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Speaker 1: I'm Steve Schmidt, and I'm thrilled to be joined by

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Speaker 1: Sasha Ingber. She writes on substack at Human Human stands

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Speaker 1: for human intelligence, and Sasha covers spies and spying in

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Speaker 1: the intelligence community. The Dark arts what's happening around the

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Speaker 1: world in the shadows, this competition between great states and

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Speaker 1: actors and players in nations in a time of war

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Speaker 1: and tumult and chaos. Before we begin, I just want

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Speaker 1: to say that Franklin Roosevelt, who is the architect of

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Speaker 1: the modern world, and the first cornerstones of that architecture

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Speaker 1: are laid at the Atlantic Charter in nineteen forty before

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Speaker 1: the United States enters the Second World War, and it

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Speaker 1: talks about a world not where the strong nations dominate

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Speaker 1: the weak, where the powerful prey on the small, but

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Speaker 1: one of values and ideals. And that world is the

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Speaker 1: one that prevails in the Second World War. And when

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Speaker 1: that war ends, the most powerful nation in human history

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Speaker 1: is the United States of America. And it does not

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Speaker 1: use its power to strike mineral deals, It does not

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Speaker 1: use its power to take It rebuilds Japan, we rebuild Europe,

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Speaker 1: and we unleash the greatest period of prosperity and progress

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Speaker 1: in all of the recorded annals of huge human history

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Speaker 1: from the cave drawings through this present moment, including landing

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Speaker 1: men on the Moon, and so this moment, this is

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Speaker 1: what's at stake. The Canadian Prime Minister was an indispensable

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Speaker 1: partner of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill during the

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Speaker 1: Second World War. His name was Mackenzie King. And there

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Speaker 1: are other fantastic historical players from our allied nations who

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Speaker 1: don't get the credit for the enormous roles that they played.

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Speaker 1: Queen Wilhelmina, the Dutch Queen, and the Dutch merchant Fleet,

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Speaker 1: the King of Norway. These are inspirational figures all around

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Speaker 1: the world. But late in the night Roosevelt and Mackenzie King,

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Speaker 1: his friend Franklin Roosevelt talks about a dream that he

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Speaker 1: hopes will take root in the aftermath of the Second

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Speaker 1: World War. Its expression is through the United Nations Declaration

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Speaker 1: of Human Rights in the UN Charter. Douglas MacArthur talks

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Speaker 1: on the Battleship Missouri about the necessity for a moral

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Speaker 1: requstedence so that humanity may survive, so it doesn't extinct itself.

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Speaker 1: Through an apocalypse of nuclear weapons and Roosevelt's vision prevails.

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Speaker 1: He says to King that he realizes nothing less forever.

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Speaker 1: He just hopes his vision will endure for as long

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Speaker 1: as everybody who is alive on the day the war

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Speaker 1: is one is still alive. The youngest of those people

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Speaker 1: are eighty years old, and we have come to the

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Speaker 1: end of an epoch in history. Emmanuel Macrome, the French President,

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Speaker 1: is contemplating extending the French nuclear umbrella over Europe, meaning

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Speaker 1: that if there were to be a nuclear strike in

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Speaker 1: the Baltics, that the United States cannot be trusted, according

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Speaker 1: to the Europeans to honor its commitments the Article five commitments,

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Speaker 1: and what has kept peace is the notion that the

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Speaker 1: American nuclear umbrella, controlled by the President of the United States,

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Speaker 1: deters anybody from ever using the weapons that could unleash armageddon.

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Speaker 1: And now the European allies are uneasy. Now the French

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Speaker 1: and the Germans are contemplating what if the Americans will

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Speaker 1: not honor these commitments. So the new German Chancellor Mertz

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Speaker 1: has asked the French President Macron to protect Germany with

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Speaker 1: French nuclear weapons that will remain in the hands of

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Speaker 1: the French head of state. But we should understand the

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Speaker 1: implications for what we are seeing and what is happening.

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Speaker 1: There is no country in the world that has benefited

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Speaker 1: more from the international order than the country that has

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Speaker 1: led it, the United States. The competitor countries want to

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Speaker 1: tear it down because they seek to lead a new

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Speaker 1: order that has not built on values and ideas like

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Speaker 1: human liberty and human dignity and all of the things

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Speaker 1: that am America throughout its entire history, whether it was

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Speaker 1: in eras of hypocrisy or not, has claimed to stand for.

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Speaker 1: The last thing that I will say about national strength

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Speaker 1: is this. It has always been understood that what makes

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Speaker 1: us strong is what is in our hearts, and what

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Speaker 1: is in our hearts is a love of liberty and freedom.

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Speaker 1: Thomas Paine, and one of the very darkest moments in

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Speaker 1: the American Revolution, talks about the ability to see his

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Speaker 1: way through the crisis, and as he's doing so, he

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Speaker 1: talks about the burdens and the cost and the difficulties ahead,

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Speaker 1: and he says, but that should be understood because everything

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Speaker 1: under Heaven's reign has cost, has a price, and freedom

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Speaker 1: should have a high price. Indeed, and so that's what

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Speaker 1: we're talking about as we get together on the Wednesday Warnings.

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Speaker 1: I'd ask all of you if you are on, to

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Speaker 1: subscribe to Human It's one of my very favorite substacks.

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Speaker 1: Sasha is a beautiful writer. She is an expert in

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Speaker 1: the national intelligence agencies. She is not a political partisan.

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Speaker 1: She is an expert in her subject area. She is

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Speaker 1: a journalist and a reporter. She is a truth seeker

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Speaker 1: and a fact finder. And so it is my pleasure

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Speaker 1: to introduce to all of you tonight my friend Sasha Ingber.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for being with us.

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Speaker 2: Say Steve, it's so good to be with you, to

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Speaker 2: get a chance to see you and hang out with

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Speaker 2: you tonight.

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Speaker 3: This is a significant moment.

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Speaker 2: Just today, CIA director John Ratcliffe went on Fox News

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Speaker 2: and said that.

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Speaker 3: Trump said let's pause.

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Speaker 2: Let's have a chance to think about whether the United

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Speaker 2: States should be sharing intelligence with the Ukrainians, and Ratcliffe

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Speaker 2: said that intelligence would be on pause. That is really significant.

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Speaker 2: For more than ten years, the CIA has been sharing

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Speaker 2: intelligence with Ukraine. It's a deep relationship that has been

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Speaker 2: forged between people who know each other personally. Now, a

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Speaker 2: relationship that formed after the United States got over some

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Speaker 2: real distrust that maybe, you know, looking back in the

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Speaker 2: twenty fourteen period, maybe the Ukrainians were still pro Russian,

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Speaker 2: maybe we shouldn't trust them, Maybe the Soviet influence was

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Speaker 2: still resonant. Well, the United States ended up trusting the Ukrainians.

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Speaker 2: The Ukrainians brought the Americans Russian documents that were valuable

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Speaker 2: to this CIA. The CIA ended up training the Ukrainians

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Speaker 2: and how to establish covers, how to infiltratee in Russia

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Speaker 2: with those covers, how to break into encrypted communications, and

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Speaker 2: they ended up being absolutely excellent partners. We know this

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Speaker 2: from some really wonderful reporting done by some of my colleagues,

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Speaker 2: especially at the New York Times, that the Ukrainians ended

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Speaker 2: up providing the Americans with troves of documents, information that

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Speaker 2: brought the United States insights that were invaluable.

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Speaker 3: So the CIA also had bases.

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Speaker 2: In Ukraine that the Ukrainians now benefit from. Now, just

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Speaker 2: a few weeks ago, as we were talking about whether

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Speaker 2: or not military aid would be continuing, as the relationship

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Speaker 2: between President Trump and President Zelenski was deteriorating, I really

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Speaker 2: wanted to know, are the Ukrainians worried about this? And

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Speaker 2: it just so happens that this was something that they

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Speaker 2: were very concerned about, that the intelligence would diminish. I

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Speaker 2: was told that the United States provides a lot of

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Speaker 2: really valuable intelligence warnings on Russian assassination plots. Remember that

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Speaker 2: when the full scale invasion started in twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 2: there were hit teams in Kiev to try to kill

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Speaker 2: President Zelenski. Zelensky refused to leave the capital. The Americans

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Speaker 2: have been providing intelligence on other Russian plans. They provide

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Speaker 2: real time information on drones and missiles that had been

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Speaker 2: falling literally minute by minute for all of these years,

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Speaker 2: these past three years. There's also warnings and cooperation when

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Speaker 2: it comes to cyber attacks from Russia and cybersecurity for

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Speaker 2: the Ukrainians.

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Speaker 3: So this is quite something right now.

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Speaker 2: I was also told we're worried about Starlingk, what happens

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Speaker 2: to Elon Musk's starlings and the dependency.

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Speaker 3: On the front for that.

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Speaker 2: Now, I should also say that the Ukrainians have become

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Speaker 2: more independent over.

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Speaker 3: Time with their own intelligence gathering.

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Speaker 2: They have been able to run with information provided by

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Speaker 2: the US, but they also have developed their own very

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Speaker 2: complex and prolific drone industry. So these drones are able

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Speaker 2: to gather intelligence, help with targeting, enhancing combat the basis

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Speaker 2: that the CIA has developed the Ukrainians are able to

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Speaker 2: intercept Russian communications. They've been very flashy sharing some of

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Speaker 2: the conversations that the Russians are having forms of psychological

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Speaker 2: warfare to explose they're exposed, they're low morale to it.

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Speaker 2: Showed confusion, to show chaos. But make no mistake, and

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Speaker 2: I want to talk more about this, Steve. There is

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Speaker 2: an intelligence game that is being played and I think

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Speaker 2: a lot of it played out in the Oval office

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Speaker 2: last week. So before we go there, I wanted to

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Speaker 2: do a little show and tell with you. You know, you

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Speaker 2: had your history lesson on it.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely I wanted to show you this.

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Speaker 2: So sometimes when you're in the middle of talking about

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Speaker 2: war and it's been a few years, you almost forget

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Speaker 2: that there are real people involved in it.

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Speaker 3: You know that I was there in the summertime. Well,

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Speaker 3: I want to show.

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Speaker 2: You this coin that the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Agency whore

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Speaker 2: gave me.

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Speaker 3: Let's see if I can actually like put it up.

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Speaker 1: Is that?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: So they told me that the owl right here.

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Speaker 2: That is because the Russian Military Intelligence Agency has a bat,

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Speaker 2: so the owl can hunt and kill the bat mid air.

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Speaker 2: There's also a sword if you can see, and it's

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Speaker 2: pointed down toward Russia.

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Speaker 3: They say.

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Speaker 2: So this is like this heavy coin, a very rare

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Speaker 2: token of the Ukrainian intelligence community, and it is led

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Speaker 2: by Carillo Budanov, who was very much a key player

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Speaker 2: in the early days of the relationship between the CIA

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Speaker 2: and Ukraine.

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Speaker 3: And so this is an important day.

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Speaker 2: Total coincidence that Ratcliffe announced that the AID was pausing.

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Speaker 2: And I will tell you that I have been messaging

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Speaker 2: the people that I know in Ukraine saying is there

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Speaker 2: still intel sharing?

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Speaker 3: Is there still intel sharing? Yesterday?

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Speaker 2: I got a text back yep, still the same no

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Speaker 2: message today.

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Speaker 1: Okay, do you believe do you believe that the intail

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Speaker 1: sharing will remain cut off?

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Speaker 2: I think that it's going to be restarted again. I

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Speaker 2: think that this is leverage that the United States is

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Speaker 2: using to bring President Zelenski back to the negotiating table.

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Speaker 2: I think that the showing last Friday was incredibly damaging

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Speaker 2: and that this was another.

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Speaker 3: Tool in the toolkit that President Trump was able to use.

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Speaker 2: And I'm sorry that it came to this, but I

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Speaker 2: don't think that it will be indefinite, and I certainly

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Speaker 2: hope not, and I think that there are a lot

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Speaker 2: of Republicans as well as Democrats who truly want to.

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Speaker 3: See this changing.

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Speaker 2: I'd also like to point out the fact that before

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Speaker 2: Zelensky went to the White House, the New York Post

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Speaker 2: reported that Keith Kellogg, the Special Envoy to Ukraine and Russia,

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Speaker 2: had advised Zolensky to not go until the relationship was stronger.

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Speaker 2: And actually, I think this is an incredibly interesting point,

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Speaker 2: because what it seemed to suggest is that the Ukrainians

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Speaker 2: miscalculated how far along they were in terms of improving

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Speaker 2: the dynamic that had sort of worsened between Trump and

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Speaker 2: Zelenski in the previous days. Remember that Trump had accused

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Speaker 2: Ukraine of starting this, that they were the aggressors. Trump

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Speaker 2: accused Zelenski of being a dictator who wouldn't hold elections

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Speaker 2: although according to Ukraine's constitution and they do not hold

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Speaker 2: elections when there is martial law in wartime. And then

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Speaker 2: Zelensky hit back saying that Trump lived in a space

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Speaker 2: of disinformation. So that was the dynamic. Now, the CIA

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Speaker 2: go back a couple decades. They had a guy named

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Speaker 2: Gerald Post there. He was the one who created personality

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Speaker 2: profiles so they could look at each individual leader of

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Speaker 2: importance and say, hmm, what do we know about this person,

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Speaker 2: What are their vulnerabilities, what are their proclivities? How would

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Speaker 2: we communicate with this person? How would we exert influence,

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Speaker 2: How would we get what we want? What would we

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Speaker 2: want to avoid? What are the levers? Well, I'll tell

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Speaker 2: you that if there's a country that seems to have

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Speaker 2: been good at doing that right now, it's not the Ukrainians,

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Speaker 2: It's the Russians. Keep in mind, Putin former KGV officer,

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Speaker 2: and I just want to explain to you what's been

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Speaker 2: happening in the.

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Speaker 3: Last few days months, you know.

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Speaker 2: In an interview with Russian state television last month, Putin

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Speaker 2: described Trump as quote clever and pragmatic.

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Speaker 3: This is something that matters to Trump to be complimented,

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Speaker 3: to be valued.

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Speaker 2: He also said in months past that the January sixth

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Speaker 2: rioters came with political requests. He was validating an area

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Speaker 2: of real frustration to Trump in this perceived inequity in

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Speaker 2: the undermining of the twenty twenty election.

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Speaker 3: Well, Putin played into that with that comment.

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Speaker 2: He also had his foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a few

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Speaker 2: days ago praise Trump's common sense approach to handling the

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Speaker 2: war in Ukraine and looking for an end to the war.

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Speaker 2: Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson maria's Zakharova praised doche for shutting

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Speaker 2: down USAID, saying that it's anything but an aid Development

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Speaker 2: and Assistance agency. All of this comes to play and

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Speaker 2: validates things that we have heard come out of Trump's mouth.

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Speaker 2: And now I just want to read you a little

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Speaker 2: bit of what really stood out to me last Friday

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Speaker 2: that Trump told Zelenski when they were sitting beside each

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Speaker 2: other talking about the Russians, he said, they respect me.

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Speaker 2: Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of

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Speaker 2: a lot with me. He went through a phony witch

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Speaker 2: hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.

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Speaker 3: You ever heard of that deal. Then he goes and.

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Speaker 2: He starts talking about Hunter, Biden, Joe Biden, Clinton, Adam Schiff.

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Speaker 2: You know, he starts describing all of these things, and

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Speaker 2: then he says the whole thing was a scam and

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Speaker 2: Putin had to put up with that. He was being

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Speaker 2: accused of all this stuff. So what I think that

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Speaker 2: moment showed was Trump feeling a sense of kinship with

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Speaker 2: Putin in what he believes were false accusations. And let's

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Speaker 2: be honest, some of the accusations did not pan out

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Speaker 2: from the twenty sixteen time period. But it's almost like

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Speaker 2: a part of his emotions, his way of looking at

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Speaker 2: the world got fused together with Putin such that he

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Speaker 2: could sit there next to Zelenski and say he went

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Speaker 2: through a hell of a lot with me. And there

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Speaker 2: were also points that aligned between them. Steve, he said

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Speaker 2: that Ukraine was militarily in a weak position, even though

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of analysis on how the Ukrainians have

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Speaker 2: been able to hold nearly well, I should say, most

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Speaker 2: of their territory with the Ukrainians making incremental gains, and

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Speaker 2: that Ukraine is the one who doesn't want to make peace,

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Speaker 2: when really Zelenski was saying that Putin would not honor

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Speaker 2: a ceasefire, would not honor a real negotiation.

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Speaker 3: And meanwhile, I just I'm.

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Speaker 2: Sorry, this is a long answer, but I've been waiting

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Speaker 2: all day to talk to you and to bounce around

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Speaker 2: these different ideas. While we have this relationship where President

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Speaker 2: Trump can look at Putin and say we were both,

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Speaker 2: we were both wronged, we were both aggrieved in all

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Speaker 2: of these moments. He looks at Zelenski and there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of baggage there. Let's go back to twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 2: Zelensky doesn't investigate Parisma, Zelenski doesn't investigate the bi.

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Speaker 3: There is the.

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Speaker 2: Call that then leads to Trump's first impeachment. Well, Trump

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Speaker 2: punished the national security attorney who represented the whistleblower that

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Speaker 2: led to that impeachment. I interviewed him, Markzade you can

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Speaker 2: see that on my substack human. But he took away

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Speaker 2: his security clearance, and that was he believes, in part,

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Speaker 2: a retaliation for this particular situation. So when he looks

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Speaker 2: at Zelensky, he's thinking, you didn't help me in the

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty election by investigating a person who I wanted

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Speaker 2: you to investigate.

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Speaker 3: And you got me impeached.

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Speaker 2: Even if that's not the order of operations, Zelenski didn't

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Speaker 2: actually play a role in it. So there's all of

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Speaker 2: these things at play, and I think it's part.

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Speaker 3: Of the spy games.

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Speaker 1: Actually, Steve So's there's a lot there.

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Speaker 4: I'm going to.

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Speaker 1: Just reset as we get into kind of the next

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Speaker 1: angle here. So just for everybody who's with us. You

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Speaker 1: can find Sasha at Human on substack, she writes about

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Speaker 1: the spy game. You will be better informed, smarter about

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Speaker 1: all of these issues, factually smarter. I really urge you

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Speaker 1: to subscribe to Human. Sasha is terrific. So what you

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Speaker 1: said about Trump and his profile and how you deal

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Speaker 1: with him, all of this is very obvious that Vladimir

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Speaker 1: Putin is manipulating him, is playing him. And for some reason,

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Speaker 1: Putin has been successful at doing this with everyone. He

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Speaker 1: did it to Bush, who looked into Putin's eyes and

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Speaker 1: saw his soul, did it with Obama, who laughed at

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Speaker 1: Mitt Romney when Mitt Romney in twenty twelve said that

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Speaker 1: the number one geopolitical threat facing the United States was

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Speaker 1: from Russia, and Barack Obama famously said, you know, go

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Speaker 1: and get your grandfather's Cold War foreign policy back somewhere.

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Speaker 1: Put down, put down quote. You know, the one person

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Speaker 1: who was right about Vladimir Putin was John McCain. And

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Speaker 1: so Vladimir Putin invades Georgia in two thousand and eight.

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Speaker 1: He invades the Crimea, Ukraine in twenty fourteen. He invades

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Speaker 1: the Ukraine in twenty twenty two, he breaks twenty five

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Speaker 1: different ceasefire agreements. There is a for people who followed

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Speaker 1: the warrant. You know, I've written about that. I collect

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Speaker 1: Life magazines, the old ones, and I like looking at them.

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Speaker 4: They're time capsules.

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Speaker 1: And one of my favorite editions is the one where

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Speaker 1: the first image of a German soldier is taken in

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Speaker 1: Poland on September one, nineteen thirty nine. And this image

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Speaker 1: appears in Life magazine, and it draws you in because

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Speaker 1: you know everything that will happen for the next eighty years.

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Speaker 4: I know the day.

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Speaker 1: That Auschwitz will be discovered by Russian troops on January

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Speaker 1: twenty seventh of nineteen forty five, and I know right

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Speaker 1: through this moment when I look at that first image

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Speaker 1: of that Nazi soldier in Poland, and I know forever

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Speaker 1: more that when that Nazi soldier entered Poland. Just as

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin says today, half Hitler claimed that it was

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Speaker 1: the polls that attacked Nazi Germany, and Nazi Germany was

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Speaker 1: defending itself. And it's Vladimir Putin who said this was

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Speaker 1: a war of defense, when in fact it was a

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Speaker 1: war of aggression. And this is what I want everybody

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Speaker 1: to understand. This is why we fought the First Golf

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Speaker 1: War when Iraq invaded Kuwait, which is that we cannot

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Speaker 1: afford to live in a world where stronger, more powerful

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Speaker 1: nations invade weaker ones and declare whether they think they

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Speaker 1: have a right to exist or not. Ukraine, for those

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Speaker 1: of you who are with us, is an older nation

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Speaker 1: than Russia. It is an older language than Russia. It

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Speaker 1: is a nation with a language with a tradition both

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Speaker 1: oral and written. It has arts, it has culture, and

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin has said it does not exist and that

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Speaker 1: it is to be subsumed. Vladimir Putin's war sent a

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Speaker 1: criminal army into a European country, raped women, young girls,

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Speaker 1: old ladies, and kidnapped tens of thousands of children. And

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Speaker 1: the American position has not ever been, cannot ever be

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Speaker 1: neutral on this. And what Sasha is talking about is

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Speaker 1: the reality now through her reporting, that the foreign policy

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Speaker 1: of the United States is now deeply detached from values

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Speaker 1: and ideals and even America's interest and is fundamentally oriented

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Speaker 1: around now Donald Trump's ego, which is America's interest, that

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Speaker 1: is the Trump foreign policy. I was in Germany and

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Speaker 1: ten days ago and meeting with senior German parliamentarians, and

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Speaker 1: there were folks in the room who are in the

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Speaker 1: delegation I was part of. Was bipartisan or maga folks.

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Speaker 1: And the advice that they have in dealing with Trump

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Speaker 1: is to mind Trump's ego is that Trump does not

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Speaker 1: like insults. He's incredibly thin skinned, that you have to

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Speaker 1: watch what you say. And so the entire world is

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Speaker 1: to be reordered apparently on not offending Donald Trump. And

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Speaker 1: that's not the way the world works. So when I

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Speaker 1: was in this meeting in Germany, I asked a question

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Speaker 1: in one of the sessions to a bunch of the Germans,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to explain this to everybody who's watching.

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Speaker 1: There's a domestic political implication the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Germans,

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Speaker 1: the French. How do you deal with Donald Trump? But

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Speaker 1: he really has a handle on how to deal with him.

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Speaker 1: The only foreign leader who really gets it is Doug Ford.

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Speaker 1: I would argue, who is the Premier of Ontario and

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Speaker 1: dealing with the tariff issues, And I thought that Justin

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Speaker 1: Trudeau had had decent comments, but when he talked about

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Speaker 1: the American people are our friends, but we're responding to

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Speaker 1: this so at any rate. When I was in Germany,

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Speaker 1: I asked the Germans a question. I said, where is

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump from? I said, is he from the middle

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Speaker 1: of the country. Is he from the midwest of America?

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Speaker 1: From Iowa? They were like, I go, see from the

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Speaker 1: West coast, from a surf town, is easy? From Texas?

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Speaker 1: Is he Where's he from? I said, He's from the

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Speaker 1: Queens in New York, and I'm from New Jersey. And

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Speaker 1: there's eight billion people on the place on it, there's

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Speaker 1: three hundred and forty million in the United States. There

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Speaker 1: is a highly concentrated pocket of human beings all together

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Speaker 1: in that pocket of America. That's a unique place that

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Speaker 1: has New York City in it, the Queens, we have Brooklyn,

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Speaker 1: we have North Jersey, which is the toughest of all

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Speaker 1: of those places, Staten Islands right all together, and you

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Speaker 1: communicate with each other in unique and colloquial ways. So

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Speaker 1: it shouldn't take a CIA analyst right to understand that

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Speaker 1: when Donald Trump says fuck you, right, you have to

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Speaker 1: look around and you have to respond, no, fuck you, Donalds.

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Speaker 1: And that's the only way to deal with him. And

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Speaker 1: so appeasement right in the type of appeasement that we're

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Speaker 1: watching play out globally. Sirkir Starmer pulling out as Willie

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Speaker 1: Wanka Gold King Charles formal invitation for Trump in the

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Speaker 1: Oval office. Appeasement is the philosophy of feeding the crocodile last, feeding,

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Speaker 1: feeding the crocodile so he eats you last. That's what

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Speaker 1: appeasement is. And we're and we're seeing this. We're seeing

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Speaker 1: this play out in a really dramatic function. For a

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Speaker 1: lot of different reasons. Russia started the war. Uh, Russia

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Speaker 1: is an aggressive power, all all of those things. But

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Speaker 1: I want to get now into the heart of this.

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Speaker 1: For people who were watching, nobody on this uh uh

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Speaker 1: Substack live tonight wants World War three. Nobody wants an

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Speaker 1: American kid fighting and dying in Ukraine. Uh nobody, bod

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Speaker 1: he wants death. Now, I'm going to tell you what

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Speaker 1: I think the American interest should be. The Ukrainians have

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Speaker 1: killed eight hundred thousand Russian soldiers at least, and if

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Speaker 1: I was the president, my position would be, we will

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Speaker 1: arm the Ukrainians until the Russians leave or until they

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Speaker 1: look for an opportunity for peace. Because the Russians only

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Speaker 1: understand strength. That being said, the Russians sustained somewhere between

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Speaker 1: twenty to forty million casualties in the Second World War,

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Speaker 1: and Russian leaders have long died peacefully in their sleep

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Speaker 1: while sending millions of their soldiers to die in European

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Speaker 1: wars over history. And so I, Steve Schmidt, have not

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Speaker 1: heard a single reasonable proposition about how Ukraine or NATO

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Speaker 1: or anybody will make the Russian army move backwards from

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Speaker 1: the territory that they occupy.

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Speaker 4: When I was in.

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Speaker 1: Germany, one of the German parliamentarians said that Germany had

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Speaker 1: sent fifty five thousand helmets to Ukraine, and I said

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Speaker 1: to them, I advised them that they never say that

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Speaker 1: out loud again in front of an American What is

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Speaker 1: if there is any plan when people talk about making

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin move backwards, to me, that is a fantasy.

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Speaker 1: And I don't think Trump is wrong about that. And

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Speaker 1: I don't take a backseat to anybody with regard to

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Speaker 1: my criticism of Donald Trump. So is there any reasonable

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Speaker 1: person anywhere beyond rhetoric who has a military plan that says,

438
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: if we do these things, or if the Ukrainians get

439
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 1: these weapons, they'll be able to expel the Russian Army

440
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: from this Ukrainian territory that the Russian Army sits on

441
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 1: tonight as we are speaking, and as the old adage goes,

442
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: possession is nine tenths of the law.

443
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's an important question.

444
00:32:56,040 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 2: I think that we have seen, even in Biden's term,

445
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:06,719
Speaker 2: the fact that the administration wouldn't provide heavy weapons fast

446
00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 2: enough to the Ukrainians, the fact that they provided essentially

447
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 2: sanctuary so that the Ukrainians couldn't use Western weapons to

448
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 2: target Russia, inhibiting the country from really ultimately defending itself

449
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,960
Speaker 2: and heightening the cost and the pain for Russia and

450
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 2: for Putin. When this man controls the information space and

451
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 2: he can set the narrative so that it's a special

452
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 2: military operation, not even a ward to his own people,

453
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:43,440
Speaker 2: it becomes so much harder, I think, for anybody to

454
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 2: essentially get through. You know, we saw that the United

455
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 2: States was wrong in its assessment about how long the

456
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 2: Ukrainian military could hold off. We all underestimated how the

457
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 2: Ukrainians would fight, unlike the Afghans, for their own country,

458
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:08,160
Speaker 2: for democracy, for independence, for sovereignty. And look when I

459
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,800
Speaker 2: was there in the summer, I walked across the border

460
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:18,200
Speaker 2: from Poland into Ukraine, went to a coffee shop with

461
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:22,600
Speaker 2: a former senior US military officer who was getting ready

462
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:27,279
Speaker 2: to train law enforcement at a covert military base. And

463
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 2: then these men would go to the front. We sat

464
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 2: at a coffee shop. He said, this was right after

465
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 2: the debate between Trump and Biden, where it looked like

466
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 2: Trump could potentially become our president again, and what would

467
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:44,280
Speaker 2: that mean for Ukraine?

468
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 3: Would military aid diminish?

469
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 2: Thinking about that moment now a pivotal moment, And so

470
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,719
Speaker 2: this American said, do I need to train you in

471
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:56,720
Speaker 2: guerrilla tactics?

472
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:58,880
Speaker 3: Do you want to learn partisan warfare? Should we be

473
00:34:58,960 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 3: teaching you that?

474
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 2: I think the Ukrainians are going to continue to fight

475
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 2: if they don't like negotiation, If they don't see Russia

476
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:12,760
Speaker 2: actually truly honoring any sort of ceasefire or peace steel,

477
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 2: which there's no indication the Russians would truly commit to,

478
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,840
Speaker 2: then I don't think they would stop fighting. I just

479
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 2: don't think that it's going to happen. And we have

480
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 2: other examples. I mean, look at Israel. Look at the

481
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:28,439
Speaker 2: way that Israel decided to do its own thing. When

482
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:32,560
Speaker 2: Biden and Jake Sullivan would make demands, they'd say okay,

483
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 2: and then they.

484
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 3: Do what they wanted.

485
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,360
Speaker 2: And I think that the Ukrainians, especially if they feel

486
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 2: that they have support from their European partners, as we're

487
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 2: seeing with Cure Starmer with mak Kron, if they feel

488
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 2: that they can get support from others, then that is

489
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,440
Speaker 2: where they'll go. I think that they would rather have

490
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 2: the support of the United States, which can provide more

491
00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:03,600
Speaker 2: sophisticated weapons than European countries. But I do believe that

492
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,240
Speaker 2: we will continue to see the Ukrainians doing absolutely everything

493
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:11,279
Speaker 2: they can to push the Russians out. I think that

494
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 2: on Putin's side, seeing a democracy, seeing a country that

495
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 2: has been turning more toward the West since twenty fourteen

496
00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:24,279
Speaker 2: right on the border is so disturbing. Sometimes they just

497
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 2: try to imagine what conversations this man would be having

498
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,200
Speaker 2: when the internet first started. Well, how do we continue

499
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 2: to control the information space such that people don't realize

500
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:40,360
Speaker 2: that I am a kleptocrat and that I am here

501
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 2: only for myself and the oligarchs who are going to

502
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:46,839
Speaker 2: shut their mouths so that I can keep paying them.

503
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 3: Okay, we should.

504
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:51,520
Speaker 2: Just pump disinformation, which by the way, is a Russian

505
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,480
Speaker 2: term disinformatzia. And as you know, Steve, but I will

506
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 2: think viewers do. I used to work at the State

507
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 2: Department countering Russian disinform after Russia illegally seized Crimea in

508
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen.

509
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 3: Pump the information.

510
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:12,200
Speaker 2: Space with all of this false information and make it

511
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:14,359
Speaker 2: so that nobody knows what's going on. We don't have

512
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 2: to do it necessarily in Russia so much as we

513
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:19,960
Speaker 2: need to do it overseas. But how do we now

514
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:24,160
Speaker 2: try to stop the Ukrainians from moving toward the west.

515
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 3: How can we control them?

516
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 2: Well, twenty fourteen, it turns out was just the beginning,

517
00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:34,240
Speaker 2: and the Obama administration didn't really do enough to stop

518
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:34,960
Speaker 2: the Russians.

519
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 3: There was no ultimate consequence.

520
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, there's some sanctions, Okay, take them out of

521
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:41,719
Speaker 2: the G.

522
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 3: Eight G seven.

523
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 2: Well, it didn't stop It didn't stop them from invading Georgia,

524
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 2: from invading Moldova.

525
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 3: This man does what he wants to do.

526
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:59,840
Speaker 2: And so fast forward to twenty twenty two, seeing the

527
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:03,879
Speaker 2: military build up before the full scale invasion in February,

528
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 2: seeing that they were bringing blood. Remember, they were setting

529
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:12,360
Speaker 2: up areas where they could support their own troops. I

530
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:15,479
Speaker 2: don't think that anything would necessarily stop this man.

531
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 3: And then remember there was.

532
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 2: The attempt to disobey him with you Gainy Pregosion, the

533
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,719
Speaker 2: leader of the Wagner group, who had criticism for the

534
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:28,400
Speaker 2: way the war was being conducted.

535
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,600
Speaker 3: And look what happened to him. He gets on a

536
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:33,240
Speaker 3: plane and that's it for him. He's gone now.

537
00:38:33,719 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 2: So I don't know if anybody can actually affect change

538
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:40,280
Speaker 2: with Vladimir Putin.

539
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,320
Speaker 1: Look, Donald Trump, everybody is a mark. He's being played.

540
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:48,800
Speaker 1: The idea that little Marco is standing next to Sergey

541
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: Lavrov in these meetings is preposterous. It's is the old

542
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 1: saying goes, if you're sitting at the poker table and

543
00:38:57,160 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 1: you don't know who the mark is, it's you, and

544
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 1: that's Mark Arubio in these in these meetings with the Russians.

545
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: I want to ask you to react to a request

546
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 1: that the Chancellor of Germany Mertz, the new Chancellor of Germany,

547
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:21,680
Speaker 1: had of the French president, which was they would like

548
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 1: to be covered under the French nuclear umbrella. Talk about

549
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 1: the implications of that.

550
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:38,399
Speaker 2: Well, I think the context here is what what is the.

551
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 3: Future of our relationship with our allies?

552
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 2: When President Trump went back to the White House, the

553
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 2: question that was on my mind was He's coming in

554
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:54,920
Speaker 2: in a very different moment. Yes, our adversaries are still

555
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 2: our adversaries, but our adversaries have formed their own alliances.

556
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,880
Speaker 2: Can see that Russia has formed a deep relationship with

557
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 2: North Korea, whereby the North Koreans are providing ammunition and

558
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:14,280
Speaker 2: military equipment, as well as North Korean troops who aren't

559
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:19,319
Speaker 2: necessarily skilled but are still providing bodies to dedicate to

560
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 2: Russia's war on Ukraine. The Russians have also continued to

561
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 2: deepen the so called no limits relationship with China, and then,

562
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:32,880
Speaker 2: of course Iran has provided drones as well as training

563
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:33,719
Speaker 2: to the Russians.

564
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 3: So we've got an alliance between.

565
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:42,080
Speaker 2: Our biggest foes Russia, China, North Korea, Iran. It's more

566
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:47,439
Speaker 2: important than ever that the United States continue to stay.

567
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 3: In partnership with our European allies.

568
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 2: That means Germany, that means France, that means the UK,

569
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 2: it means all of the countries that have worked with

570
00:40:57,719 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 2: the United States.

571
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 3: The Biden administration.

572
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 2: Understood the importance of those alliances as we talk now

573
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,359
Speaker 2: about tariffs, and I'm glad you're not asking me about

574
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,000
Speaker 2: tariffs because I wouldn't necessarily be able.

575
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:12,879
Speaker 3: To sound so educated on that.

576
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:18,160
Speaker 2: But when you have Canada and Mexico, who are our

577
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:22,480
Speaker 2: peaceful neighbors, albeit the fentanyl issue and the border are

578
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:24,439
Speaker 2: legitimate concerns.

579
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:29,439
Speaker 4: When south of the border they are, yeah, so, But.

580
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 2: I think that the question here is what does the

581
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:38,600
Speaker 2: relationship between the United States and Germany and France look

582
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:43,359
Speaker 2: like moving forward? In addition to our other allies. Does

583
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:46,640
Speaker 2: the United States continue to be the leader of the

584
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:47,360
Speaker 2: free world?

585
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 1: No, I mean you, well, not in this not in

586
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 1: this presidential term. But but here's what I want everybody

587
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 1: to to do. We have lately over two thy three

588
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 1: hundred people with us. Tonight again we've had more people.

589
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: You can find Sasha at human on Substack, one of

590
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:17,160
Speaker 1: the best substack writers, one of my go tos every day.

591
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:18,880
Speaker 4: I love Sasha's stuff.

592
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 1: You could spend a couple hours just reading Sasha's catalog.

593
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 1: It's always great, interesting. Some of it reads like novels,

594
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:36,280
Speaker 1: like truly terrific stuff. What I want to talk about

595
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 1: with regard to Sasha's answer is, and I just saw

596
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:47,840
Speaker 1: someone said people are tired tonight. Well, people are too tired.

597
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:50,080
Speaker 1: You may lose the country. I don't I don't know

598
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:52,520
Speaker 1: what to say. We're people tired in the Civil War,

599
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:56,359
Speaker 1: the American Revolution, the Second World War. You know, we're

600
00:42:56,440 --> 00:43:00,080
Speaker 1: we're in opposition to Trump, and as far as oppositions go.

601
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:01,240
Speaker 4: We've never had it better.

602
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 1: Right, We're not being called on to do the things

603
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,560
Speaker 1: that the French Resistance was called to do. But let

604
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 1: me get back to the point here, which is that

605
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 1: if you look at your map, right, take out a map,

606
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:22,839
Speaker 1: look at Europe and look at these countries and look

607
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 1: at how big Ukraine is. Right, that's why there is

608
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:33,240
Speaker 1: a war underway. And I want you all to understand

609
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 1: that there are North Korean forces fighting in Europe tonight.

610
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:44,840
Speaker 1: And So if I was to give a history test

611
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 1: and I was to say when did World War two start?

612
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:52,960
Speaker 1: The answer to that question that would be ruled correct

613
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: by the historians is it started on September one, nineteen

614
00:43:57,640 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 1: thirty nine.

615
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,359
Speaker 4: And Foster, that would be like.

616
00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:08,000
Speaker 1: It really started in North Africa and Ethiopia with Benito

617
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 1: Muzsolini's invasions. It started in the Spanish Civil War. It

618
00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: started in the Japanese invasion of China, and then it

619
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:23,399
Speaker 1: culminated in September of nineteen thirty nine. When that war

620
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 1: was over, eighty million people were dead, and we were

621
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 1: the most powerful nation in the world today. The war began, officially,

622
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 1: we had the thirty eighth biggest army in the world

623
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:41,799
Speaker 1: thirty eight. We were in isolationist country. We had sent

624
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:46,840
Speaker 1: an expeditionary army off of our shores one time to

625
00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:49,239
Speaker 1: fight in Europe in the First World War, and there

626
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:53,440
Speaker 1: was tremendous regret about it. When eighty million people were

627
00:44:53,520 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 1: killed around the world, American foreign policy became that Germany

628
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 1: wouldn't have an army anymore. Ever, again, the point of

629
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 1: NATO is to keep the Russians out, the Germans down,

630
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:17,680
Speaker 1: and the Americans in, and that is what is being smashed.

631
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 1: And so the Russians, which are growling and menacing in

632
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:26,120
Speaker 1: an alliance with North Korea, alliance with North Koreans that

633
00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:31,440
Speaker 1: are fighting in Europe. European countries are now saying to

634
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 1: the two European nuclear powers, out of the seven countries

635
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:38,480
Speaker 1: in the world that have those weapons, we can't trust

636
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:43,240
Speaker 1: the Americans, which means you will see a Polish nuclear weapon,

637
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:48,280
Speaker 1: you'll see a German nuclear weapon, though it's so anithmatic

638
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:52,279
Speaker 1: to the concept right in the country, but you will

639
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:55,920
Speaker 1: see a proliferation of nuclear weapons. Is the United States

640
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:59,240
Speaker 1: withdrawals because we were the stability in the world.

641
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:01,799
Speaker 4: We were the glue, we were the harmony.

642
00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 1: And so Donald Trump, as he sets about wrecking this,

643
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: has six hundred some odd days until a midterm election

644
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: when there can at least be some check restored on him.

645
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:23,760
Speaker 1: And so this is a really momentous moment in that

646
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: the entire security umbrella that prevented World War Three, which

647
00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:39,600
Speaker 1: was America's nuclear deterrent, is suddenly falling apart because Donald

648
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: Trump has decided to yoke America's foreign policy to be

649
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:51,319
Speaker 1: in favor of the nations in the world, who are

650
00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 1: the only nations in the world who have nuclear weapons

651
00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 1: on missiles pointed at US. As I am speaking in

652
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,839
Speaker 1: this instant, that's who Donald Trump is saying, is right,

653
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 1: the people who have weapons pointed at us on launchers

654
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:12,360
Speaker 1: that could annihilate American cities tonight. So that's what's going

655
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,360
Speaker 1: on in the world.

656
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:19,279
Speaker 2: I do think it's interesting that remember back in the

657
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen Trump.

658
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:24,040
Speaker 3: Was casting doubt on the value of NATO.

659
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 2: He complained that countries weren't paying in, and then they

660
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 2: stepped up, and then NATO was stronger. Fast forward to

661
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 2: the full scale invasion. It actually worked out better. And

662
00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:40,120
Speaker 2: I don't think there's anything wrong with European countries stepping up.

663
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:43,440
Speaker 2: Why does the United States constantly have to be the

664
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:44,799
Speaker 2: one to come.

665
00:47:44,560 --> 00:47:45,839
Speaker 3: To everybody's aid.

666
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:48,400
Speaker 2: I do think that they could play more of a

667
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 2: role in Ukraine's defense and even in their own defense.

668
00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 2: I think there's legitimacy to that. But what happens to

669
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,520
Speaker 2: those relationships and as you talk about out you know,

670
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 2: nuclear weapons and who was supplying them, and I do

671
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:09,239
Speaker 2: think that that is an important conversation to have.

672
00:48:09,680 --> 00:48:11,320
Speaker 3: I also want to highlight.

673
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:14,839
Speaker 2: The fact that, look in twenty twenty three, Zelenski came

674
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 2: to Washington. I remember standing on the stairs at the

675
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 2: Pentagon waiting for him to walk up the stairs with

676
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:26,280
Speaker 2: then Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

677
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:29,520
Speaker 3: They were walking inside. Then he made the rounds. He

678
00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:32,920
Speaker 3: went down to Capitol Hill to try to get the

679
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:38,279
Speaker 3: Republicans to provide more military aid. Then he spoke at

680
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:40,680
Speaker 3: the National Archives. I was there.

681
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:44,800
Speaker 2: You know, the guy was everywhere he could be, and

682
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:46,640
Speaker 2: it was a long trip.

683
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:47,800
Speaker 3: He seemed tired.

684
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:50,600
Speaker 2: Frankly, it seemed like he was tired of saying the

685
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:52,040
Speaker 2: same thing over and over again.

686
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 3: And it took more months. He did not get what

687
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:55,640
Speaker 3: he wanted.

688
00:48:55,719 --> 00:49:01,000
Speaker 2: I don't think that he necessarily leaves that every time

689
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:03,160
Speaker 2: he comes here is going to be successful.

690
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:05,160
Speaker 3: So he has a thick skin.

691
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:09,960
Speaker 2: He realizes that this was an implosion, and it doesn't

692
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:13,880
Speaker 2: discourage him from coming back. That is the thing about Zelensky.

693
00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:15,400
Speaker 2: This guy just keeps going.

694
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:18,240
Speaker 3: And so I don't.

695
00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 2: Want to leave it on a note of total negativity here.

696
00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:25,360
Speaker 2: And you know, I think that Ukraine still has the

697
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:31,680
Speaker 2: capability to continue fighting without US support for months to come.

698
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:39,240
Speaker 3: And you know, it doesn't have to be grim forever.

699
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 3: This is one moment in.

700
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 2: Time, and it'll be interesting to see what happens in

701
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:45,960
Speaker 2: the midterms.

702
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:48,680
Speaker 3: And it'll be interesting to see if Americans.

703
00:49:48,239 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 2: Care more about, say, tariffs hurting their wallets than the

704
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:58,359
Speaker 2: Ukrainians fighting for their own independence.

705
00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:02,279
Speaker 1: What do you think, well, all of this is, all

706
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:04,400
Speaker 1: of this is linked together. I think you're gonna have

707
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:07,800
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people on the streets very soon.

708
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:11,719
Speaker 1: I mean yesterday we saw an American president say that

709
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 1: I am raising taxes, which is what tariffs are, so

710
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:18,640
Speaker 1: that prices will go down. War is peace, and up

711
00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:21,120
Speaker 1: is down, and down is up, and left is right

712
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:25,160
Speaker 1: and right is left, and the stock market is down, down, down,

713
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:30,200
Speaker 1: down down. We have food aid rotting on shelves around

714
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:33,839
Speaker 1: the world. We will have a video record of the

715
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: suffering that is manifestly right upon us, right in this

716
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:45,080
Speaker 1: in this moment, and so you will see a bottom

717
00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:50,800
Speaker 1: up opposition. One of the things is I'm reading the comments,

718
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:52,960
Speaker 1: you know, as they scroll by at the bottom. If

719
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:56,959
Speaker 1: there is one thing that brings me to the edge

720
00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:00,080
Speaker 1: of an aneurysm in twenty twenty five is when I

721
00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:04,920
Speaker 1: read some fool, whether they're on this platform or whatever,

722
00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:14,960
Speaker 1: who treats a politician like a little girl treats treats God.

723
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:19,560
Speaker 1: I'm completely blanking on on her name, Taylor Swift right,

724
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:24,960
Speaker 1: just total veneration. And I see people saying Barack Obama

725
00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:28,280
Speaker 1: didn't do that in twenty and fourteen. Yes, Barack Obama

726
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:32,640
Speaker 1: did that in twenty fourteen. You know, Barack Obama is

727
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:35,279
Speaker 1: the person who drew a red line in Syria and

728
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:37,839
Speaker 1: said if there's a use of chemical weapons, that would

729
00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 1: be it. He did not do it. He started the

730
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:44,680
Speaker 1: immigration crisis and not doing that, that is the reason

731
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:48,240
Speaker 1: we have these extremist parties rising in Europe, plus Angela

732
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:52,080
Speaker 1: Merkel inviting everybody to come to Europe. All of these

733
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:57,480
Speaker 1: things are are connected together. And if your conclusion, ladies

734
00:51:57,520 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, tonight is that when you watch what happened

735
00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:05,920
Speaker 1: last night, that this is the fault of some racist

736
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:10,640
Speaker 1: ward and that it's not a reaction to the Democratic majority,

737
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:14,960
Speaker 1: excuse me that it's not a reaction to Democratic Party accesses.

738
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,640
Speaker 1: It's not a reaction right to the lecturing and the

739
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:23,040
Speaker 1: hectoring and the dishonesty. The Democratic Party has nothing to

740
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:25,759
Speaker 1: do with why Trump was standing up there last night.

741
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:29,120
Speaker 1: You're as fucking nuts as the Trump people. And trust

742
00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 1: me when I tell you this, you're the exact reason

743
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:36,360
Speaker 1: he's up there. The district attorneys in San Francisco, or

744
00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:39,640
Speaker 1: the reason that everything is locked up in a Walgreens

745
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 1: and a CVS right every mail in this country. He's

746
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 1: forty or fifty years old, who got hold in front

747
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 1: of an HR committee without an accuser with an accusation

748
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:53,680
Speaker 1: that he said a word wrong or a pronoun wrong,

749
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:56,319
Speaker 1: or he said the whiteboard wrong, or called it a

750
00:52:56,400 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 1: blackboard in a meeting. All this fucking bullshit right for

751
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:04,759
Speaker 1: the last seven years that the Democratic Party embraced. The

752
00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:08,000
Speaker 1: American people looked at that party and they saw their

753
00:53:08,080 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 1: corporate HR Department.

754
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:11,200
Speaker 4: All of it, right.

755
00:53:11,239 --> 00:53:15,279
Speaker 1: And you saw it last night the congressman seventy six

756
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:17,960
Speaker 1: years old waiving his cane at the President of the

757
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:22,680
Speaker 1: United States. It's a farce, Chuck Schumer, all of them.

758
00:53:23,040 --> 00:53:27,359
Speaker 1: And so let me tell you something. The reality is

759
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:29,640
Speaker 1: that there's going to be a lot of harm and

760
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:31,840
Speaker 1: a lot of suffering and a lot of things broken

761
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:34,960
Speaker 1: in this country for the last two years because of

762
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:38,480
Speaker 1: the people that are in power. As Winston Churchill said,

763
00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:41,759
Speaker 1: we get the government we deserve, and we got them.

764
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:45,520
Speaker 1: And so the question now is that there will be

765
00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:48,759
Speaker 1: court orders. Trump is not violated a court ordered to

766
00:53:48,840 --> 00:53:53,640
Speaker 1: my understanding right now. If he does, it's a constitutional crisis.

767
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:57,880
Speaker 1: The fact that the Article two branch is impounding money

768
00:53:57,880 --> 00:54:01,320
Speaker 1: approved by the Article one brand is a problem, but

769
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:03,920
Speaker 1: there's nothing that any of us can do anything about.

770
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:07,439
Speaker 1: If the Article one branch of government to Congress if

771
00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:10,239
Speaker 1: the Congress won't do anything about it. So what I

772
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:13,840
Speaker 1: saw last night in that Congress was pathetic, the hanging

773
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:20,200
Speaker 1: up of the little paddles, the inability to articulate anything, madness,

774
00:54:20,280 --> 00:54:25,000
Speaker 1: all of it. So the fate of the country is

775
00:54:25,040 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 1: in your hands. And when I was in Germany, what

776
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:31,840
Speaker 1: I said to the German leaders is the American people

777
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:33,839
Speaker 1: know who our friends are, and they know who our

778
00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:38,760
Speaker 1: enemies are. And the American people are angry, and they're mad,

779
00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:42,440
Speaker 1: and they're so goddamn mad. They made Donald Trump the

780
00:54:42,520 --> 00:54:46,400
Speaker 1: president to send a message, which sometimes people do dumb

781
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:50,080
Speaker 1: shit and they shoot themselves in the foot. And so

782
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:54,200
Speaker 1: I think we'll look back on this experience as a

783
00:54:54,239 --> 00:54:58,360
Speaker 1: country no longer from a ooh, could bad things happen,

784
00:54:58,480 --> 00:55:01,879
Speaker 1: but from an experiential lens of let's make sure that

785
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:05,239
Speaker 1: never happens again. And from that place there will be

786
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:08,480
Speaker 1: reform and renewal. But we have a long ways to

787
00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:11,959
Speaker 1: get there. But trust me when I tell you that

788
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:15,640
Speaker 1: what the American people saw last night, the center right

789
00:55:15,719 --> 00:55:18,560
Speaker 1: of the country, the center left of the country, the

790
00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:23,719
Speaker 1: independent voters of the country, was craziness from Trump. But

791
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:27,560
Speaker 1: no reasonable person could look at the Democrats and not

792
00:55:27,680 --> 00:55:30,920
Speaker 1: appreciate why Trump is up there. And that's the great

793
00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:37,000
Speaker 1: political problem. So what Donald Trump has done is run

794
00:55:37,239 --> 00:55:42,879
Speaker 1: an election saying that, hey, Haitians are eating pets and

795
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,759
Speaker 1: your economy, your prices are too high, and that's why

796
00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:49,759
Speaker 1: he got elected. And you know what prices are going up?

797
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:52,800
Speaker 1: Then you go up, up, up, up up up, because

798
00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 1: he's going to set off a massive inflation with all

799
00:55:56,719 --> 00:56:00,000
Speaker 1: of these tariffs, and there's going to be tremendous suffering.

800
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:07,719
Speaker 1: Elise Slocking last night from Michigan was completely normal, not

801
00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:10,839
Speaker 1: as passionate as I would have liked her, didn't raise

802
00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:12,480
Speaker 1: the stakes as high enough as I.

803
00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:14,640
Speaker 4: Would like her. But it's a great start.

804
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:21,080
Speaker 1: Elise Slocking, Haiqum Jeffries, the gen x leaders of the

805
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:25,160
Speaker 1: Democratic Party. What I suspect is this next Democratic Congress

806
00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:27,799
Speaker 1: is going to look completely different than the one that's

807
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:32,399
Speaker 1: there now. If you are a fired park ranger, if

808
00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:38,759
Speaker 1: you are a fired fireman, a scientist, and a grarian specialist,

809
00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:43,120
Speaker 1: run for Congress. Run for office. Get in touch with me.

810
00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:46,120
Speaker 1: I'll help you do it. But I think there's going

811
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:49,040
Speaker 1: to be a great awakening of people who are running

812
00:56:49,040 --> 00:56:52,239
Speaker 1: for office, and they don't have to wait for permission

813
00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:56,200
Speaker 1: for somebody who works at a Washington DC political committee.

814
00:56:56,840 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 1: The American people, no one's coming to rescue us, everybody.

815
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:04,520
Speaker 1: We have to vote these people out of office, and

816
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:07,799
Speaker 1: then we have to pass the ethics reforms and the

817
00:57:07,840 --> 00:57:12,080
Speaker 1: campaign finance reform and the lobbying reformed to crush this

818
00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:16,720
Speaker 1: corruption before it crushes us. We're going to need to

819
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:20,560
Speaker 1: break up these tech companies that prayed on our children

820
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:23,800
Speaker 1: before they prayed on our democracy.

821
00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:27,560
Speaker 4: We're gonna have to crush them before they crush us.

822
00:57:28,440 --> 00:57:33,800
Speaker 1: And every time in all of our history, the American

823
00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:37,760
Speaker 1: people have been affronted and trifled with by men who

824
00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:41,200
Speaker 1: wish to be kings, by the takers who wish to

825
00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 1: take those men have learned a most painful lesson, and

826
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:52,080
Speaker 1: I think that will happen again. What I want all

827
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:56,560
Speaker 1: of you to do is to be informed and to

828
00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:59,760
Speaker 1: know what's happening in the world. I want you to

829
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:03,200
Speaker 1: know that Trump is not always wrong about everything, and

830
00:58:03,280 --> 00:58:08,160
Speaker 1: you can't react hysterically to everything. That when Donald Trump

831
00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:11,000
Speaker 1: looks at Joe Biden and he says, Joe Biden put

832
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:14,640
Speaker 1: a lot of limitations on the Ukrainian use of weapons.

833
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:17,760
Speaker 1: And I was the guy that gave the Ukrainians the

834
00:58:17,760 --> 00:58:20,120
Speaker 1: most deadly weapon of the war, which are the.

835
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:28,680
Speaker 4: Anti tank missiles. And so this is a time where facts.

836
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:33,480
Speaker 1: And seriousness really really matter, and you've got to make

837
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:39,760
Speaker 1: yourself smart by reading and understanding and appreciate what's cracking

838
00:58:39,840 --> 00:58:43,520
Speaker 1: up in the world. This Ukraine War is the gateway

839
00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:48,000
Speaker 1: to the ABYSS. There's a war in Europe with North

840
00:58:48,080 --> 00:58:54,000
Speaker 1: Korean troops killing Ukrainians, and the American president has staked

841
00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:57,040
Speaker 1: out a neutral position on the cause of the war,

842
00:58:57,080 --> 00:59:01,640
Speaker 1: which was the Russian invasion. There's no place to accommodate

843
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:05,520
Speaker 1: Trump's delusions on this, and there's no place to meet

844
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:09,760
Speaker 1: in the middle because Vladimir Putin has the capacity to

845
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:13,560
Speaker 1: be out off Hitler. And I want to explain in

846
00:59:13,640 --> 00:59:17,840
Speaker 1: closing why we remember Hitler the way we remember Hitler.

847
00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:28,440
Speaker 1: It's because of the industrialized killing and the doctrine of

848
00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:34,960
Speaker 1: slavery that almost succeeded. And there's a truth about the

849
00:59:35,040 --> 00:59:38,640
Speaker 1: history of the world, which is this. And if you

850
00:59:38,680 --> 00:59:43,320
Speaker 1: read Humans, you're going to appreciate how fragile the world is,

851
00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:49,600
Speaker 1: and you're going to have facts and knowledge the eighteenth

852
00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:56,040
Speaker 1: century was deadlier than the seventeenth, and the nineteenth was

853
00:59:56,080 --> 01:00:00,920
Speaker 1: deadlier than the eighteenth. The killing in the American Civil

854
01:00:00,960 --> 01:00:04,600
Speaker 1: War seventy years after the American Revolution in the age

855
01:00:04,600 --> 01:00:09,280
Speaker 1: of the Railroad was a different order of magnitude, and

856
01:00:09,320 --> 01:00:12,040
Speaker 1: it was a preview of the war that would come

857
01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:17,840
Speaker 1: in the early years of the twentieth century. The twentieth

858
01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:23,280
Speaker 1: centuries the most deadly century in history, and then the

859
01:00:23,360 --> 01:00:34,120
Speaker 1: killing stopped at scale. At the halfway point. Douglas MacArthur

860
01:00:34,680 --> 01:00:39,880
Speaker 1: on the surrendered deck of the Missouri, talked about that

861
01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:42,920
Speaker 1: there has always been war, and man has always saw peace,

862
01:00:43,000 --> 01:00:46,960
Speaker 1: and we have always sought institutions to keep the peace

863
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:50,320
Speaker 1: and prevent the war, and none of those institutions have

864
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:54,640
Speaker 1: ever worked. And now this war, the guns are silent.

865
01:00:55,280 --> 01:01:00,560
Speaker 1: But the next war can exterminate humanity, extinguish it, send

866
01:01:00,560 --> 01:01:03,400
Speaker 1: it back to the Stone ages. And unless we have

867
01:01:03,480 --> 01:01:07,720
Speaker 1: a great moral recusceedence and awakening is what he talked about,

868
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:08,920
Speaker 1: that will happen.

869
01:01:09,640 --> 01:01:10,360
Speaker 4: But it didn't.

870
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:19,400
Speaker 1: Day by day, imperfect men and women, some of who

871
01:01:19,520 --> 01:01:23,680
Speaker 1: made terrible mistakes and misjudgments of the lessons of World

872
01:01:23,760 --> 01:01:29,880
Speaker 1: War two. The Vietnam War, an example but they built

873
01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:40,000
Speaker 1: a system of international relations. The deeply complex, interconnected the

874
01:01:40,080 --> 01:01:44,480
Speaker 1: European Union emerged from this. Does it need to be reformed,

875
01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:51,040
Speaker 1: of course? Is it overly bureaucratic? Yes, is Brussels undemocratic sometimes,

876
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:56,960
Speaker 1: But it's one of the greatest achievements in human history

877
01:01:57,600 --> 01:02:02,240
Speaker 1: by the mind of man, and it is fundamentally an

878
01:02:02,320 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: American achievement. And Donald Trump in the year twenty twenty five,

879
01:02:11,480 --> 01:02:14,200
Speaker 1: at the edge of the lifespan of the people who

880
01:02:14,320 --> 01:02:19,400
Speaker 1: survived auschwitzen doc Out, at the end of the long

881
01:02:19,480 --> 01:02:23,880
Speaker 1: life stands of the men who storm the beaches and

882
01:02:23,920 --> 01:02:26,400
Speaker 1: the women who were part of the resistance in France.

883
01:02:26,480 --> 01:02:32,960
Speaker 4: And Normandy has decided to smash it to make America

884
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:36,480
Speaker 4: great again, because it costs too much.

885
01:02:39,800 --> 01:02:44,960
Speaker 1: It's madness, and we will pay a price in blood

886
01:02:45,800 --> 01:02:49,080
Speaker 1: that is terrible and terrifying, but we can still stop it.

887
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:52,840
Speaker 1: And that's what this moment is about. And so there

888
01:02:52,880 --> 01:02:59,680
Speaker 1: are people in this world that are painters and musicians

889
01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:05,400
Speaker 1: and builders and architects. Sasha is one of the people

890
01:03:05,440 --> 01:03:12,560
Speaker 1: in the world who's a storyteller. And Sasha's interest is

891
01:03:12,600 --> 01:03:18,840
Speaker 1: a very particular space that has a profound consequence on

892
01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:22,560
Speaker 1: all of your lives that plays out in the shadows.

893
01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:28,000
Speaker 1: She's an absolute expert in it. And I really recommend

894
01:03:29,680 --> 01:03:33,480
Speaker 1: as strongly as I can that you subscribe to Human

895
01:03:34,800 --> 01:03:42,640
Speaker 1: and you inform yourself, and you appreciate the continuity of

896
01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:46,760
Speaker 1: all of the American presidents. If you're a Democrat, Ronald

897
01:03:46,960 --> 01:03:54,160
Speaker 1: Reagan broke the back of the Soviet Union by following

898
01:03:54,560 --> 01:04:00,200
Speaker 1: through on what John Kennedy said he would do. That

899
01:04:00,360 --> 01:04:05,720
Speaker 1: connections what's being broken in this moment. So in conclusion

900
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:08,040
Speaker 1: for me, I want to turn it over to Sasha

901
01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:11,840
Speaker 1: to give you the last word to talk about anything

902
01:04:11,880 --> 01:04:16,040
Speaker 1: that you want to talk about. And thank you very

903
01:04:16,120 --> 01:04:18,160
Speaker 1: much for coming on tonight, Sasha.

904
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:19,640
Speaker 3: Steve.

905
01:04:19,680 --> 01:04:21,960
Speaker 2: It's such a pleasure to be with you tonight. You

906
01:04:22,080 --> 01:04:25,960
Speaker 2: have been so supportive of my coming on to sub stack.

907
01:04:26,400 --> 01:04:30,240
Speaker 2: I remember calling you up in April asking you for advice,

908
01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:34,520
Speaker 2: So I'm really appreciative of the support.

909
01:04:34,440 --> 01:04:35,280
Speaker 3: That you've given me.

910
01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:37,480
Speaker 4: It's a pleasure.

911
01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:42,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, gosh, last words, leaving me on the spot here.

912
01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:47,840
Speaker 2: You know, to me, the important thing is to continue

913
01:04:47,880 --> 01:04:51,160
Speaker 2: to stay curious, to understand the.

914
01:04:51,120 --> 01:04:53,520
Speaker 3: Emotions that we're feeling, and.

915
01:04:53,640 --> 01:05:02,400
Speaker 2: To be responsible in knowing that. Continuing to be informed matters,

916
01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:07,240
Speaker 2: even if it's hard to know what is taking place.

917
01:05:08,200 --> 01:05:11,720
Speaker 3: I'm here in Washington. Some of the stories.

918
01:05:11,240 --> 01:05:15,360
Speaker 2: That I've done lately have to do with the dismantling

919
01:05:15,480 --> 01:05:21,240
Speaker 2: of programs that seem pretty important the National Nuclear Security Administration.

920
01:05:21,920 --> 01:05:25,280
Speaker 3: Yes, they fired people, they a couple.

921
01:05:25,040 --> 01:05:28,760
Speaker 2: Days later brought them back, but they also hit programs

922
01:05:28,760 --> 01:05:36,040
Speaker 2: that are incredibly important, from deterrence to modernization, to counter

923
01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:42,120
Speaker 2: proliferation and counter terrorism. I don't know what the decision was,

924
01:05:42,200 --> 01:05:47,600
Speaker 2: what the calculus was in trying to remove funding for

925
01:05:47,960 --> 01:05:53,600
Speaker 2: those programs to some degree, I don't know. I don't

926
01:05:53,680 --> 01:05:58,800
Speaker 2: know if those funding levels have been restored. The agency

927
01:05:59,240 --> 01:06:02,880
Speaker 2: will not get back to me. Some of the reporting

928
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:05,400
Speaker 2: that I have done in the last few days had

929
01:06:05,400 --> 01:06:10,000
Speaker 2: to do with CIA officers who are now one step

930
01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:15,280
Speaker 2: closer to being terminated because the federal District judge decided

931
01:06:15,560 --> 01:06:21,520
Speaker 2: that the CIA director is able to fire intelligence officers

932
01:06:21,680 --> 01:06:27,480
Speaker 2: at the agency for national security purposes without judicial review.

933
01:06:28,040 --> 01:06:33,000
Speaker 2: So people who work in diversity equity inclusion are the

934
01:06:33,000 --> 01:06:37,080
Speaker 2: ones who may lose their jobs, regardless of the fact

935
01:06:37,640 --> 01:06:41,680
Speaker 2: that one of them is a brand new hire and

936
01:06:41,840 --> 01:06:46,120
Speaker 2: was just assigned to the Diversity and Inclusion Office. Hadn't

937
01:06:46,200 --> 01:06:51,520
Speaker 2: started and it wasn't her choice. Another person apparently had

938
01:06:52,080 --> 01:06:58,000
Speaker 2: offers to be in other CIA offices had about eight officers.

939
01:06:58,040 --> 01:07:02,760
Speaker 2: According to the national security attorney representing them, It's unclear

940
01:07:02,840 --> 01:07:06,280
Speaker 2: whether or not they will have the opportunity to continue

941
01:07:06,320 --> 01:07:10,040
Speaker 2: working at the agency. They have spent years applying to

942
01:07:10,320 --> 01:07:14,640
Speaker 2: jobs there, receiving the security clearances, going through the training.

943
01:07:14,920 --> 01:07:18,040
Speaker 2: Hundreds of thousands of dollars get invested in them to

944
01:07:18,080 --> 01:07:21,920
Speaker 2: be able to do this work. The CIA hasn't actually

945
01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:25,360
Speaker 2: clarified when I contacted them as to whether or not

946
01:07:25,680 --> 01:07:29,720
Speaker 2: these people will be given the opportunity. So behind the scenes,

947
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:33,320
Speaker 2: these are the things that are happening that I'm seeing

948
01:07:33,440 --> 01:07:38,560
Speaker 2: every day. There are some things that I'm also hearing

949
01:07:38,680 --> 01:07:44,080
Speaker 2: that are positive. People in the counter terrorism community were very,

950
01:07:44,360 --> 01:07:49,560
Speaker 2: very pleased with the decision of Trump to designate drug

951
01:07:49,640 --> 01:07:55,520
Speaker 2: cartels as terrorist organizations. So there is a balance and

952
01:07:55,600 --> 01:08:00,240
Speaker 2: the curiosity and the feeling of the emotion and the

953
01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:05,880
Speaker 2: understanding that there could be difficulties in what you're consuming, yes,

954
01:08:06,000 --> 01:08:12,200
Speaker 2: but the desire to continue understanding and the need to

955
01:08:12,440 --> 01:08:16,800
Speaker 2: keep knowing what's going on is really important. I am

956
01:08:17,120 --> 01:08:19,240
Speaker 2: trying to do that in the work that I do.

957
01:08:19,520 --> 01:08:23,760
Speaker 2: I know, Steve, that you have as well, got those qualities,

958
01:08:23,840 --> 01:08:27,720
Speaker 2: and I'm very appreciative of the chance to come on

959
01:08:27,800 --> 01:08:32,720
Speaker 2: here and talk. I guess, you know, I guess I'll

960
01:08:32,800 --> 01:08:34,400
Speaker 2: leave it there for right now.

961
01:08:35,439 --> 01:08:37,080
Speaker 4: I want to ask you. I lied.

962
01:08:37,520 --> 01:08:39,720
Speaker 1: We have three thousand people here, so I'm going to

963
01:08:39,720 --> 01:08:41,960
Speaker 1: ask you one last question that just as I was

964
01:08:42,000 --> 01:08:44,559
Speaker 1: listening to you that came to.

965
01:08:44,439 --> 01:08:47,880
Speaker 4: My you know, they just kind of came through my head.

966
01:08:49,880 --> 01:08:56,599
Speaker 1: Talk about foreign intelligence officers in Washing ken right now

967
01:08:56,680 --> 01:09:01,400
Speaker 1: in the bars right where there's pissed off people right

968
01:09:01,439 --> 01:09:05,720
Speaker 1: who've been fucked right by the government that they served,

969
01:09:06,080 --> 01:09:10,600
Speaker 1: right is Is this what I'm what I'm imagining, Is

970
01:09:10,600 --> 01:09:11,559
Speaker 1: that a real thing?

971
01:09:11,680 --> 01:09:14,080
Speaker 4: Is that is that happening? Is there is there.

972
01:09:14,160 --> 01:09:19,280
Speaker 1: Wolves now loose in Washington picking up the said and

973
01:09:19,400 --> 01:09:23,920
Speaker 1: the angry and the disgruntled and the confused and the

974
01:09:24,080 --> 01:09:26,759
Speaker 1: dismayed and the and the fired.

975
01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:33,240
Speaker 2: Absolutely there is the there is the threat that this

976
01:09:33,360 --> 01:09:38,880
Speaker 2: becomes a huge counter intelligence risk. When the CIA lets

977
01:09:38,880 --> 01:09:42,519
Speaker 2: somebody go, they have to understand that that person has

978
01:09:42,600 --> 01:09:48,719
Speaker 2: knowledge of systems of sources, you know, the methods, the means,

979
01:09:49,400 --> 01:09:53,400
Speaker 2: and so you better hope that that person is leaving

980
01:09:53,600 --> 01:09:58,080
Speaker 2: in a positive way. The CIA extends, for example, UH

981
01:09:58,160 --> 01:10:02,200
Speaker 2: therapy services to peoples so that they feel like they're

982
01:10:02,240 --> 01:10:05,320
Speaker 2: still being taken care of for the sacrifices that they

983
01:10:05,400 --> 01:10:08,720
Speaker 2: might be making in conducting operations overseas.

984
01:10:09,240 --> 01:10:09,439
Speaker 3: Well.

985
01:10:09,479 --> 01:10:13,880
Speaker 2: Now with people who are being pushed out against their will,

986
01:10:14,360 --> 01:10:16,840
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't want to I don't want to

987
01:10:17,040 --> 01:10:23,439
Speaker 2: insult intelligence officers who are genuinely doing this work out

988
01:10:23,439 --> 01:10:26,840
Speaker 2: of respect for the country, out of a desire to

989
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:29,760
Speaker 2: serve the country. I don't think that most of them

990
01:10:29,800 --> 01:10:30,519
Speaker 2: are going.

991
01:10:30,320 --> 01:10:34,320
Speaker 4: To go no, but what I'm saying.

992
01:10:34,400 --> 01:10:37,320
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is that do you raise the

993
01:10:37,560 --> 01:10:42,080
Speaker 1: risk of finding of triggering that aggrieved person right? Are

994
01:10:42,120 --> 01:10:46,759
Speaker 1: you the waters in a very stupid way.

995
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:52,719
Speaker 2: I think that there is absolutely a chance that a

996
01:10:52,800 --> 01:10:57,800
Speaker 2: small number of them do end up giving information or

997
01:10:57,880 --> 01:11:02,760
Speaker 2: working on behalf of an adversary. And the Russians have

998
01:11:02,920 --> 01:11:08,240
Speaker 2: actually even started conducting their own online recruitment. A couple

999
01:11:08,200 --> 01:11:11,599
Speaker 2: of years ago, the CIA famously put out an ad

1000
01:11:12,360 --> 01:11:17,960
Speaker 2: in Russian and giving Russians a mechanism to safely communicate

1001
01:11:18,040 --> 01:11:21,040
Speaker 2: with them. Now the Russians have done the same, and

1002
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:25,200
Speaker 2: there's also reporting that I believe CNN did a few

1003
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:29,360
Speaker 2: days ago which showed that the CIA is starting to

1004
01:11:29,479 --> 01:11:31,480
Speaker 2: conduct analysis.

1005
01:11:30,720 --> 01:11:34,120
Speaker 3: On this threat. And it's not rocket science.

1006
01:11:34,439 --> 01:11:39,120
Speaker 2: When people are aggrieved, when they're angry, when they need money,

1007
01:11:39,640 --> 01:11:43,400
Speaker 2: when they have bills to pay. There are reasons that

1008
01:11:43,600 --> 01:11:48,400
Speaker 2: these things happen, and it is certain is certainly a concern,

1009
01:11:48,600 --> 01:11:50,639
Speaker 2: and a lot of people are talking about it. I'm

1010
01:11:50,680 --> 01:11:53,200
Speaker 2: telling you, whenever I go out to lunch or coffee

1011
01:11:53,200 --> 01:11:56,439
Speaker 2: with someone who works in the intel community, current former,

1012
01:11:57,200 --> 01:11:58,519
Speaker 2: this is what we're talking about.

1013
01:11:59,120 --> 01:11:59,800
Speaker 4: I lied again.

1014
01:12:00,240 --> 01:12:03,080
Speaker 1: I have one last question, and I promise we're going.

1015
01:12:03,200 --> 01:12:07,799
Speaker 1: We're going along tonight with Sasha Ingberg. You can find

1016
01:12:07,840 --> 01:12:12,640
Speaker 1: her at Human One of the stories that you wrote.

1017
01:12:13,280 --> 01:12:15,719
Speaker 4: That I was.

1018
01:12:17,280 --> 01:12:23,880
Speaker 1: Astonished by, and I think that your coverage of this

1019
01:12:25,320 --> 01:12:36,360
Speaker 1: demonstrates how completely, utterly, absolutely broken corporate media is. And

1020
01:12:36,479 --> 01:12:42,479
Speaker 1: the story I'm talking about is you, when in New

1021
01:12:42,560 --> 01:12:50,280
Speaker 1: York City to a police station operating on American soil

1022
01:12:51,439 --> 01:12:58,679
Speaker 1: of the Chinese Communist Party that exists to crack down

1023
01:13:00,280 --> 01:13:06,000
Speaker 1: on Chinese in America. Who dare to criticize the Chinese

1024
01:13:06,720 --> 01:13:09,040
Speaker 1: Communist Party tell us about that.

1025
01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:12,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, that was a crazy moment.

1026
01:13:14,640 --> 01:13:19,240
Speaker 2: I walked into a secret Chinese police station hidden above

1027
01:13:19,280 --> 01:13:23,719
Speaker 2: a Ramen shop in New York City. I literally rang

1028
01:13:23,920 --> 01:13:27,720
Speaker 2: the doorbell. I identified myself as a journalist.

1029
01:13:28,240 --> 01:13:29,200
Speaker 3: They let me come up.

1030
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:33,520
Speaker 2: I was there with a camera person. We walked inside.

1031
01:13:33,920 --> 01:13:40,720
Speaker 2: Then we compared the footage to an image from a

1032
01:13:40,760 --> 01:13:43,839
Speaker 2: couple months maybe a year or so before. They literally

1033
01:13:43,920 --> 01:13:47,679
Speaker 2: had a sign inside. They basically said it was a

1034
01:13:47,720 --> 01:13:51,360
Speaker 2: police station, but the FBI had rated it a few

1035
01:13:51,960 --> 01:13:54,320
Speaker 2: weeks before I had arrived.

1036
01:13:53,920 --> 01:13:55,759
Speaker 3: So that poster was down.

1037
01:13:56,120 --> 01:14:03,519
Speaker 2: But I interviewed a Chinese immigration lawyer whose clients had

1038
01:14:03,560 --> 01:14:09,080
Speaker 2: been harassed by not just people who worked at the

1039
01:14:09,120 --> 01:14:16,479
Speaker 2: SHANMLA Association, which was part of this particular entity, but

1040
01:14:16,720 --> 01:14:22,560
Speaker 2: from other Chinese agents who were operating primarily in Queens

1041
01:14:23,120 --> 01:14:23,759
Speaker 2: and there.

1042
01:14:23,640 --> 01:14:27,599
Speaker 3: Is a big Chinese community and.

1043
01:14:27,439 --> 01:14:30,360
Speaker 2: They have been targeted.

1044
01:14:30,880 --> 01:14:33,400
Speaker 3: This is really the long arm of China.

1045
01:14:35,200 --> 01:14:38,680
Speaker 2: There's one man who I interviewed who showed me a

1046
01:14:38,720 --> 01:14:40,960
Speaker 2: picture of his daughter.

1047
01:14:41,360 --> 01:14:42,760
Speaker 3: He said she was caged.

1048
01:14:42,960 --> 01:14:45,759
Speaker 2: That they said to him, when you come back here,

1049
01:14:46,240 --> 01:14:51,600
Speaker 2: we will release your daughter. People who had to separate

1050
01:14:51,640 --> 01:14:54,920
Speaker 2: from their loved ones to stop them from being harassed,

1051
01:14:55,520 --> 01:14:59,759
Speaker 2: People who were constantly getting messages on we chat, which

1052
01:15:00,600 --> 01:15:06,040
Speaker 2: person inside the intelligence community told me was being monitored

1053
01:15:06,160 --> 01:15:09,080
Speaker 2: by Chinese security services.

1054
01:15:09,520 --> 01:15:11,840
Speaker 3: Not sure if it was in real time or after

1055
01:15:11,920 --> 01:15:13,280
Speaker 3: the fact, but.

1056
01:15:14,479 --> 01:15:20,360
Speaker 2: Just tremendous, tremendous struggle that I think most Americans don't

1057
01:15:20,400 --> 01:15:26,479
Speaker 2: know actually happens here on American soil. And as much

1058
01:15:26,479 --> 01:15:32,120
Speaker 2: as we talk about Russia and we talk about Ukraine,

1059
01:15:32,439 --> 01:15:38,800
Speaker 2: and we are thinking also about Gaza and Israel, I

1060
01:15:38,840 --> 01:15:41,599
Speaker 2: also think about China and what happens next.

1061
01:15:41,720 --> 01:15:42,280
Speaker 3: Maybe this is.

1062
01:15:42,280 --> 01:15:46,160
Speaker 2: Another conversation you and I can have, Steve, because the

1063
01:15:46,200 --> 01:15:50,320
Speaker 2: Trump administration includes some real China Hawks, but we have

1064
01:15:50,520 --> 01:15:54,479
Speaker 2: yet to see how this administration is truly going to

1065
01:15:54,880 --> 01:15:59,720
Speaker 2: keep the Chinese threat in check, a conduct offensive operation

1066
01:16:00,479 --> 01:16:06,680
Speaker 2: on the Chinese protect the ever present threat of intellectual

1067
01:16:06,760 --> 01:16:08,680
Speaker 2: and industrial espionage.

1068
01:16:09,439 --> 01:16:12,120
Speaker 3: And these are really important questions.

1069
01:16:12,320 --> 01:16:17,080
Speaker 2: Getting to go to that police station was incredibly eye opening,

1070
01:16:17,720 --> 01:16:21,360
Speaker 2: and I was told that there are others like it

1071
01:16:21,600 --> 01:16:25,120
Speaker 2: in the country, and I certainly would believe.

1072
01:16:24,800 --> 01:16:28,800
Speaker 1: That we should have a journalism in this country that's

1073
01:16:28,840 --> 01:16:32,200
Speaker 1: as good as Sasha in finding it and finding the

1074
01:16:32,240 --> 01:16:37,320
Speaker 1: next one. These are important days. Let me just say

1075
01:16:37,320 --> 01:16:42,280
Speaker 1: in conclusion, Elon Musk is the fulfillment of Dwight Eisenhower's

1076
01:16:42,320 --> 01:16:46,840
Speaker 1: warning about the military industrial complex. He is a business

1077
01:16:46,920 --> 01:16:51,480
Speaker 1: partner of the Chinese government and now he is inside

1078
01:16:51,680 --> 01:16:57,919
Speaker 1: our pentagon with his team of forty young computer agents.

1079
01:16:59,120 --> 01:17:04,000
Speaker 1: He is a military contractor, he is a government employee,

1080
01:17:04,479 --> 01:17:06,960
Speaker 1: he is a lobbyist, and he is a partner of

1081
01:17:07,000 --> 01:17:11,759
Speaker 1: the Chinese government. Altogether in one moment at one time,

1082
01:17:12,840 --> 01:17:16,679
Speaker 1: and it's a dangerous conflict. And with that, thank you, Sasha,

1083
01:17:17,360 --> 01:17:19,720
Speaker 1: Thank you to all of you, the three thousand of you.

1084
01:17:19,720 --> 01:17:24,960
Speaker 1: You can find Sasha again at human on substack. It's

1085
01:17:25,000 --> 01:17:30,000
Speaker 1: Sasha ingber I nng b Er. She's the best, and

1086
01:17:30,040 --> 01:17:33,040
Speaker 1: so are all of you. Thank you very much. Please

1087
01:17:33,080 --> 01:17:36,840
Speaker 1: support our work here at the Warning and subscribe to

1088
01:17:36,960 --> 01:17:38,960
Speaker 1: Sasha Ingber at Humid.

1089
01:17:39,240 --> 01:17:39,800
Speaker 3: Thanks Steve.

1090
01:17:40,479 --> 01:17:43,240
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the Warning and I invite

1091
01:17:43,240 --> 01:17:47,000
Speaker 1: you to join. Subscribe on our substack, on our YouTube

1092
01:17:47,080 --> 01:17:48,240
Speaker 1: channel follow us.

1093
01:17:48,479 --> 01:17:54,599
Speaker 4: Welcome to the community.