WEBVTT - Chuck’s Commentary - Is Trump Prepping The U.S. For War With Venezuela? + This Week In History + Ask Chuck 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.600 Hello there, Happy Monday, and welcome to another episode of 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:13.119 the Chuck Toodcast. Today. I hope you've enjoyed your first 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.239 full double dose of football Week two, of college football 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.959 Week one of the NFL football football football. I'm not 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.960 footballed out. I really never get footballed out unless I'm 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:28.400 watching some version of the UFL. And even then I 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:30.720 find myself watching one quarter of that in March when 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.000 I'm missing college and pro football. You know, it's interesting. 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.559 I also my guest over the weekend for my new 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:43.559 sphere show is Chris Murphy, Democratic senator from Connecticut, somebody 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:49.440 who wants to go harder at Donald Trump pre twenty 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.159 twenty five was I think if some people were watching him, 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.000 they say he wants to move to the left. He 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.400 wants to be a bit more to the left of 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.959 left of center wherever the party is. If the main 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.480 if you know, if you just put a number on it, right, 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.759 one hundred is sort of Joe Mansion on the scale 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.880 of Democrats. Zero is Bernie Sanders. Chris Murphy wanted to 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.920 be somewhere close to the fifty yard line, but closer 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.320 to Bernie rather than closer to Mansion. And I say 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.800 this and that the Chris Murphy I encountered as a 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.560 guy who clearly is interested in trying to improve the 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.400 Democratic brand, would like to be a leader of the party, 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.000 is looking to see if there's an appetite for him 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.160 to run for president. He did not sort of shy 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.800 away from any of those questions. But what was interesting 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:37.240 was how he really said, Look, the Democratic Party's got 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.240 to figure out how to win voters that are much 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.520 more conservative on cultural issues, that there is more of 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.280 a common bond on economic issues, and something you'll hear 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.040 from Abdul say ed that's else I ed, that's an 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.320 argument he's making. It's an argument he made in his 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.640 first candidate campaign for office in twenty eighteen. Same argument 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.720 he's making there, that the economic pain is shared sort 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.720 of on the ideological spec and that one way to 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.520 sort of put Democrats and independent voters and maybe even 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:13.840 some skeptical working class Republicans is to focus on economic 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.880 issues and also security issues. Don't shy away from the 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:19.640 security issues. What do I mean by the security issues, 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.720 Whether it's the border and get a little tougher on immigration, 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.919 or it's law and order in the cities, And it's 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.800 all about whether how are you careful not to take 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.440 the bait that the White House clearly is setting up 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.160 here at the White House absolutely does not want to 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.040 have a discussion about the economy right now, doesn't want 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.920 to have a discussion about tariffs in particular, doesn't want 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:44.560 to have a discussion about Epstein, doesn't want to have 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.440 a discussion about Ukraine and Russia. What they do, what 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.480 they would love to do, is continue to sort of 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:57.520 bait Democrats into pushing back at the White House on 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.960 the issue of how aggressive should these should these tactics 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.840 when it comes to the cities, how aggressive is too aggressive? 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.720 What is And there's no doubt that the ridiculous social 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.400 media memes that the President has already retweeted, sort of 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:18.200 him doing an Apocalypse Now parody when it comes to Chicago, 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.080 it got the intended response, right, which was it got 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.119 the entire sort of Illinois pushback, whether it was JB. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.040 Pritz Or as governor or others that it was the 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.880 intended pushback that they wanted, which was this was over 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.800 the top. And there's no doubt the public does not 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.320 like the tactics. We continue to see polling that says 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.400 they don't want to see the National Guard go in. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.680 But when you look at the two parties and you 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.400 say which party seems to be more concerned about law 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.080 and order, the Republicans are winning this argument, and they're 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:54.240 winning it big time. And that's why it is interesting 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.520 to watch how the different mayors handle this. Right I'm 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:00.840 intrigued by what they're doing in Mayor Maryland, where I 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.760 or the governor said, hey, we don't want any federal reinforcements, 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:05.720 but we're going to help Baltimore and we're going to 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:09.520 help with some state reinforcements. You've got a Mariel Bowser 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.320 who was saying, Hey, I welcome the federal intervention. I 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.680 don't like the masked ICE agents because that's pretty undemocratic 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.840 and un American. But for the most part, I appreciate 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:24.400 the extra resources in order to allow the police to 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.320 focus where they need to focus, versus other cities that 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.400 are thinking about a wholesale pushback on this. And I 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.400 think you know, there is nothing the administration wants more 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.920 than a showdown in Chicago. Now, does that mean rolling 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.520 over on civil libertarian issues. I don't think anybody is 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.800 suggesting rolling over on these issues. The question is can 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.200 you take the issue away from it's like, look, we're 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.760 focused on this too. We're trying to do it within 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:55.440 the constitution, rather than only fighting the constitutional grounds and saying, hey, 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:59.719 everything is fine and saying, look at how great these 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:05.280 trends are. There's got to be sort of somewhere in 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:10.560 between here because when you look at it, that perception 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.480 and reality are blurred here, and it's going to be 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.040 really hard to win that larger argument. And it is Look, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.000 at some point, it may be they use a tactic 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.240 that goes too far and it will implode on them 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.640 both politically and then some and I do think that 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.839 that in the long term they're a I mean, just 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:37.240 look at their trial balloon on trying to attack transgender 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.640 Americans and take away their rights when it comes to 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:45.159 two guns created a fascinating coalition that said you can't 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.480 do that, that that's unconstitutional, that that essentially the gun 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.960 rights groups going that that's a slippery slope. But it's 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:55.920 also an acknowledgment that this idea of trying to label, 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.720 I mean, I think the two most dangerous things rhetorically 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.000 that we've heard from some on the right are the 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:06.839 attempt to label transgender Americans and lump them in with 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.400 mental illness. That's what clearly the Justice Department was trying 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:12.679 to do in order to get at that issue of guns. 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:16.760 That's going to be a losing argument. I like to 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:22.479 think that there's given that there is zero accepted science 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.279 on this. And then the second is who you designate 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.560 a terrorist organization? And who do you designate as terrorists? 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.160 And you hear Stephen Miller's rhetoric increasingly tries to call 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.719 sort of people that disagree with them on the left, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.680 equate them, uses the T word and terrorists and it 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:42.880 doesn't take much. I mean, if you look at the 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.200 rationale that's being used by the administration and targeting that 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:50.400 ship outside Venezuela, it all began with the State Department 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:56.280 designation of the cartel designating at a terrorist. That isn't 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.200 It's not an Act of Congress that makes that decision. 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:04.240 It's essentially an an interpretation of the current administration. How 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:06.120 far are they going to go with that? Right? How 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:07.760 much are they going to go with that? And this 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:09.600 is going to get and I want to get at 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.000 this debate here in a minute, but this gets at 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:17.040 the when it comes to these law and order issues, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:21.960 and when it comes to these immigration sort of aggressive tactics, 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:25.080 the White House is not going to back down, especially 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.880 since it is the only thing they're doing, the only 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.360 thing they're doing where there is positive poll response from 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.200 the public. The base loves it and is more devoted 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:40.320 than ever, and the goals themselves are seen as goals 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.920 that the public wants and those want to see. Again, 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:48.440 it's the tactics that are disagreed with, but when political 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.920 opponents read that disagreement, they sometimes interpret it that it's 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.120 the policy as well. Is also unpopular when it appears 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.720 to be just the tactics. And this is why I'm 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.760 intrigued by how Governor more has been handling this versus 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.080 some of these versus Governor Pritzker, and I think it's 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.600 it absolutely is worth a twenty twenty eight comparison. There. 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.880 There's no doubt the base wants some fight, right And 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:17.680 this is something I talked with Chris Murphy. This is 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.880 why a government shut down is almost a given right 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:26.040 now it given everything that's going on in Washington. So 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.320 and Pritzker certainly sees what Gavin Newsom is doing. There's 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.120 no doubt if you show some fight the base is 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.640 going to reward you to a point. The question is 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.200 how do you tactically do it without also keeping yourself 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:43.840 electable In twenty twenty eight with swing voters and Pritzker 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.480 is coming across a bit in denial about the problem 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.280 in Chicago versus A Wes Moore saying, look, we know 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.240 there's more work to do. We just don't think you 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.319 should use unconstitutional means to do it. That is politically 0:08:56.440 --> 0:09:03.959 a much smarter place to be. But I understand you 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.080 sort of need to do both. You need to fight 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.760 on the civil libertarian grounds, make sure all the stuff 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.120 gets forced through the courts. I think I'm one of 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.840 those people that you know, that's what these interest groups 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:17.920 are good at doing, and sort of forcing judicial review 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.080 over controversial policies, and forcing judicial review is something that 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.000 I think if you have a weak legislative branch, which 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.920 we do right now, the only really recourse that you 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.840 have besides protests in the ballot box is judicial in 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.520 some sort of judicial review. So you can do that 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:41.280 and at the same time accentuate policies that respond to 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:45.240 what the electorate is seeing. But it sort of takes 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:49.760 me to I guess the which is an eternal challenge 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.360 with the Trump administration is that, you know, if you 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:58.000 look at everything that's that sort of front and center 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:03.840 right now with the administration, any one of those stories 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.800 could be the dominating story for an entire week, and 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.120 it would make everything else sort of disappear. We've seen this, right, 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:14.400 the Epstein Files being the best example of a story 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:19.600 that can just totally consume everything. Well, we're in the 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:23.320 middle of apparently launching a war against Venezuela, right, We've 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.280 stationed F thirty five's in the Caribbean. We've already blown 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.120 up a ship, and I'm going to get to that. 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.840 Because that debate, I think it opened up and gave 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.839 us a preview of what could be a fascinating debate 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.520 on the right in twenty twenty eight between the Rand 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:42.960 Paul wing of what's left of the libertarian wing of 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:48.280 the Republican Party and the JD Vance and the rhetorica. 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.040 He used that basically, the ends, what I'm calling an 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.760 ends justifies the means ideology, which borders on authoritarianism. If 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.000 the goal is to destroy these cartels, then so what 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.000 if you bomb them? So what if we don't due process? 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:02.679 So what if we don't make the case to the 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:07.960 world what we're doing. You know, once we start ignoring 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.640 international norms that the United States helped set, that the 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.959 United States over decades has helped champion, when we want 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:20.800 to set those aside, we're just going to blow up 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.480 a ship. I mean, why we didn't board the ship. 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.000 There's a whole bunch of things to go with the 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:31.360 story with Venezuela. One. If you're going to designate them 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.680 a terrorist organization, get out there and make the case. 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:35.800 The administration has not made a public case about this 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.200 sort of When you think about all the criticism of 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.320 the Bush administration, of the second Bush administration during the 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.920 first decade of the century over the Iraq War, you 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:50.800 know what they did do. They went in front of 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:52.920 the United Nations to make the case. They went in 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.360 front of the American people to make a case. Multiple times. 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.760 They put out the evidence that they claim that they have. 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.839 Now now it turned out to be wrong. It turned 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.000 out to be bad intelligence. And we've had a debate 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.719 about whether it was intentional miss you know, whether the 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:16.800 public and the and Congress was intentionally misled, or if 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:22.760 it was just simply bad interpretation of intelligence. Regardless, he 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.200 just didn't go into a rock before getting a vote 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:30.120 in Congress. This is you know, you know, it's interesting 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.600 and I can't help but looking at his what's going 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.000 on here with Venezuela here in the moment and sort 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.240 of see it as sort of, you know, Trump just 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.080 glorifies the eighties, right, he glorifies sort of two decades, 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.200 the fifties, in the eighties, right, he kind of wishes 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.160 all energy. He's trying to turn the Kennedy Center into 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.439 some sort of combination of the two. Right, that that 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:56.319 sort of glorifies those decades. But in the eighties there 0:12:56.320 --> 0:13:01.920 were sort of two. There were two sort of moments 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.679 where the United States played bully a little bit with 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:10.080 a small country. Right. We had Granada, where where Reagan 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:14.000 went there in a sort of overnight deal. It was 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:19.520 seemed to be a bit over the top, some loose 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.360 connection to communists in Cuba, but it was a pretty 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.880 aggressive action for but it was almost it was quote 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:30.400 unquote sending a message and it was in and it 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:34.880 was out, and it was a quick success, so fast 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.840 before Congress could really belch clear their throat. And then 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.240 there was George H. W. Bush and the and the 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:47.240 essentially the seizing of Noriega. And I guess you could 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.920 kind of put this what is going on here in 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.880 Venezuela with what was done with Panama, where Noriega was 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.880 appeared to be a part of the drug trade. We 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.120 were trying to crack down down on various ways that 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.520 drugs were getting into the United States, and here was, 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.960 you know, a puppet in Panama who was once sort 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.120 of a puppet for the United States or for the West. 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.280 And I'm being a little over the top with the 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.040 use of the word puppet here, but the point was 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.520 there was a time he was our ally and then 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.080 he got himself engrossed in the drug trade. And so 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:30.240 we sort of did a military ish operation, right to 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.560 go get noriek and hold them and hold him to 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.560 account for his role in the drug trade. So Trump 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.760 sent followed the war powers. You know, he's got to 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:46.440 send within a quick period of time. He's got to 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:50.200 send within twenty four hours his justification for the attack. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.760 And here's and he writes the Senate President pro ten 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.120 which in this case is Juck Grassley in the Speaker 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.840 of the House, which is Mike Johnson, And here's the 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.080 letter because the letter's not got enough attention, because I 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.880 right to apprise you military action taken on September second, 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.440 twenty twenty five in the Caribbean Sea, and of the 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.800 potential for further such actions. And then he writes this 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:13.080 extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels that the United States is 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.200 designated as terrorist organizations. Again, the United States has designated 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.960 as terroist organizations have wrought devastating consequences on American communities 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.520 for decades, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.040 United States citizens each year and threatening our national security 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.440 and our foreign policy interests both at home and abroad. 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.960 These organizations have evolved into complex structures with the financial 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:36.120 means and paramilitary capabilities needed to operate with impunity, engaging 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.920 in violence and terrorism that threaten the United States and 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.640 destabilize other nations in our own hemisphere. Friendly foreign nations 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.920 have made significant efforts to combat these organizations, suffering significant 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.440 losses of life due to organized violence at the hands 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.440 of the groups designated as terrorist organizations. But these groups 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:57.280 are now transnational and operate throughout the Western hemisphere. In 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.000 the face of the inability or unwillingness of some state 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.920 in the region to address the continuing threat to the 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.440 United States and its persons and interests emanating from their territories. 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.080 We have now reached a critical point where we must 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.360 meet this threat to our citizens and our most vital 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:20.000 national interests with the United States military force in self defense. Accordingly, 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:22.400 at my direction, on September two, twenty twenty five, the 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.360 United States Forces struck a vessel at a location beyond 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.520 the territorial seas of any nation that was assessed to 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.720 be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and to be 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.000 engaged in illicit drug trafficking activities. It is not possible 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:37.840 at this time to know the full scope and duration 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.320 of military operations that will be necessary. United States Forces 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.400 remained postured to carry out further military operations. I am 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.800 providing this report as part of my efforts to keep 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.960 the Congress fully informed. Well, I'm not sure there was 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.760 much fully informed there. If you look any any signs 0:16:53.760 --> 0:17:00.320 at Donald J. Trump again, So you take this this gang, 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.680 they've they've taken this Venezuelan national gang of a lot 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.800 of Venezuelan national gang and they've designated a terrorist organization. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:14.000 And then because it's a terrorist organization. Essentially, you see him, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.360 he's making the case, Hey, they're beyond this is They're 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:20.240 not a nation state, They're not one nation. He's not. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.400 It's fascinating that he does not mention the word Venezuela here, 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.240 because if if he was talking about a country, he'd 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:33.880 have to go to Congress. But they're trying to make 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.520 the case that this is this is not about a 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.200 specific country, but a specific country hasn't done any work, 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:41.920 and therefore there's a threat to the United States and 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.840 taking out this ship, not boarding it, not sending the 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:52.080 message that way, not arresting these individuals or boarding the 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.479 ship or frankly, to make sure you know what you know, 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.119 they quote just decided to send message. This is what 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.840 Secretary Review said. And again, I know politically this is 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.560 going to seem popular and justifies the means we're getting 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:13.200 rid of these bad Narco traffickers. This is good Venezuela. 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:19.000 If Maduro's upset, this is good. But we have a constitution, 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:25.800 we have a process. We're sitting here behaving no different 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:31.600 than Putin's been behaving in his region. He designated Ukraine 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.919 is essentially a threat like this. They were not he 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.280 used the word Nazis, and all of this has been 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:43.520 his rationale for invading this country in their own sort 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:49.359 of again claiming some version of self defense. This is 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.280 the same crap that Putin's pulling, except he's not in 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:57.280 a democracy. And we are show us your evidence that 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.320 you knew what was on that boat before you blew 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.600 it up. You just decided to blow it up. Are 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.240 they going to share this intelligence when we have a 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:09.040 Congress that's acting as if it is an equal, coequal 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:13.080 branch of government, there'd be some immediate hearings. I haven't 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:18.040 heard anything. It's been crickets on this, and it appears 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:23.640 we're going to do more. And it's interesting, you know, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.800 you see the political fallout from this was, you know, 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.720 Jade Vance is sort of the social media defender, mainstream 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.520 social media defender. Trump does this crazy truth social posts 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:36.040 that you make it into sort of mainstream social media 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.239 with retreats and all this stuff. But Vance is the 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:44.200 one he actively is on there, and he basically said 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:46.520 he thought this was the highest and best use of 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:50.159 the military. And he had this back and forth with 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:56.120 an anti Trump, a guy named Brian Crassenstein and who 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.560 denounced the strike. Then called it a war crime, and 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.560 then Vance just simply wrote back, I don't give a 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:04.320 shit what you call it. Well, what's interesting about that statement, 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:10.200 because again, what we did and our lack of rationale 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:14.240 and our lack of justification before we did the attack 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.560 and just waiting until after the fact, because we have 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:20.160 to take the Trump administration's word for this. His word 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:22.920 is not good with the American people. At best. It's 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.800 forty percent of the country that accept accept things he says, 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.440 a face value majority does not. Certainly a majority of 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:35.720 the world does not. So Vance basically says, I don't 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.040 give a shit. And that's when Rand Paul jumps in, 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.360 Republican senator from Kentucky, who's, of course more of a libertarian, 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:49.040 and he's certainly somebody who believes that Congress has a 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.840 lot more authority to exert when it comes to military decisions, 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.800 and he called that statement, what a despicable and thoughtless 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.800 sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial. 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:08.240 And that was the point he even said, it was 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.639 really interesting. He goes, I should read you the whole tweet. 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.280 Some of you may have seen it, but let me 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.320 read you the whole tweet. JD. I don't give a shit. 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:19.600 Advance says, killing people he accuses of a crime is 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.480 the quote highest and best use of the military unquote. 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.480 And then Paul goes here, he goes, did he ever 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:27.879 read to kill a mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:32.040 might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:36.359 or representation? And then the next sentence, which has gotten 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:40.520 some mainstream play. What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:46.840 is to glorify killing someone without a trial. So look, 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:49.960 I don't expect this current makeup of Congress to engage 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.280 in this, right, I mean part of the problem. Again, 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:54.800 this is the whole. The Trump administration does five or 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.840 six things that deserve extra scrutiny. In messing with the 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.520 independence of the FED is another one. The use of 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.399 the military as domestic police officers is one. Then there's 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:09.479 this and essentially conducting military action against a foreign country. 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.800 We didn't say it here that it's Venezuela. Venezuela sees 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.159 it as an attack. So are we at war with Venezuela? 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:18.240 Are we about to go to war? Are we about 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:20.959 to do regime change? Now? Trump was smart enough some lawyer, 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:23.440 his White House Council got to him. He did not 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:25.679 go down that road. He can be very sloppy with 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:28.560 his argument with his statements sometimes, but he did not 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:31.800 say anything about that. He said no, no, no, because 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.879 the minute he says that, then he essentially lied in 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:37.560 in the statement of Congress when he informed them based 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.320 on the Warpowers Act. So this is one of those stories. 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:46.080 It should be consuming Washington in a world without social 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:50.520 media algorithms that are more obsessed about Jeffrey Epstein. And 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.040 I sit here and I understand this, But when you 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.080 look at all the stories that we're all dealing with 0:22:56.200 --> 0:23:02.159 right now, it's still Jeffrey Epstein that seems to be 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:06.679 where traditional media is trying to go because it trends better, 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:10.000 or because social media algorithms report it. Whatever it is. 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.560 This has totally warped the news cycle a little bit. 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:17.440 This issue with Venezuela should be first and foremost right now. 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:21.479 The economy is right there, and law enforcement in our cities, 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:27.240 these sort of collectively here, this is sort of challenges 0:23:27.320 --> 0:23:31.280 to the constitution right in front of our face, right 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:35.920 in front of our face, and most of the obsession 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:40.080 and the coverage and even political attention elected leaders, where 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:44.080 are they gravitating to? They're not gravitating towards many of 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:50.760 these stories on this anyway. But what have we learned 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:54.320 from sort of all of this? Over the weekend, we'll 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:56.800 say this a vance Rand Paul primary is going to 0:23:56.840 --> 0:23:59.160 be fascinating, it's going to be interesting, and it's going 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:03.200 to be nasty. We'll see how far we get there. 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:10.240 We'll see whether Rand Paul his what his political standing 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:15.160 looks like in two years. But he's now. It's interesting 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:19.160 to me watching him. He is been a bit more 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:21.920 combative with the Trump administration. He doesn't do it as 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:25.280 much sort of on the floor of the Senate, and 0:24:25.320 --> 0:24:29.359 he's not really been you know, it's not like he's organic. 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:30.800 It's not like he went out of his way to 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:33.160 try to get more people to stop the one Big 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:34.880