of the turbines. It is online and going. Good to go. Awesome. So there's some good news. So there's that. We'll get back to the madness again next time on the broadcast. Until then, my thanks to our producer, Desi Doyen, to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. Any portion of today's program, download it for free at bradblog.com. Anytime while you're there, please consider hitting a donate button to help us stay on your public airwaves and do all that we try to do every day on the Bradcast. Drop me email if you like. I'm Bradcast at Bradblog.com. And on the social medias, I am the Bradblog. While Desi Doyen is... Green News Report. Find us there and all of the above. Until we see here next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world. I don't know