3/11/26: Jake Tapper Crashes Out On Ryan, Americans Says War Is For Epstein & Israel, Bill Maher Praises Iran War

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They kind of referred to as like an Israeli version of a concentration camp. And they call that a Holocaust inversion. Like how dare you use any of the language that is derived from the Holocaust to describe what Israel is doing to people inside, Palestinians inside of Israel. Whereas when you look at what they're actually doing, it's like, well, a lot of people like think that torture, like routine daily torture is bad. There are a couple of these posts I think are. What's the worst one you got? We're talking about Instagram likes. It's already, but a couple of the posts, there's one where you see a bulldozer breaking down the wall on October 7th, and it says breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation, October 7, 2023, systemic change for collective liberation. There's another one where it's like kids on an IDF vehicle, and it says... Punished for wanting. It's referring to Palestinians. It says punished for wanting freedom from apartheid. I understand people might disagree with me on this. And I think it's, you know, again, we're talking about years old Instagram likes at this point. The man was democratically elected the mayor of New York City. A couple of them, I think, when you're on October 7th, like one of these Instagram posts was literally on October 7th. Two of them, actually, the ones that I just mentioned were on October 7th. I think that's reflects some... poor judgment. But I, you know, that's an argument that we could have. Zohran Mamdani, in a statement to Jewish insider said, his spokesperson mayor, Zohran Mamdani has been clear and consistent. Hamas is a terrorist organization. October 7th was a horrific war crime. Yeah. And he has condemned that violence unequivocally. There you go. And so to be clear, like, what she's doing is different there. What she's saying is that she sees this as a... as resistance to occupation and to apartheid. To me, it feels like it's very close to celebrating violence, which I would not do if it's the United States in Iran, right? Or Israel in Iran. Right, but if you did, you would not be condemned. Absolutely. I completely agree with that. Right. So anyway, so this is, so let's even, let's even say just for the sake of this argument that these are terrible problems. Yes. I don't necessarily think they are, but let's just say for the sake of this segment. that they are so did so how how did how did cnn and the new york times kind of uh kind of respond uh respond to this well uh you start seeing the free press pick up olivia wringold um starts doing she she went through and i guess found more instagram likes that she found um problematic uh So Jake Tapper then decides that he's going to do a segment. And he's going to bring on, we now know, Sam Cedar talked about that it was going to be Olivia Reingold and Sam Cedar discussing the mayor's wife's Instagram likes. Now, I would watch that segment. I think that's good for YouTube. I think it's embarrassing for news. So D3, here's Olivia talking about it getting bumped. And I think basically by Trump, because he talked, he did like a long press conference and kind of preempted the show. Here's Olivia Reingold. I was supposed to go on CNN tonight to debate my latest reporting on the Instagram likes of Ramaduaji. That is the wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The debate got canceled.

But these are the points I was going to make. One, I wanted to just get into the extreme nature of the post that his wife was liking. These were not your average pro-Palestine posts. These were way more anti-Israel than they were pro-Palestine. There was a post celebrating October 7th. There was another one doubting whether women had really been raped on October 7th. And there was even one that showed Holocaust inversion. The next thing... I wanted to address was Zohran Mamdani's response that his wife is a, quote, private person or private citizen. If that is a standard, I've never heard of that before. Because does anyone remember when Samuel Alito's wife hung the flag upside down? And there were a zillion articles about that. What about Melania when she wore that jacket that said, I don't really care, do you? That was news, right? Who you decide to marry is one of the most important decisions you can make. Your husband or your wife is the first person that you see in the morning and then the last person you see in the day. So it's fair to say that it says a thing or two about you. That is why this is a story. That is what makes the Instagram likes of Ramehawaji newsworthy. It's not because of her. It's because of who she's married to. And so that was my main question, is just, does the mayor agree with these sentiments? And he still hasn't answered that. Well, so who agreed with that? None other than Jake Tapper at CNN. So even though his segment was canceled between Olivia and Sam Cedar, he brought it back together the next day. And so it seems like his justification for it was the mayor invited Mahmood Khalil for an Iftar dinner at Gracie Mansion saying Mahmood Khalil is a New Yorker. He belongs in New York. There's something that's put on an Instagram picture. And, you know, this, it marked a year since he'd been detained as the mediator between, he was the mediator between Columbia University and the protesters and spent a long time in prison, Trump trying to deport him. In the photo was Zohran Mamdani's wife. It's like, aha, she eats dinner at the mansion right there. Gotcha. Now we can do a segment on you. So let's, it was, so I have. Nobody should be surprised at kind of basement level expectations for CNN. I was shocked at this segment, like genuinely appalled. Like, wow. Let's roll a little bit of this. It's Jake Tapper, Jonah Goldberg, and Karen Finney, because they gave up on the idea of having somebody like Sam Cedar come on and actually put up the opposing side. It's just three of them. just trashing the mayor, his wife, and Mahmoud Khalil. Let's roll a little bit of it. With a high-profile Palestinian activist detained and released by ICE, the mayor writes, quote, we marked the one-year anniversary of detention. Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmood, meaning Mahmood Khalil. Nor and their son, Dean, to Gracie Mansion, to break our fast together. It is Ramadan. Mahmood is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York City, unquote. Now, you might remember Mahmood Khalil as the...

anti-Israel protester from Columbia University, to say the least. I get the talking point. Part of my problem is that we live in a culture now that the second you're discriminated against or face state action because you're doing because of your First Amendment right exercises. It makes you a martyr, makes you kind of a hero. This guy's not a hero. He's a putts. The organization that he was part of just got into trouble at the beginning of this war by tweeting out death to America. The organization was pro-Hamas. He and the organization defended the 10-7 attacks in pretty explicit terms. And this comes on the heel of this other controversy of Zohran Mamdani's wife. being revealed to have liked a whole bunch of social media posts saying that the mass rapes were all a hoax and that Hamas was justified and all that kind of stuff. The clan marching in Skokie weren't heroes. We didn't treat them as heroes for doing that, right. You're right. I don't disagree. We're there. Zohran Mamdani is a very smart guy. And he had to have known that having Mahmoud Khalil, not because of the First Amendment issue, which I think we all probably agree with, like, you know, people have the First Amendment rights in this country. But the other issue of what he and his group did at Columbia University, what they stand for now. He had to have known it would upset people. Well, and I think that this is the other piece, just speaking politically, again, given that, you're exactly right. And it plays into the fears that people had before he was elected. And there you have it. He had to have known it would upset people. Like, that is Jake Tapper's objection here. I mean, listen, that's what a protest is. At least I was under that impression. He invited Mahmoud Khalil to dinner, even though he knew it would upset Jake Tapper. That, like, also, so the smears against Mahmoud Khalil in there, he's like the sweetest, most nonviolent guy. He's not affiliated with this group anymore. And whatever affiliation he had, this, that he's saying, like, said death to America or whatever, he's not affiliated with that group. All they can do is like, find some group that's affiliated with a group that he was affiliated with that at one point said something on Instagram that was like some leftist over the top thing like that's all they that's all they've got in the reason that he was chosen as the mediator is that he's the kind of guy that everybody respects. And that there are a lot of people that are much further to his left. And the Trump administration was making a very different argument from what Jonah Goldberg and Jake Tapper were making in that segment. The Trump administration was making the argument that he's not a U.S. citizen. And if you have a visa to study in the United States, they were making this argument. You are undermining. I mean, it's a ridiculous argument, but you're undermining U.S. foreign policy.

as a non-citizen by agitating against, in an academic setting, against US foreign policy. They were making a more charitable version of that argument as well, which would be, if you're coming in the US on a visa and what you're spending your time doing, this is how Marco Rubio would describe it, is protesting against the United States, bad, deported. They're making a different argument, though. They're making an argument that... It's not just as though he must be deported because he's undermining U.S. foreign policy by being anti-American. They're making this argument that Mamu Khalil is a hate figure. And that's actually different from what the Trump... I mean, of course, there was overlap. At one point, Jonah Goldberg called him an outright apologist for terrorism. Just like... Just not, like that is not true about Mahmoud Khalil. Unless you have a very broad definition of what counts as being an apologist for terrorism. Right. They keep getting mad at him because I think on Ezra Klein, he said that, you know, something like October 7th was bound to happen if you continue to oppress people for many decades. And somehow that is like considered to be. a beyond the pale thing to say. It's like even though it's like it's just a basic statement about the fundamental nature of humanity and the drive for liberation and opposition to oppression. It's like that shouldn't be remotely surprising. And so they also so the New York Times of course has to get in on this action. So let's start with D6 here, actually, because this is absolutely completely insane. So an article by Dana Rubinstein here who covers the mayor. She writes, this is the lead of the article, in the days after a homemade bomb, laced with metal, was hurled into a highly charged protest near his official residence in Manhattan, Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not turn to his typical means of communication. There were no short-form videos post to social media about the attacks in front of Gracie Mansion, where Mr. Zohran Mamdani lives with his wife, Rama Duwaji. There were no impassioned speeches. Mr. Zohran Mamdani chose an alternative path. Two deliberate written statements. So the criticism here is that Zohran Mamdani... After, people saw this news, after there was an IED thrown in front of Gracie Mansion at a protest by two like ISIS-inspired terrorists. Yeah. He did not do a TikTok, that he didn't do a short form flashy video like he used to do for the campaign. Since he's become mayor, I think he's done three of those videos total. Because he is a normal human being when something tragic happens, he's not going to do a flashy TikTok about it. Now, I had to read that a couple times before I thought his response kind of sucked, but it was, you know. Should you have done a TikTok? No, he shouldn't have done a TikTok, but. I had to read that a couple times. You notice, you can put it back up again real quickly if you have it. Notice that in the second sentence, notice who they mention here, in front of Gracie Mansion where Mr. Zohran Mamdani lives with his wife, Ramaduaji. This is,

The New York Times desperately wanting a piece of the story. We don't need you to tell us that he lives with his wife. Yeah. We know he lives with his wife. Secondly, what doesn't matter what her name is even? Let's say that the normal New York Times reader is so stupid that they don't know. that a husband lives with their wife in the same home. Let's say they don't know that, and they need to be told that in the second freaking sentence of the article. But they also need to know what her name is. Clearly what's happening here is this is the New York Times. They want a piece of this Instagram likes action, but they know it would debase the paper too much. to put Instagram likes in a headline. Like Jewish insider, free press, they don't mind putting the phrase Instagram likes in a headline. Breaking points, we have no pride. We'll do it. But like the New York Times, they have some, like, some version of self-respect. Well, you know what this is. I mean, here's inside baseball. When you're, I'm sure they have some type of version of WordPress that's the New York Times backend and it will SEO optimize. Like the AI will SEO optimize. That's funny. I don't think that was it though. I mean, because you guys use subsection, so you probably don't use WordPress, but it will automatically do it. Like how do we hook this into the story? There's like a red light, yellow, light, green light. And so if you know that people are Googling Ramadwaji, Or even if you don't, the AI knows it. And so you can keep adding keywords and stuff to, and if you put her name in, you can get in the SEO when Google News is aggregating and people are Googling Ramaduaji because people are Googling and seeing it on Instagram. Then they can click on the New York Times story. That's my conspiracy theory. They clearly want to get in that stream. Online education is convenient, but sometimes it can be lonely. Sometimes the extra help you need can only come from someone else. At American Public University, they make online education personalized, affordable, and memorable. With 24-7 mental health support available in multiple languages, access to career coaches who are industry professionals and lifelong career services, you'll never feel alone on your path to success. APU. Digital by nature, human by design. Learn more at APU. APUS.edu. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out... That's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up from payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12-1 plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Discover a spectacular island destination with crystal blue seas, endless sunshine and the cool Bahamian breeze.

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No, they do it with like, I'm sure I would have to go back and look. But they do it with like right, quote unquote, right wing, like white nationalist, extremist, Christian, whatever, all the time too. And it's the media trying to shoehorn some type of story into like tying someone together to the narrative, the big story of the day. And no, I think it's stupid. It's completely stupid. Like the idea that those radical... apparently ISIS followers who were throwing explosive devices outside Gracie mentioned at... what seemed to be like fringe right-wing protesters, we're doing it on behalf of Zohran Mamdani is bizarre. The predicate of the question is so weird. And I think you're right reflects this very legacy media, corporate media, cartoonish understanding of how extremism works. Yeah. No, I agree with you. And so Jake Tapper. Back to Tapper. There is a war on. Like the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran right now. So he dedicated one segment to Mahmoud Khalil having dinner and the wife's Instagram posts. He then did a separate segment. This is the same day that he decided to share a post calling Dropsite News propaganda and fake news. He invited on an Israeli analyst who... proudly talks about her links to Israeli intelligence to ask them, you know what, I don't want to spoil it for you. Here, let's roll a little bit of D8 here. Emily, you've been talking to Iranians on the ground about the strikes and about Iranian leadership going forward. How do the Iranians you're talking to, how do they see the future unfolding in Iran? Of course, there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a lot of problems with the internet still being shut off, although there is some limited use with Starlink and limited other options. But by and large, the responses from Iranians that I've spoken to has been overwhelmingly in favor of the United States and Israeli action on the ground. They're very happy that regime targets, many of them, the centers of suppression of the Iranian people, many of these besiege, IRGC bases and forces are in fact being targeted. So they're happy about that. The main complaint that I'm hearing right now on the ground is that they're witnessing personally, witnessing IRGC troops moving into schools and mosques. I've received a plethora of photos from Iranians on the ground of exactly that, moving both the force, the manpower, and weapons and equipment into school areas. So this is something very concerning. It's not new. It is a tactic of the Islamic regime and their proxy forces, but it's definitely concerning for the future. And of course, there is. some questioning about what President Trump does intend for the leadership. The united call from the Iranian people on the ground is that they want the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to lead a transition government. After that, go to a national referendum. Well, they will choose the system of government. But it's not clear yet where Trump stands on that issue. And we heard it in his press conference as well. He prefers someone inside. The problem is it isn't Venezuela. It's not the same system. And you have to deconstruct that system.

in order to have genuine change and stability. Interesting stuff. So, Emily, can you imagine if Iranian state TV brought on an Iranian analyst who said he had ties to Iranian intelligence, and they asked him, how are the Israelis feeling about the Iranian bombing campaign on Israel? First of all, you'd be like, okay, this is amazing. I'm just going to watch to see what the guy says at this point. And let's say the guy says, all the Israelis that I'm talking to, they're so grateful for the Iranian bombing. They hate Benjamin Netanyahu. They hate Lakud. They look forward to liberation. And they have told us that the IDF is now hiding. in synagogues and in schools and in hospitals. So if you start to see news that the Iranians are bombing the civilian infrastructure, just know that our sources in Israel have told us that the IDF is hiding in the schools and synagogues and the hospitals. And so, because that's what they do. They hide among the civilian population. They have their, as we know, we have their headquarters in Tel Aviv well underground. Can you imagine like a state, like I don't, I think Iranian state TV. would not even think to run a segment like that. I don't know. To have an Iranian spy say that the Israelis love getting bombed. Maybe they would. Maybe they would try that. It is creative. You have to give them that. So, yeah. So according to this Israeli Intel-linked analyst, the Iranians are very happy. It's crazy how the same playbook just gets reused over and over again. I mean, this is what was happening in the lead up to the Iraq War. It was over a longer period of time, but it was like... And it has real consequences because when you talk to people on the right now, specifically on the right, how many times you hear people citing information like that as one of the reasons that makes them more comfortable? Right. Right. Like it's so grateful for it. Very real world, very real world consequences. And it's kind of gross too because in a sense it's exploiting the goodwill of a lot of Americans who, whatever you think of... you know, the leaders' decisions, the decisions leaders have made over the last 20 or so years, there are a lot of normal Americans who do want to be, like, quote, liberators, who have a good reason for wanting to see people free, whatever, whatever. Again, you and I look at that much more cynically than a lot of normal people do and do just want to see, like, people around the world be free and happy and whatever. You and I are cynical about that for good reasons. Many people are cynical about that for good reasons, but it makes it even grosser to me because it feels exploitive of this like instinct among normal Americans to see people be freed from oppression. Yeah. It's gross. Oh, by the way, the New York Times responded. You put up D7. Speaking of debasing themselves, they were in my replies here on...

on Twitter saying, they said this is in response to the Dana Rubinstein article criticizing Zohran Mamdani for not doing a TikTok. The Times report, quote, the Times reporting covered the mayor's comments and their careful measured nature fairly and accurately, including the departure from his more direct and engaged messaging strategy during his election campaign, to which I'd say, like, okay, do you think that a election campaign and a terrorist attack? are the same thing. Do you think campaigning and governing are the same thing? If you think that those, if you think campaigning and a terrorist attack are different things, why would it be notable for a politician to have different responses to different things? I think the times is very, very confused. So anyway, that's... And this kind of all kicked off, and we don't need to really get into this. Tapper was coming after us because... Tapper and lots of others. Tapper and lots of... It was a pile on. Yeah, saying over the October 7th sexual assault stuff. Yeah. Which is starting to feel like kind of a lab leak moment in some quarters. And what I mean by that is that... The mainstream media has never basically acknowledged that COVID came out of the Wuhan level. There have been some articles that have gotten kind of close to it, but in general, the kind of mainstream media's... They've left it at, it's probably the bad soup that they were slinging in that wet market. Yeah. The pangolin. Yeah, well, whatever it was. Some kind of weird animals that those crazy hicks out in Wuhan eat. So, yet, if you do a survey, huge majorities. say, no, no, it came out of the Wuhan coronavirus lab. Like, we're not stupid. Like, that's where we think it came out of. I feel like this is becoming a similar thing. Now, there are huge swaths of the public that don't have, that have not studied this question and have not looked closely at it. And they're going to believe, oh, the Guardian and the New York Times have said there was systemic sexual assault. So there was. But. a massive number of people have actually looked at it, have read the actual reports, and have noticed that there are not any, like, victims who have said that it happened to them, that all of the claims that there was forensic evidence and video evidence and photographs that were made at the beginning, those all, those never materialized. Like, none of that... actually has emerged. And you're left with this United Nations, you know, Pramila Patton report that says that there is, there are, quote, reasonable grounds to believe that it happened. And that's true. Which you've agreed with. Of course. I've been here next to you for years. You have always agreed with that. Chaos and violence, of course. That alone is reasonable grounds to believe that something may have happened. That is different than saying,

this happened. Now what people will say is, well, it's conflict and like people, some of the victims were killed perhaps. So they can't testify. And Jewish burial customs and the like. And the point to that. Real challenges. Which is, which conflicts with the earlier claims that there was, you know, forensic evidence collected. Right. But if you if you look at all of the other conflicts where there has been systemic, um, sexual assault, whether it's Rwanda or Myanmar or Sudan, there are so many named victims and so much evidence. This would be the first case of systemic sexual assault carried out in a conflict zone that left no evidence to support it. I mean, there can always be a first, but this would be the only time that's ever happened. Every time it has happened before, there are people who credibly witnessed it, and there are people who were survivors of it, who talk about it and whose names, you know, you can find. and who speak to human rights groups, et cetera. We just, we don't have that here. And so they also point to this thing called the Dina Project Report, which is jointly a UK and Israel project. Go look at the Dina Project Report. It spends most of its time arguing that the previous evidentiary standards that have been applied to these types of situations should be thrown out in this case. And that... eyewitness testimony, forensic evidence, et cetera, shouldn't be needed. And instead, I know this is hard to believe, but go read the report because people link to it all the time. Look at the Dina Project Report. This makes our case. Go look at the actual Dena Project Report. What they argue is that you should be able to use deduction and circumstantial evidence to make your case. So according to the Dina Project Report, which is the thing constantly being cited by people to establish that it definitively happened, they're basing their claims on deduction and circumstantial evidence. Maybe they're correct. That is different than what they're claiming. So that's the point. People, I mean, again, there's this giant straw man that's out there. are denying any possibility that any of this happened. It's just never been true at all. You've been patiently going through the evidence as it was presented. Yeah, just want some evidence. Yeah. So. And so the public is not, I think, the public that has paid attention to this, I think at this point gets it. That massive claims. were made that were not supported at the time and haven't been supported since. And those claims were used to launch a campaign of violence that killed at least 70,000 people and has a miserated population of 2 million in pursuit of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Like that's...

That's what happened. Well, on this point about the public and what people believe, how they've reacted to the last several years, you all at DropSite and have partnered with Zateau to produce new polling information that should give us some insight into how people are reacting in the first couple of weeks of this war with Iran. Yeah, this is really interesting. Online education is convenient, but sometimes it can be lonely. Sometimes the extra help you need can only come from someone else. At American Public University, they make online education personalized, affordable, and memorable. With 24-7 mental health support available in multiple languages, access to career coaches who are industry professionals and lifelong career services, you'll never feel alone on your path to success. APU, digital by nature, human by design. Learn more at APU.APUS.edu.edu. Discover a spectacular island destination with crystal blue seas, endless sunshine, and the cool Bahamian breeze. Bahamara, located in Nassau, Bahamas, offers your choice of three luxury hotels. Over 45 fine dining and nightlife venues, John Batiste's all-new jazz club, the Caribbean's most luxurious casino, and one-of-a-kind experiences for the entire family, like our 15-acre tropical water park, wildlife sanctuary, world-class golf course, and so much more. Visit bahamar.com. This is Jonathan Goldstein from heavyweight. If your finance team spends more time finding data than using it, if there's one entity here and one here and one here, and one here, if scaling your business feels like starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-Native ERP solution that's powerful, painless, and proven. Learn more. at intuit.com slash ERP. So yeah, let's get to some of that polling. So DropSite and Zateau sponsored a poll that was done for data for progress. So it was out in the field from March 6th to March 8th, and it interviewed more than 1,200 likely voters. So just standard normal poll that the mainstream media likes to conduct. The difference is we ask some of the same questions that the mainstream media asks like. You know, do you support or oppose the war in Iran? But then we also kind of went deeper into, you know, how people think about Trump's motivations for the war, what role Israel played, but also what role Epstein might have played. So we asked, so the question we asked was, when it comes to U.S. military action against Iran, which of the following statements regarding President Trump's personal motivations comes closer to your view?

if neither is right. So let's put up E5. And so basically the question is, was Trump motivated at least in part to attack Iran to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal? Overall, by a 52 to 40 margin, the American people said, yes, Epstein was at least in part motivating Trump to attack. Iran. Now, independents mirrored that precisely. There's a question nobody else was going to ask. That's right. Nobody else is going to ask that question. But it turns out a majority of the public agrees with it. And pollsters would never have asked this if we hadn't asked them to. So independence completely mirrored the public. So by a 52 to 40 margin, independents who really swung the election for Trump, they believe that Trump was motivated, at least in part, to attack Iran to distract from Epstein. Now, Republicans, as you'll see in this chart here, were the least likely to believe that. That's not surprising, but still a quarter of Republicans said, yeah, okay. I'll acknowledge that. It had something to do with Epstein. For Democrats, it's basically an article of faith. So, yeah, well, of course. Democrats are 81% to 14% believe that Epstein... at least in part, played a role in driving his decision-making. Emily, how would you have answered that question? And are you surprised that a solid majority, 52 to 40, that's, we're a pretty divided country, that's, there's still division there, but like, at least among independents and Democrats, there's not, like, People are like, yeah, it was Epstein played a role. I'm not surprised at all, but I also would have, I'm like one of the few people that just doesn't think this had anything to do with it because I think the administration really wanted to attack Iran. I think they really wanted to do it. I think Israel gave them a kind of predicate or a precipitating moment, like a kick that allowed them to do it. But yes, I think. Maybe not J.JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, but I do think Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and others in the administration, even though they were getting counseled by Dan Cain, maybe not a good idea. But there are people for whom this is a generational project. And Israel saying they're going to make a move, I just think that gave Republicans an easy excuse. And that's what had everything to do with it. It's like this culmination of a generational project since... 1979 to get back at Iran. So that's where I'm skeptical of it. That said, it's possible that there are layers of blackmail we won't learn about for decades that had something to do with it, that actually Trump really didn't want to do it. He knew that it was against what he had said about not starting new wars. Dan Kane was saying this bad idea. So it's possible. It's possible. There is some mystery to why it happened now. But my strong inclination is that many people have wanted to do this for a long, long time. And they got an excuse via Israel. So that's how I would have answered. But it's a great question. I think the lack of any coherent rationale. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think fuels people's willingness to believe anything. Because like, give me something and I'll believe it. But if you don't give me anything, I'm going to go looking for answers. I think you're probably right that absent Epstein.

that this, that Trump does this anyway. Yeah. I also think that in his mind as he was thinking about whether or not to do it or when to do it, I bet part of it was like, well, it sure will be nice to not have to think about Epstein anymore every single day, all day long. Whether or not that drove the decision making. So that's why I think like at least in part, like yeah, okay, at least in part. Now, according to the Washington Post and the Anti-Defamation League, This is an anti-Semitic view. We can put up the first element, the first element from this segment. It says, the conflict has also sparked a sharp rise in anti-Semitic content, according to researchers from the ADL, a Jewish civil rights organization. Some of it seeking to link Epstein, who was Jewish to the conflict, reports the Washington Post. And then they quote, Orrin Siegel, who's the ADL's, quote, senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence, saying, quote, pretty quickly after the conflict began, this conspiratorial rebranding of Operation Epic Fury into Operation Epstein Fury started circulating on social media platforms. Max Richard Blumenthal, by the way, has said that he was the first to float that. I don't have any evidence to the contrary. All right. An ADL, and then the Washington Post writes, an ADL report found that the phrase, quote, Epstein Fury, was mentioned more than 90,000 times by some 60,000 different accounts on X within the conflict's first three days. The same post article says that Iran has been pushing this and that the people who believe this are kind of victims of an Iranian mis or disinformation campaign. I don't know which one it is. Iranian styop, if that's the case. I mean, the Iranians have been intentionally in their propaganda pushing this line over and over again. That it's what did the... Epstein class. Yeah, and the Ayatoll was talking about the island. Before he was killed, yeah, I told him it was like, ah, more will be exposed. This disgusting island, a pedophile island or whatever he called it. And it is like a lot of the Epstein emails that DropSite has been reporting on were likely linked to an Iranian hacking operation. It's definitely part of the Iranian propaganda strategy to, and hey. We gave them that one on a silver Graham Platner. Yes. People of the United States. Yes. The hacker outfit, Handala, which is said to be linked to Iran. We can't confirm it, but we suspect that that's the case, is the one that released Ehud Barak's emails.

which kicked off a lot of this stuff. So that's an actual thing. So let's run through some more of the polling here. So let's do E2. Do you approve of the Trump administration's military action in Iran? Disapproved Democrats, shockingly, you know, 92 to 6 against. Super divided here. Republicans, 7919 support, independence against it, 60 to 36. So. 19% of Republicans, I think people hopeful for a kind of... unified cross-party opposition to war are sad to see just 19%. What do you make of that? Well, I'm glad that it's not less. That's true. 19's not nothing. I'm glad it's not less. Right. But among independents, that's a brutal number for the administration. That's true. 60% disapproval. And one of the... At the beginning of the war, too. Yes. This is when you're supposed to be a riding high. Great point. And one of the... big questions is whether how much people care, right? This is something that animates people politically, at least, to go to the polls or to be pissed at Trump. Is it something like, eh, I think this is pretty clearly the, like, this is something that people will care about, absolutely. The other thing that jumps out to me is that number of Democrats, only 6% approval. I wish we could do a poll of Senate Democrats. I always wish we could do that. A secret poll. Yes. Anonymous. Yes, a secret poll of Senate Democrats. It's the same thing with Senate Republicans in Ukraine, right? Like if you could poll Republican voters and then pull Republican senators, if you could poll Democratic voters and then pull Democratic senators, I would love to see the discrepancy on that. Other than John Fetterman, they won't admit it. Right. But yes. So let's do E3. This is the punishment that candidates would take if they supported it. So are you more or less likely to vote for a 2028 presidential candidate who supports war with Iran? If you're a Democratic primary voter said 83% less likely. Independence said 61% less likely to vote for somebody who supports the war with Iran. Whereas Republicans, 59% more likely. There basically aren't any that are other than John Fetterman and like four goons over in the House who are publicly supporting the war. But it's a spectrum. You know, there's a lot of Democrats are like, they're leading with Iran can never have a nuclear program. And then they're saying, and we need hearings to be, to have the rationale like explain to us. And we need to investigate all of these things. It's like, well, wait a minute. Let's end the war first. Yeah. Like, there aren't a whole lot of Democrats who are just like, it's time to end the war, like immediately. The war's bad. Stop it. We can do hearings and investigations later. That's great.

But for now, we need to stop the killing and stop the disruption of the entire global economy. How is that going to affect, though, Republican primaries? Well, so that's a really good question to ask in the poll because it does get to what we were just talking about, how much does this matter, right? Is it one of those things where it's like, I disagree with Trump or I disagree with the Republican Party, but I don't really, it's not at the high end of my priority list. I think this shows that for a lot of people, it does actually affect voting patterns. 20% for Republicans, so similar to the 19% in the prior question about disagreeing or disagreeing. Trump, what we've seen, has record high levels of support from Republican voters, but they're down from his previous records. So hemorrhaging some, like, I think is around 10 percent. Harry Enten has gone through these numbers over the last year. That's actually interesting, because that's a question of whether the MAGA core of strong, strong supporters, enthusiastic supporters, are disappointed by the president. And that gets to whether people are in the county Republican. office phone banking, putting up signs, small dollar donors, these types of things. So the 20% number is, it actually really isn't nothing. It's a little better. It's a, you know, clear. majority, as is the case with most of what Trump does. But it's not nothing in terms of like the political ramifications. I bet if you ask that question among Republicans about George W. Bush in 2000, in April 2003, wherever, this would have been higher support among Republicans. I bet that number wouldn't have been 20%. I bet it would have been like Democrats being against in four. Yeah. So not nothing. But. a good gauge of how much this matters for independence and Democrats. Now, E4 is a very interesting question. When it comes to U.S. military action against Iran, which of the following statements regarding President Trump's personal motivations comes closer to your view, even if neither is exactly right? So we asked, is Trump pursuing this war more for American interests or Israeli interests? I guess it looks like we don't have the overall on there, but the overall was 50% said American interests, 41% said Israeli interests. So a majority, we'll give them that. Now, among independents, 50% said it was Israeli interests, and just 44% said American interests. So... So two points of this. We'll give them this. A majority of the public thinks that Trump went to war for American interests, but just 50%. There has never, in American history, been a war of any size, let alone this size, that a president went into, and 41% of the public thinks he did it for a foreign country. That has never happened. Like...

Never, like not even close. Like, Iraq war, people thought that was for oil companies. Yeah. Maybe you could get 40% saying oil companies. Well, like five years in people or two years in. It's probably more accurate. Right. It was becoming hot on... Yeah, exactly. Vietnam, American interests, rolling back communism, like, for or against the war, you didn't think that we were doing it for, like, Sri Lanka. No, we were the country that was pushing proxies into these types of wars. Yeah. And so... Which, by the way, I just, this is my position. Like, I actually, again, on this question, would have disagreed with the line that it was primarily Israeli interest because... My point is there are a lot of people. Their own interests, yes. And there are a lot of people in the American government who are saying Israeli interests and American interests are absolutely intertwined. It's the Lindsey Graham line. And the Lindsay Grams won this argument. The Mike Huckabee won this argument that the American and Israeli interests are one and the same. Or they'll say it's American interests vis-à-vis China. And they really convinced themselves. They really believe that at the end of the day, they just wanted to bomb Iran. That's what they wanted to do. So we put up E5. This is a related question. I was curious how much people were hearing about the attack on the Iran Girls School. that happened at the very early hours of the war. So the question here is, have you read, seen, or heard about the attacks on a girl school in Iran last weekend? Democrats came in at 77% yes, Republican 60% yes. Independence, 66%. Yes. So across the board, most people in those three cohorts... have heard about the attack on the girls' school in Iran last weekend. Only, yeah, so only a quarter of Democrats hadn't 40% of Republicans, 34% of independence. This was a super smart question to ask, Ryan, because it gets to the media silos that people are in. And no matter what media silo you were in, on average, you had heard about this. It probably gets to why Senator John Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Fox News yesterday came out and said, It was horrible. And the right thing to do is if it was the United States, say it was horrible. You know, I think that this poll wrapped up on Sunday night. So, and there's been a lot more news. Yes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this strike. So the number might go up. But 32% did say they'd heard nothing at all about it. So that's, so at least one in three people. And then if you combine nothing at all or a little. then that got you to 55%. So then we asked, and so again, this is through Sunday night, this is before a lot of the reporting emerged that has basically definitively concluded that it was the United States that did this. We asked, if you have heard about it, who do you think was responsible for this, either the U.S., the U.S. and Israel combined Israel, or was it Iran? And...

24% of people thought it was Iran. The rest basically said it was either U.S. Senate-Israel together or Israel or the United States by itself. Republicans were the only ones kind of divided on this question. So 45% of Republicans said it was Iran that attacked its own girls' school, which is an idea that has been pushed kind of without evidence. At least it, when I see stuff like that, I'm like, well, at least they're not defending attacking the girl's school. They're at least saying somebody that it wasn't our fault. They're lying about it, but I think some people honestly believe it. So 45% said that it was Iran. Another 45% said it was the U.S. and or Israel. And then 10% of Republicans said they didn't know. Everybody else. by an overwhelming majority, thinks it was the U.S. and or Israel. And that's before we got footage of the Tomahawk missile, like hitting an IRGC base next to it, and you can see the school smoking. So, like, to see that footage, you'd have to believe that Iran hit the school, and then moments later, a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit the base right next to it. And then the school was hit again. Completely implausible. Also, if you look at the timeline, this is immediately as the war started, and Iran took a little while to respond. Iran wasn't even shooting yet. So just on a, this logical basis. It's like, who hit it? Well, the people who were shooting. It's a great question to ask. I mean, this is why independent media is important. Polling is one of those. Polling is one of the biggest, I think, places in news gathering where... Just having this idea of neutrality that is actually a bias in one direction or the other or having the pretense of neutrality creates conventional wisdom. Like it's about the manufacturing of conventional wisdom. Pulling so often just builds and builds in one direction. And if you don't ask other questions, you don't get... answers to those types of questions. You don't test, you don't gauge the public on conversations the public may be having that you're not having in your newsroom or that you think are crazy and not worth asking about. So this was a great, great poll. And there's one other that we could talk about because this didn't all, this wasn't all designed just to like flatter my own preconceived notions. You know, we're genuinely curious about this stuff. And so we asked a question about ballistic missiles because ballistic, Iran's ballistic missile stockpile has become like the new rationale that the US and Israel are using for why this war needs to be carried on. I think I messed up the wording of this a little bit and I'll tell you why. So they say how important is it to you that Iran be prevented from possessing ballistic missiles, which are long-range missiles capable of reaching countries like Israel? So that's how we phrased the question. I think prevented

was the wrong word to use there. I should have said, how important is it to you that the U.S. and Israel dismantle Iran's missile program? But because of the way we were to, you get just a kind of neutral perspective from the American people about whether or not they want Iran to be able to possess ballistic missiles. And they absolutely do not. And so for 54% of all Americans, it's very important that Iran be prevented from having ballistic missiles. Which maybe, Trump, if you're watching this, just say you blew up the ballistic missile program and call it a day. Right. Another 29% say it's somewhat important. So that means by an 83 to 13 margin, the American people... I think it's important that Iran be prevented from possessing ballistic missiles. Now, because I get to write the poll, I put in a question that said, Iran should be allowed to have ballistic missiles because countries have a right to defend themselves. Give people that option. Only 13% picked that. This is, so that's... 14% said it's not a concern of the United States. Two-thirds in this separate question said they should be prevented. That's really, really, really interesting because it shows consistency among the people who are responding to the questions, and it shows that Trump had or should have some built-in consistency or built-in sympathy here among the public if he made a coherent, logical, honest case for war. Or for a deal that disarmed Iran. I'm not saying that's possible, but you don't only have to disarm... people of their ballistic missiles through military action. Hypothetically, of course, I think that would probably 100% be the case with Iran. You have to do it by force. That shows, though, Trump has friendly sentiments among a big chunk of the public that still overall is unhappy with what's happened over the last 10 days. So that's a, I think that's a very, for the administration's purposes, for the political purposes, and for the moral purposes of people making these decisions, that's a very, I think, interesting. contrast between the question of people agreeing with what's happened and people wanting Iran to have ballistic missiles. Yeah. One other interesting detail, when we added in Benjamin Netanyahu. the numbers got even worse for Trump rather than just saying Israel. So we said, when it comes to U.S. military action against Iran, which of the following statements regarding Trump's personal motivations comes closer to your view? One, Trump is more responsive to the interests of the American people than any foreign interests like those of Israel or two.

President Trump is more responsive to the interests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than the interests of the American people. That completely split public. So whereas it was 50-41 on the earlier one that we were talking about, this was 47-46. So 46% of the public said Trump is more responsive to Benjamin Netanyahu than to the American people. Whereas 47% said, no, no, no, Trump is... Trump's more America first than he is Benjamin Netanyahu. 17% of Republicans said he's more responsive to Benjamin Netanyahu. Independence, it was 5044. So among independents, which swung the election for Trump, they feel like he's more responsive to Benjamin Netanyahu than he is to the American public. Fascinating. It's crazy. Yeah. Get yourself together, guys. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, great poll. That's such a good idea. Yeah. Yes. And I love it when indie outlets do polling. And breaking points should do some of that. If you want, you know, become a premium subscriber. So we get the money to do it. Yeah. Polling is shockingly expensive. But we can put some of these polls out in the field too. BP free 26. BreakingPoint.com is the one month free. if you want to support the show and so that we can you know put our own polls out there and also you can that you can also then suggest questions like if you have any questions that you should poll put them down in the comment section and you know we're looking for ideas You want your master's degree. You know you can earn it, but life gets busy. The pack schedule, the late nights, and then there's the unexpected. American Public University was built for all of it. With monthly starts and no set login times, APU's 40 plus flexible online master's programs are designed to move at the speed of life. Start your master's journey today at APU.APUS.edu. You want it? Come get it at APU. Discover a spectacular island destination with crystal blue seas, endless sunshine, and the cool Bahamian breeze. Bahamara, located in Nassau, Bahamas, offers your choice of three luxury hotels, the richly refined Rosewood, the playfully hip SLS, and a stylishly modern Grand Hyatt. With over 45 restaurants, bars, and lounges, Bahamas, serves up delicious dining from world-renowned chefs, like Daniel Balloud and Marcus Samuelson. nightlife venues like the new John Batisse Jazz Club, and the Caribbean's most luxurious casino. At Baja Mar, you'll find every pleasure under the sun and one-of-a-kind experiences for the entire family, like Baja Bay, our 15-acre lush tropical water park, interactive wildlife experiences, including our daily flamingo parade, world-class golf, tennis, spa, and so much more. Visit bahamara.com today and discover a vacation destination where memories are made for a lifetime. Bahamara, life spectacular. This is Jonathan Goldstein from heavyweight.

If your finance team spends more time finding data than using it, if there's one entity here and one here and one here and one here, if scaling your business feels like starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-native ERP solution that's powerful, painless, and proven. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP. Let's move on to the focus group in podcast space or media space because, of course, Bill Maher and Joe Rogan have weighed in. So let's get to Iran. Let's start now with this clip of Joe Rogan on a recent show. He was actually with Michael Schellenberger in conversation. This just dropped yesterday reacting to the war in Iran, F1. But just seems so insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars and these stupid senseless wars, and then we have one that we can't even really clearly define why we did it. Well, but he said he's against endless wars. Well, they're all. Listen, men, they're all endless. Do you ever hear Rumsfeld talk about Iraq when it first happened? Tell me. They were talking about like six weeks, six weeks. Oh, yeah. Six weeks. Six weeks. Yeah, but they put that that was ground force, and I know that they've not ruled that out. For me, that would be. They have? They have not. Oh, my understanding is that you're not. I thought you said that now. Yeah, no. This guy is just acting. You know, he says he's not getting where they want to get in the negotiations with the Iranian. So he says, we have some leverage over you and we're going to use it. So clearly Israel wanted this. Israel has its own motivations, I think. Yeah. But I don't think, I think it's not quite accurate to say that I just don't think, I think all the evidence shows that Trump is his own man and he is the president. And like literally he couldn't even give back, he couldn't even give Elon Musk the battery subsidy that he wanted. You know what I mean? I get that. I've never seen a politician act that independently. That's, I mean, a president act that independently. So I'm skeptical of. I mean, I think that Marco Rubio was sort of like, well, they were going to attack. And so we had to, you know, there's some of that. But I just think Trump's doing what he wants to do. And we should. You really think it's that simple? Trump's doing what he wants to do. That's it. Yes. You don't think people are influencing him? Because there's a lot of war hawks around him, right? There's a lot of people that want this and have for a long time. I mean, Benjamin Netanyahu's in there, but then Tucker Carlson was in there a bunch. But do you think Tucker Carlson has the kind of influence that Benjamin Netanyahu has? Well, I mean, I guess if you just based it on the outcome, then the answer is no. No. But that's what I'm saying. I just think he listens to everybody, but I just don't think it's... Russians aren't behind him, Israeli. I mean, Trump is, look what he's been through. For the record, Tucker Carlson has said in his conversations with Trump, I think he said this in his recent episode with Sagar, that he believes Trump did not want to do this. Or, I mean, the alternative to that, Tucker Carlson knows Donald Trump much better than I do. But it's possible Trump, when he's in conversations with people is one of those guys who's seeing it. I mean, he's a business dude. He's pragmatist more than he's an ideologue. And he's sort of.

makes you feel like he agrees with you. So there are different ways to... That's not the impression I get. I don't believe that Trump was worried about bombing Iran. I mean, I believe that Tucker Carlson is accurately representing their conversations that Trump was indicating he did not want to be dragged into the war, but I don't know that I necessarily agree that he was hesitant to strike. We, as we talked about in the last segment, the public disagrees with that idea. The public thinks that he is heavily influenced by Israel and particularly by Benjamin Netanyahu. Maybe they're wrong. Maybe he is just doing whatever he wants to do. Rogan, correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't follow this space just closely as some people do. He's kind of held on to Trump a little longer than the rest of the podcast bros. Is that right? No, I don't think so. I feel like he was pretty early to, but he's friendly with Elon Musk. So the Doge stuff didn't dissuade him. But around summertime, I think he was pretty openly starting to question the immigration stuff. Oh, that's right. Yeah, because he was like, what, like, this is not. This is not how I envisioned this happening. Right. Right. And he's friendly with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. So he's been, I think Kenny was just back on a show. Elon Musk was, they've both been on the show in the last couple of months. So I guess he's hung on to it in that sense. I'm sure back in June he was critical of what happened in Iran too. So I think he's clung on maybe with some things or he's hung on some things for a while. But. Overall, he's definitely been willing to be a bit critical from probably the, I don't know, last summer starting on would be my guess. But, you know, he's going to, I'm sure he's going to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the most part and, you know, some of those other agenda items in the administration. Bill Maher is the guy who's apparently on the left. Not even like in the Podbro world. He's all in. That doesn't really surprise anyone, I bet. But let's roll F2 here. Also, this week, war. Did you hear about that thing? We bombed Iran and it's going on. Now, have you expected me to say, I hate it? I don't. Sorry. When he puts boots on the ground, yeah, that I'll hate it. Now, I know too many happy Iranian Americans. Sorry.

You cannot name one horrible thing that has happened in the Middle East in the last 50 years and not connected to this fascist theocracy. They're like six degrees of they don't eat bacon. And it's popular. I mean, Iranians all over the world are doing the Trump dance. Have you seen that though? I just want to reiterate what I said in the monologue. I'm cautiously optimistic unless he puts boots on the ground. Then he's going to lose me. We'll see for now. I just don't get what liberals don't get about liberation. I see so much happiness. I see it in Venezuela. I see it here in Iran. Could we skip the part where we talk about, oh, they had so many different reasons for going to war, regime change, and we got to get rid of the nukes, and they were supporters of terrorism? It's all of it. How about this? This was a fascist theocracy, and nothing in the Middle East was ever going to get better while they were still there fucking everything up. The liberation from Mossadegh. What do liberals not get about that, right? Didn't Bill Maher lose his show for criticizing the invasion of Iraq? Politically incorrect. Whatever was called at the time of the time? I thought so. Yeah, that's my impression. So what did he not get about liberation then? Like what is what's going on with this guy? Well, he's saying ground troops, I guess is his red line. So, okay, so what he was saying is George W. Bush should have just done shocking off for months and bombed the hell out of Iraq. And then he would have been fine with it. And then Hussein. And then like Uday Hussein. Or Cousay Hussein, I guess whichever one rises at the top becomes president of Iraq, and he's cool with that. You just keep mowing the lawn. And then, yeah, as they did in the 90s. And as they're talking about maybe the strategy going forward with Iran now. I don't know. Which guy. I mean, the guy just, he hates religion. He hates Islam in particular. He hates all religion, but Islam in particular. And he sees them as a way to Caesar going after Iran is like fulfilling that itch that he's got. This was the Amar comment. This was in, it looks like September 2001, like six days after. He said, quote, we have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles. This was to Dinesda de Sousa, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building. say what you want about it, it's not cowardly. That is one of the most famous moments in Bill Maher's career, as my memory is getting jarred for. That's what he got fired for, that's right. Well, it was canceled like months later, and he assumed that it was pegged to that incident, which probably a fair sense. I remember that. It's hard to describe the... what the feeling in the air was at that time in 2000 late 2001 early 2002 that you could you could not say anything like that even though you look back now you're like well just that's just a that's just a normal that's a logical thing to say like you can disagree with what they did but when it comes to physical courage like duh obviously it takes physical courage to

carry out any physical attack. Yeah, you can say that, but you don't also have to... Yeah, and I think people confuse the word courage with valor and morality. Yeah. That if you say something is courageous, that it's necessarily good, but you can be courageous and terrible too. Yeah, I think he would have gotten canceled no matter what, but I don't think he necessarily needed to say that the U.S. was cowardly six days after 9-11, but probably is not... Even though it's true. You can say it's courageous for... like terrorists, physically courageous, to your point mind. But if you couple that with the U.S. as cowardly, that's six days after 9-11, where there was an enormous amount of bravery. Right, but he's talking about the people that's been cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. I know, but it's tonally, that's difficult for people who are grieving. He wasn't reading the room. Really wasn't reading the room. Room was very, very... rough at that moment. Yeah, yeah. And again, like, we probably disagree on this. I don't think that's necessarily unreasonable when you had American bravery on full display. 3,000 people killed. Yeah, right. And American bravery on full display in New York City and, you know, the flight 93 around the country. Yeah. So anyway, that's Bill Maher now. 2026, Bill Maher saying, I'm seeing too many happy Iranians. feeling liberated. And I don't understand why the left doesn't support that. Yeah, the Shaz of Sunset are very excited. Yes, we discussed this. You haven't watched Shaz of Sunset in years, nor have I. But they are, I did see Reza Pahlavi from Shaz of Sunset was... Excited. The least shocking thing ever. Yeah. That'll do it for us today's edition. Of course, we're ending on a Bravo note. I don't know what else we would do. Today's edition of Breaking Points. Remember this year last week to get in on that free trial promo code BP Free 26. That is a free month of the show. You get the show the way that. We think it's really meant to be watched, which is in one fell sweep, one chunk, no commercial breaks, right in your inbox, nice and early. The clips come out, of course, later, but you also get the second half of the Friday show every week. That is totally paywall. That's where we do AMAs and do get access to more AMAs and the like. So please do go ahead, support the journalism that we're doing here at breaking points. Get a free month trial. If you like it, stick around. We're so excited to have so many new folks because this is an important time for independent media. media. Yes, indeed. All right. We'll see you soon. Sounds good.

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