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Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to Breaking Points with Crystal

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Speaker 1: and Sager. We're going to be totally upfront with you.

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Speaker 1: of dollars doing it to help support our mission of

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Speaker 1: reactions to each other's monologues. You get to participate and

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Speaker 1: weekly ask me any things, and you don't need to

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Speaker 1: the show notes. Enjoy the show, guys, Good morning, everybody,

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Speaker 1: Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today.

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Speaker 1: What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. Of course,

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Speaker 1: We're going to bring you up to date with the

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Speaker 1: very latest down of Afghanistan. President Biden sat for a

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Speaker 1: new interview. We have the details and some footage from that.

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Speaker 1: We also want to break down for you what this

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Speaker 1: thing was really all about, all of the billions and

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Speaker 1: trillions of dollars that were made by many nefarious actors

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Speaker 1: book here and in Afghanistan. Chris Cuomo returned from his

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Speaker 1: birthday vacation and had a little bit something to say.

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Speaker 1: We could not let that slide, so we'll bring me

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Speaker 1: the details there, new details on vaccines and these booster

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Speaker 1: shots and the Biden administration requiring nursing homes and their

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Speaker 1: employees to get vaccinated. What do we think about that.

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Speaker 1: I also wanted to have a little bit of fun

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Speaker 1: with the worst Afghanistan takes and as you know, we

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Speaker 1: are bipartisan, are scorn. There's a lot to go around here,

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Speaker 1: plenty of cringe to go around, so we'll bring you that.

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Speaker 1: We also have Michael Tracy on to help us sort

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Speaker 1: fact from fiction in terms of what is actually happening

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Speaker 1: on the ground versus the media presentation of what is

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Speaker 1: happening on the ground. And that's actually kind of where

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Speaker 1: we want to start with that interview I mentioned before

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Speaker 1: with President Biden. Two significant pieces from this interview around

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Speaker 1: what President Biden, whether he's taking blame or not. Also

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Speaker 1: whether he will remain in Afghanistan as long as it

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Speaker 1: takes to get all US citizens out. We're not going

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Speaker 1: to addit any of this. We'll just play it fully.

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Speaker 1: So let's take a listen. It's going to be a

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Speaker 1: couple minutes. When you look at what's happened over the

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Speaker 1: last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution

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Speaker 1: or judgment. Look, I don't think it was a Look,

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Speaker 1: it was a simple choice, George, when the Taliband let

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Speaker 1: me back and put it another way, when you had

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Speaker 1: the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government, getting

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Speaker 1: into a plan taking off and going to another country,

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Speaker 1: When you saw the significant collapse of the of the

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Speaker 1: Afghan troops we had trained to three hundred thousand of

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Speaker 1: them just leaving their equipment and taking off, that was

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Speaker 1: you know, that's what happened. That's simply what happened. But

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Speaker 1: we've all seen the pictures. We've seen those hundreds of

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Speaker 1: people packed into a C seventeen, we've seen Afghan's fall

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Speaker 1: was four days ago, five days ago. What did you

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Speaker 1: think when you first saw those pictures. What I thought

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Speaker 1: was weird. We have to gain control of this, We

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Speaker 1: have to move this more quickly. We have to move

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Speaker 1: in a way in which we can take control of

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Speaker 1: that airport, and we did so. You don't think this

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Speaker 1: could have been handled This actually could have been handled

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Speaker 1: better in any way, no mistakes. No, I don't think

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Speaker 1: it could have been handled in a way that we're

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Speaker 1: going to go back in hindsight and look. But the

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Speaker 1: idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out

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Speaker 1: without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens. I

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Speaker 1: don't know how that happened. So for you, that was

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Speaker 1: always priced into the Yes, all troops are supposed to

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Speaker 1: be out by August thirty first, even if Americans and

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Speaker 1: our Afghan allies are still trying to get out, they're

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Speaker 1: going to leave. We're going to do everything in our

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Speaker 1: power to get all Americans out and our allies out.

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Speaker 1: Does that mean troops will stay beyond August thirty first,

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Speaker 1: if necessary? It depends on where we are and whether

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Speaker 1: we can get ramped these numbers up to five to

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Speaker 1: seven thousand a day coming out. If that's the case,

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Speaker 1: they'll all be out, because we've got like ten to

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Speaker 1: fifteen thousand Americans in the country right now, right, And

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Speaker 1: are you committed to making sure that the troops stay

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Speaker 1: until every American who wants to be out is out? Yes?

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Speaker 1: How about our Afghan allies? We have about eighty thousand people.

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Speaker 1: That's too high, that's too high ast them that we're

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Speaker 1: giving is somewhere between fifty and sixty five thousand folks total,

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Speaker 1: counting their families. Does the commitment hold for them as well?

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Speaker 1: The commitment hold to get everyone out that in fact,

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Speaker 1: we can get out and everyone should come out, And

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Speaker 1: that's the objective. That's what we're doing now, that's the

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Speaker 1: path we're on and I think we'll get So Americans

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Speaker 1: should understand the troops might have to be there beyond

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Speaker 1: August thirty. First, no, Americans should understand that we're going

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Speaker 1: to try to get it done before August thirty. But

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Speaker 1: if we don't, the troops So if they don't, we'll

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Speaker 1: determine at the time who's left, and if they're American force,

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Speaker 1: if there's American citizens left, we're going to stay there

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Speaker 1: and get them all out. That's the key piece of

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Speaker 1: news that was out of that interview Crystal, though, you know,

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Speaker 1: pretty astounding, and I think that there's been some confusion

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Speaker 1: about where we're both standing here. Nobody is denying the

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Speaker 1: chaos out of Afghanistan. What is happening there is a

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Speaker 1: total and colossal military disaster. It is squarely on the

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Speaker 1: shoulders in my opinion, yes, of President Biden, but really

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Speaker 1: of the Pentagon and many of these other people. And

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Speaker 1: I don't think we should whitewash the chaos on the ground,

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Speaker 1: the fact that there are five to ten thousand American

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Speaker 1: citizens who are on the ground in Cobble, many have

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Speaker 1: been told that they cannot be guaranteed safe passage to

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Speaker 1: the airport. I will get to this in my radar.

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Speaker 1: I simply posit there. I don't know if there was

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Speaker 1: a better in a different way, given the set of

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Speaker 1: circumstances that we have. I respectfully disagree with many people

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Speaker 1: who would want thousands more American soldiers to stay there,

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Speaker 1: get engaged in an Afghan civil war, which in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: would have dragged us on for many more months, if

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Speaker 1: not years, in that country. Well, and that's basically what

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Speaker 1: Biden is saying. Yeahstanopolis presses him on. You don't think

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Speaker 1: you could have done this better, And he's effectively like,

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Speaker 1: do you think it's going to be nice and clean

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Speaker 1: and easy when you have a state that just completely collapsed,

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Speaker 1: collapsed in eleven days. Of Course it's going to be

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Speaker 1: a disaster. Of Course, it's going to be horrifying. Of

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Speaker 1: Course people are going to be shocked by the images

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Speaker 1: that are coming out of there. There's no doubt about

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Speaker 1: any of that. There's another piece that I want to

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Speaker 1: push back on, which is, you know, he's saying, look,

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Speaker 1: we're staying till we get at least all the American

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Speaker 1: citizens out, kind of like a little evasive on the people,

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Speaker 1: the Afghans, the people who helped us. But I have

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Speaker 1: seen some who are like, oh, we're I guess now

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Speaker 1: we're just gonna stay and now this is never gonna end.

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Speaker 1: I've seen some of that commentary online of like they're

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Speaker 1: bringing troops back in and now this thing's ever gonna end.

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Speaker 1: That makes no sense, Okay, Politically, Biden has already taken

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Speaker 1: the biggest hit she could possibly take over out of

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Speaker 1: all of this. If we stay longer, then we do

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Speaker 1: end up in hostilities in the middle of a civil war,

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Speaker 1: having violated that agreement that was signed under the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration with the Taliban. The Taliban does not want us

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Speaker 1: there to stay there, don't want to stay there, so

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Speaker 1: I don't. I just think it is very far fetched

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Speaker 1: to imagine that this troop presence is going to somehow

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Speaker 1: turn into Endless War Part two, because, as I stated before,

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Speaker 1: Biden has been totally unequivocal. He's already stood up to

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Speaker 1: everybody essentially in the foreign policy establishment, everybody in the

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Speaker 1: media is totally against him. He's already taken that hit.

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Speaker 1: I would be shopped at this point if he ultimately

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Speaker 1: went back on that. I completely agree with you, and

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Speaker 1: you know, to just get back to the basic facts

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Speaker 1: of the ground in Afghanistan. Here is the update as

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Speaker 1: of this morning from the White House. The United States

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Speaker 1: military has now evacuated six thousand people since August fourteenth,

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Speaker 1: including eighteen hundred overnight. Per White House officials. There has

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Speaker 1: not yet been a report and instance of the Taliban

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Speaker 1: having any hostilities with American forces. That's according to the

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Speaker 1: White House. Sorry to the Defense Secretary of Lloyd Austin

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Speaker 1: who's speaking yesterday, and to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

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Speaker 1: So as far as we can tell. According to them,

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Speaker 1: there has not been an instance where they're blocking American

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Speaker 1: citizens from coming into the airport. Now, the Afghan interpreters,

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Speaker 1: that's a little bit of a different story. There's been

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Speaker 1: some reports there that they're not being allowed. Clarissa Ward,

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Speaker 1: I just want to say, a very courageous CNN journalist

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Speaker 1: who's been down in Kobble outside of the airport has

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Speaker 1: been showing us firsthand, like what the hell it actually

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Speaker 1: looks like this type of chaos. Let's take a listen

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Speaker 1: from her dispatch yesterday. From right outside the streets at

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Speaker 1: the airport, there was a consistent stream of gunfire. We

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Speaker 1: also were just a cost hit by people, John and

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Speaker 1: so heartbreaking, everybody coming up to us with their papers,

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Speaker 1: their passports saying please, you know I worked at Camp Phoenix.

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Speaker 1: I worked at this camp. I was a translator. Helped

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Speaker 1: me get in, help me get to America, help me

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Speaker 1: get my sieve my visa to get out of the country.

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Speaker 1: And then the Taliban would just come through. At one stage,

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Speaker 1: this one fighter just lifted his gun up in the

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Speaker 1: air as if he was about to start firing round.

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Speaker 1: So we had to run and take cover, and then

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Speaker 1: you know, the most frightening moment for our team came

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Speaker 1: when our producer Brent Swales was taking some video on

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Speaker 1: his iPhone. Two Taliban fighters just came up with their

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Speaker 1: pistols and they were ready to pistol with him, and

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Speaker 1: we had to intervene and scream. And it was actually

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Speaker 1: another Taliban fighter who who came in and said no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: don't do that their journalists. But I mean, really, you know,

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Speaker 1: I I've covered all sorts of crazy situations. This was mayhem,

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Speaker 1: This was nuts. This was impossible for an ordinary civilian,

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Speaker 1: even if they have their paperwork. No way they're running

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Speaker 1: back Gomblin, No way they're going to be able to

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Speaker 1: navigate that. It's very dicey, it's very dangerous, and it's

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Speaker 1: completely unpredictable. There's no order, there's no coherent system for

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Speaker 1: processing people, separating those with papers from those who don't

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Speaker 1: have papers. And honestly, to me, it's a miracle that

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Speaker 1: more people haven't been very very seriously heard. So you know,

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Speaker 1: that's a wild story. Props to her for actually staying there.

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Speaker 1: And like we said, it's not like the Taliban are

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Speaker 1: good people. Jalalabad, which is a city near the Pakistani border.

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Speaker 1: There were some protests there yesterday where the Afghan flag

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Speaker 1: was raised in the Taliban immediately cracked down on that protest,

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Speaker 1: firing into the earthers, some reports of casualties. It's pretty

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Speaker 1: uncles of the situation. We had a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a video from the ground, just it's very brief. Let's

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Speaker 1: take a listen. So there you have it, Crystal. I

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Speaker 1: don't think anybody can say that we are whitewashing exactly

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Speaker 1: what's going on on the ground there. Simply what we're

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Speaker 1: saying is that this perhaps and this is you know,

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Speaker 1: the title of my radar is the best worst choice

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Speaker 1: of exactly what it looks like whenever you withdraw from

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Speaker 1: a horrific war of twenty years and personally, my opinion,

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Speaker 1: given how we have learned from the United States military,

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Speaker 1: is that these people have absolutely no room in order

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Speaker 1: to say otherwise that they could have done a better job.

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Speaker 1: Look at what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark

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Speaker 1: Milly said yesterday. Let's put this tweet up there on

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Speaker 1: the screen. He says that, look, there was no intelligence.

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Speaker 1: There was nothing that I or any anyone else saw

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Speaker 1: that indicated a collapse of this army and this government

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Speaker 1: in eleven days. This is the same man Crystal who

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Speaker 1: wanted us to stay in Afghanistan. These are the people

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Speaker 1: who are pushing for this. It is a colossal failure

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Speaker 1: upon their part. And as you're pointing out on your radar,

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Speaker 1: they are leaking to the media who are just printing

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Speaker 1: this stuff hook line and sinker being like, oh, the

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Speaker 1: intelligence we warned him, tried to No, you didn't. It's

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Speaker 1: complete and utter bs. This is a systemic failure by

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Speaker 1: the United States government. Yes, that's it. And here's the

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Speaker 1: part that I find really golling that Michael Tracy can

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Speaker 1: elaborate on, because I think he laid this oun extremely

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Speaker 1: well in his latest substack post. These people did not

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Speaker 1: care about the Afghan people until five minutes ago. Okay,

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Speaker 1: bodies have been piling up there, of Afghan civilians, and

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Speaker 1: we have been highly complicit in because under Trump, what

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Speaker 1: we did was ramp up the number of airstreate, change

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Speaker 1: rules of engagement, Yeah, change rules of engagement, but also

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Speaker 1: ramped up the number of air strikes, increasing the number

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Speaker 1: of civilian casualties. Did you hear about that? Did they care?

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Speaker 1: Were they? Where? Were their humanitarian impulses. That where are

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Speaker 1: their humanitarian humanitarian impulses when it comes to Yemen or

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Speaker 1: any other number of atrocities. So, look, they want to

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Speaker 1: muddy the waters. They want to convince you that the

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Speaker 1: thing you should be most horrified by are the truly

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Speaker 1: horrifying scenes that are coming out of Afghanistan. They want

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Speaker 1: to ignore the twenty years of horror, okay, and push

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Speaker 1: that aside as if that doesn't matter. I saw people

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Speaker 1: calling for you know, Biden to resign or this person

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Speaker 1: resign or that person resign or whatever, And meanwhile they're

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Speaker 1: giving like John Bolton and Paul WOLFELEW. Connelly's or Rice

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Speaker 1: or being resuscitated, like those are the people that should

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Speaker 1: be should have resigned, Those are the ones that there

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Speaker 1: should be accountability for. Because what we're really seeing is

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Speaker 1: the extent of the lies that have occurred coming out

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Speaker 1: of this war for twenty years now. So that's the

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Speaker 1: part that I get really pissed about. Nobody here is

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Speaker 1: whitewashing the chaotic scenes coming out of Afghanistan right now.

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Speaker 1: No one here is like buying into the Taliban's charm

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Speaker 1: offensive now they're like women are great equal rights and

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Speaker 1: I'm there. There's a video. We just played it for you.

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Speaker 1: If I'm shooting at people, it's even like, oh, we

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Speaker 1: believen freedom of speech. Okay, all right, nobody here is

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Speaker 1: falling for any of that crap. Although I will say,

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Speaker 1: you know, I also think that the media they want

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Speaker 1: it to be total chaos all the way around, and

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Speaker 1: the reality is on the streets of Kabble right now.

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Speaker 1: The reports that are coming out is it is tense,

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Speaker 1: but generally calm at the moment. The airport is another story.

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Speaker 1: So I don't want to overplay it. I also don't

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Speaker 1: want to underplay it. I want to accurate play it,

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Speaker 1: which is what we're trying to do here. I want

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Speaker 1: people to take away from this that it's a terrible,

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Speaker 1: terrible situation. There are a lot of partisans out there

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Speaker 1: who are making a lot of claims about things they

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Speaker 1: know nothing about. Yeah, for example, why did we abandon

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Speaker 1: Bogra Bargram air Base. That's a great question. Do any

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Speaker 1: of these people know? I know that Bogram is seventy

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Speaker 1: kilometers away from the city of Kabble, So what were

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Speaker 1: we supposed to do? Run Berlin style airlifts from Kabble

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Speaker 1: to Bogram and then airlift people out of there. Wouldn't

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Speaker 1: it be even more responsible to encourage American citizens to

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Speaker 1: go across the desert towards Bogram's air base and concentrate

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Speaker 1: there where they're ten times more likely in order to

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Speaker 1: run into Afghan or Taliban forces. This is what I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about. Let's look, if you really care about the Americans,

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Speaker 1: and I truly do, what I have seen so far

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Speaker 1: is that they have generally, generally being the keyword, been

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Speaker 1: given safe passage by the Taliban to the air base.

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Speaker 1: There are still very terrifying stories. Many Americans are in

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Speaker 1: safe houses near the airport. They're scared, they don't know

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Speaker 1: if they're gonna make it. Of the Afghans, it's a

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Speaker 1: whole other story. The Afghan interpreters and more, some of

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Speaker 1: them have been reportedly been beaten on their way to

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Speaker 1: the airport, Taliban not necessarily honoring that. The US military

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Speaker 1: says they have an open channel of community, and at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, if we leave behind scores

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Speaker 1: of them, I guarantee you on this show we're going

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Speaker 1: to be excoriating the Biden administration for doing so. But

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Speaker 1: I think we need to present a very holistic picture.

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Speaker 1: I continued to come back to the Pentagon, the generals,

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Speaker 1: the chief liars of this engagement, General Millie and his

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Speaker 1: ilk who promised the American people with the straight face

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Speaker 1: that the Afghans could fight by themselves, that we were

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Speaker 1: continuing a successful mission of trained advice and assists. He

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Speaker 1: his subordinates and all of his predecessors lied to us

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Speaker 1: about what they were doing with our money in our soldiers.

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Speaker 1: That is where I'm going to direct the one hundred

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Speaker 1: percent of my ire because they wanted this to continue.

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Speaker 1: And look, I don't want to be mister conspiracy, but

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Speaker 1: I remember what happened in Iraq in twenty ten. They

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Speaker 1: left behind all kinds of stuff, crystal because they didn't

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Speaker 1: actually want to pull out. And then when we left,

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Speaker 1: they said, look at all the stuff that we left behind.

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Speaker 1: They had eighteen months in order to plan for this,

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Speaker 1: for withdrawal. I also love all these MAGA people out there. Oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, under Trump it would have been different. Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump's Defense secretary Mark Esper gave an interview August eighteenth,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, that was yesterday, okay, where he said, quote,

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Speaker 1: we had no intention of withdrawing from Afghanistan. His own

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Speaker 1: Defense secretary said that, Yes, he said, we had no intention.

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Speaker 1: Would have been different, they wouldn't have done it. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I mean he said it was a quote ruse in

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Speaker 1: terms of trying to withdraw from Afghanistan. This is an

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Speaker 1: interview with Defense one. We can put it out there

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Speaker 1: in the show notes, just so you all know about

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Speaker 1: what the deep state was also pulling whenever Trump was

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Speaker 1: president too. So that just gives you an idea of

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Speaker 1: what Biden is up against. Yes, when trying to do that,

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Speaker 1: and you see the unified bipartisan opposition, you know, Democrats

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Speaker 1: coming out against him, of course, all media opposed to him.

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Speaker 1: And so that's also why I really wanted us to

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Speaker 1: go out of our way to give him a lot

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Speaker 1: of praise, Like that's right. He's done something that president

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Speaker 1: after president has failed to do. He's shown you talk

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Speaker 1: about political courage, Like political courage isn't setting out some

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Speaker 1: like own the Libs tweet or like you know, own

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Speaker 1: the conservatives tweet comparing them to the Taliban or whatever.

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Speaker 1: Political courage is doing something like this that is extraordinarily difficult,

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Speaker 1: that you know is going to be ugly, that is

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Speaker 1: unpopular that you know, the entire press corps and people

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Speaker 1: in your own party are gonna come out against and

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Speaker 1: you do it anyway because you believe it is the

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Speaker 1: right thing to do. That is the definition of political courage.

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Speaker 1: I agree, we very very very rarely actually see it

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Speaker 1: in action. I loved the president's tone in this interview

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Speaker 1: with Stephanopoulos. I think he was clear. I think he

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Speaker 1: was direct. He got the dates a little money in

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Speaker 1: terms of yeah, like what was going on at the airport,

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Speaker 1: said it was four or five. Ye, that is Biden anyway.

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Speaker 1: But his general tone is defiance, and he's very clear,

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Speaker 1: he's very committed. He doesn't seem to have any regrets.

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Speaker 1: And the reporting we saw in on the administration is

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Speaker 1: that actually the fact that the Afghan army collapsed, in

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Speaker 1: the Afghan government collapsed so quickly, made them more committed

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Speaker 1: in their beliefs that, like these generals were trying to

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Speaker 1: tell him, just give us another month, just give us

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Speaker 1: another couple of months or whatever, another month, another year,

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Speaker 1: another five years was not going to first all what

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Speaker 1: we saw happen over these past several days. So that's

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Speaker 1: where we are right now. You know, I think that

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Speaker 1: people who are only be very skeptical of people who

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Speaker 1: are only focused on the events of the past couple

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Speaker 1: of days and don't put in the context of the

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Speaker 1: past twenty years of atrocities that no one seemed to

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Speaker 1: really care about. Yes, I would ask for a holistic

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Speaker 1: view by everybody of the conflict. Go back and look

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Speaker 1: at how we've been lied to by so many people.

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Speaker 1: Try and square what it really means to have a

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Speaker 1: better quote unquote withdrawal, What are the consequences to that,

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Speaker 1: What are the consequences to many of the things that

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Speaker 1: are being pushed, And do not find yourself blindly partisanly

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Speaker 1: agreeing with somebody just because of the way you may

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Speaker 1: also feel about Biden in a different context. Yes, one

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Speaker 1: quick addendum, It was Chris Miller, the last acting Defense Secretary,

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Speaker 1: not Mark Esper, who said that about the afghan withdrawal.

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Speaker 1: But I still think it is a vitally important piece

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Speaker 1: of news that his own Defense secretary said it was

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Speaker 1: a ruse that they were never actually going to withdraw

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Speaker 1: from Afghanistan. So look, I mean you have to look

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Speaker 1: at what Biden has done and say that it is

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Speaker 1: the furthest in American president has been willing to go

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Speaker 1: on Afghanistan in your and my lifetime, and I personally

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Speaker 1: welcome that decision. Yes, one other cautionary note, there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of rumors, uncorroborated rumors flying around Twitter right now. Yes,

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Speaker 1: just be careful because there are a lot of people

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Speaker 1: who are very interested in spinning a narrative one way

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Speaker 1: or another. So just especially always, but especially in times

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Speaker 1: like these, make sure anything that you see out there

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Speaker 1: that's you know, extreme or sillacious or whatever it is,

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Speaker 1: that it's actually corroborated by real sources before you go

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Speaker 1: and you know, give it a retweet or go and

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Speaker 1: believe it or spread it. There's a lot going on

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Speaker 1: right now. Very good, speaking of the complete context, what

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Speaker 1: was this conflict really ultimately about? Why did we stay

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Speaker 1: there for so many many years, long after bin Lan

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Speaker 1: was dead, long after actually we defeated the Taliban early on,

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Speaker 1: and then essentially our presence there allowed them to regrow

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Speaker 1: and gain the strength that they have today. Well, as

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Speaker 1: with so many things follow with money A fitting end

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Speaker 1: to this, and we can throw this first tweet up

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Speaker 1: on the screen. I think this is the perfect fitting

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Speaker 1: end to this conflict, which, according to an Afghan Ambassador

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Speaker 1: in Tajikistan. Ashraf Ghani, the last president of Aanastan, escaped

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Speaker 1: with bags full of one hundred and sixty nine million

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Speaker 1: US dollars as cobble was falling with cash too and fog.

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Speaker 1: What I've been saying is it's perfect, because that's really

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Speaker 1: what this conflict was all about. That's nothing compared to

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Speaker 1: what the defense contractors, the bags of cash that they

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Speaker 1: figuratively escaped this conflict, with the amount of money that

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Speaker 1: was thrown around and completely squandered, most of which, by

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Speaker 1: the way, ended up not in development, not in schools,

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Speaker 1: not in building roads and bridges in Afghanistan, which a

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Speaker 1: lot of people would rightly say, also, hey, we kind

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Speaker 1: of need some roads and bridges here too. But it

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Speaker 1: didn't even go to that. It went eighty to ninety percent.

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Speaker 1: Let's throw this next piece up there. According to Foreign Policy,

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Speaker 1: eighty to ninety percent went to Washington defense contractors bend

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Speaker 1: a tree they describe it as, and aid contractors. Eighty

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Speaker 1: to ninety percent of those trillions of dollars actually just

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Speaker 1: returned to the US economy. Gigantic Beltway grift to end

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Speaker 1: all beltwag grifts, the amount of money that people made

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Speaker 1: helps you to understand why there is such a reaction

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Speaker 1: to Biden leaving and why there is such unified, complete

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Speaker 1: opposition to ever getting out of this country. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: and here our friend Lee Fong, he found this great

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Speaker 1: little anecdote from Segar, which is one of my favorite agencies.

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Speaker 1: More than three hundred million dollars a year went to

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Speaker 1: ghost soldiers in the Afghan security forces who didn't exist

429
00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:39,200
Speaker 1: or show up, while active duty soldiers across the country

430
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:42,920
Speaker 1: went unpaid for months. This is a phenomenon I tracked

431
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: for so long whenever I was covering the Afghan War

432
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: a lot back in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and twenty seventeen,

433
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:53,120
Speaker 1: which is we were paying these fake salaries that these

434
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:58,479
Speaker 1: commanders would roll up pay themselves in illicit cash and

435
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:04,400
Speaker 1: then spirited out of the country like mister Ghani to Dubai, Doha, wherever,

436
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:07,360
Speaker 1: open up these fancy bank account These guys had penthouse

437
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 1: apartments that you would not even believe. And one of

438
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:15,159
Speaker 1: my personal favorite stories on this I remember watching it.

439
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 1: There's a whole vice thing on it. Even back in

440
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,240
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. Let's put it up there. We spent forty

441
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 1: three million dollars on a gas station, not gas stations,

442
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 1: gas station one hundred and forty times more than what

443
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,800
Speaker 1: it should have cost. And what it is is that

444
00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: you can see within this is that the outrageous costs

445
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: of the outrageous cost outlays that happened here were all

446
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:46,960
Speaker 1: because of a snowballing level of failure where we were like, oh,

447
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 1: we're going to build it in this particular place even

448
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,640
Speaker 1: though nobody can necessarily agree why, and then we need

449
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: to defend the people who are building it, and then

450
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 1: we need to bring the guy. And then at the

451
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 1: end of the day, nobody even used the damn thing

452
00:24:57,359 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 1: after we were done. The same thing happened with the roads.

453
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,879
Speaker 1: Would build roads, the Taliban would then use those roads

454
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: in order to take over an area, and then they

455
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: would charge people in order to use the roads. A

456
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:11,240
Speaker 1: happened constantly. That was actually part of why the Taliban

457
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,280
Speaker 1: was able to move so swiftly. The ring roads we

458
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 1: built those they were able to take control of the roads.

459
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: That happened sometime back in the winter that they got

460
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: control of a lot of the main roads, and then

461
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 1: basically city after city fell as quickly as they could

462
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 1: get there because instance they got there, they'd negotiate a

463
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,439
Speaker 1: surrender and they'd move on to the next one. So

464
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 1: we helped to build those roads. At least that money

465
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:37,440
Speaker 1: actually went to something other than ghost soldiers ghost soldiers.

466
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,600
Speaker 1: I do want to something else I've been looking into

467
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 1: as well. As you know, we kept hearing this number

468
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 1: from Biden and from others of like, oh, we turned

469
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand Afghan Army. No we didn't. It was

470
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: more like, no, we did it. Yeah, the latest estimen

471
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,320
Speaker 1: I saw, I mean you got all the ghost soldiers

472
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 1: and just people who had like given up an abandoned

473
00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: ship already. The latest estimate I saw was that something

474
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 1: like one sixth of that three hundred thousand is a

475
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 1: more accurate estimate in terms of who was actually in

476
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 1: the fight at the end. So fake soldiers, some we built,

477
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 1: some schools, some schools we did not build. Some schools

478
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: were completely fake. The one thing that was revealed in

479
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,959
Speaker 1: the Afghanistan papers was that also the girl's enrollment in

480
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 1: those schools was consistently inflated, and they were built at

481
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,520
Speaker 1: dramatically higher cost than what we would pay per student.

482
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: And it's all even when Europeans would come in and

483
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: build schools in Afghanistan. They did it at a much

484
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: much lower cost than we were able to do, so

485
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:39,919
Speaker 1: this was all just a giant grift all the way around.

486
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 1: This is another funny one from the Afghanistan papers. I

487
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:45,760
Speaker 1: almost kind of respect the game here with this one.

488
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: One of the wealthiest people, we can throw this tweet

489
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,440
Speaker 1: up on the screen. I think this was from Richard Canadia. Yes,

490
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: one of the wealthiest people in Afghanistan. Was actually started

491
00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: on as an interpreter for the US and would sell

492
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:02,120
Speaker 1: them things for a hundred times mark up, and that's

493
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: how he built his wealth. This is actually according to

494
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 1: Michael Flynn, who was interviewed as part of this came

495
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: out in the Afghanistan Papers. So everybody was on the take,

496
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: but nobody, nobody more so. And this is the last

497
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 1: element we have here. Than all of the all of

498
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 1: the institutions of the military industrial complex. Defense stocks during

499
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 1: the Afghanistan War went through the roof Lockheed Martin up

500
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: one thousand, two hundred and thirty six percent Northrop Grumman

501
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: one one hundred and ninety six percent return, Boeing nine

502
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five percent return, General dynamic six hundred

503
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: twenty five percent return and raytheon a mere three hundred

504
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 1: and thirty one percent return over the course of the

505
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:49,680
Speaker 1: Afghan War. So when you ask yourself, why did we

506
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: stay for all of these many long years when there

507
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:59,199
Speaker 1: was no defined mission, when there was the opposite of

508
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: progress being where the Taliban was only getting stronger over

509
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,359
Speaker 1: the last decade or so of last let's say twelve

510
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:10,120
Speaker 1: thirteen years. Oh, they got exponentially stronger. Yeah, So why

511
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 1: did we stay in spite of all of that? Why

512
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: do we stay past the point when bin Lan was dead?

513
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 1: Why did we do that? That's a good question. This

514
00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: is why people, This is why follow the money. There

515
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:24,960
Speaker 1: were people who were making bank billions of dollars making

516
00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:27,920
Speaker 1: you know, Ashraf Ghani's one hundred and sixty nine million bags.

517
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that looks like nothing, looking like small potatoes

518
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 1: compared to what a lot of the defense contractors here

519
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:37,800
Speaker 1: in this town were able to suck out of this engagement.

520
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 1: So this is what it ultimately was really about. And

521
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 1: all the lies that were told to you over all

522
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: of those years were about keeping this world historic grift going.

523
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,200
Speaker 1: That's right. And you know the worst part is American

524
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 1: soldiers who were on the ground, the actual grunts, they

525
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 1: saw all of this. They saw their commanders having to

526
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 1: go out and give pallettes of cash to these corrupt

527
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 1: people so that we could build a well or whatever,

528
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:03,320
Speaker 1: and then the well would never get built, and then

529
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 1: the cash would disappear, and then oh, all of a sudden,

530
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 1: Oh now it's in the hands of some guy. Next thing,

531
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: you know, it all gets rolled up. And just so

532
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: you know, this is everybody. The Taliban too. These guys

533
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,280
Speaker 1: became some of the most sophisticated drug dealers on the planet.

534
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 1: They made four hundred million dollars just last year, which

535
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: is the late assessment, four hundred million in a year.

536
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,640
Speaker 1: All they had multiple cell phones, they got sophisticated bank accounts.

537
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: What all we did was prop up a kleptocracy on

538
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: the one hand, where the entire government was basically focused

539
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 1: on making sure they could steal as much from us

540
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:41,640
Speaker 1: as possible. And then the Taliban themselves became richer while

541
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: they continued to sweep across the guns. Now they're also

542
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 1: incredibly well armed. Now they're very well armed. I will

543
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 1: tell it one one story though, for that a US

544
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 1: Army colonel told me. I'm not going to reveal his name,

545
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 1: but he told me this back several years, which is

546
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 1: that one time he was sitting in Afghanistan and they

547
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,960
Speaker 1: were trying to figure out why the Afghans kept running

548
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: out of gas. They were like, what is happening? They're like,

549
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: where are they driving? Because as far as they could tell,

550
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 1: the Afghans weren't going hundreds of miles and we were

551
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:11,239
Speaker 1: giving them the gas. Yeah, it turned out what they

552
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 1: figured out is they kept requisitioning all of our gas

553
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: because they were turning around and selling it on the

554
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: black market. They never drove the vehicles that we supplied them,

555
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 1: m wraps and humbies and all these other things one mile.

556
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: They never even drove it. They would just take the gas,

557
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: sell it on the black market back to Pakistan. And

558
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:33,840
Speaker 1: those commanders made millions of dollars. You take that and

559
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: you multiply it by a billion. That's what we did

560
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 1: in that Yeah, Nope, that's it. And if you don't

561
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:44,719
Speaker 1: think that, the Taliban also very skillfully used that manifest

562
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 1: corruption and evidence of abuse of the government that we

563
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: were propping up as a boy hand victory. They very

564
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: skillfully used that to you know, undermine support and understandably

565
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 1: so for ther upset of unsavory characters and warlords with

566
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:05,600
Speaker 1: you know, child sex, slaves and all of that who

567
00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: we were backing. So anyway, that is a piece of

568
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 1: the story of why the Taliban was able to come

569
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: back and become so strong, because they use the evidence,

570
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: very clear as day, evidence of all of this corruption

571
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 1: and all of this grift in their favor to say, hey,

572
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 1: look we're going to be different. We won't be like this,

573
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 1: We're going to clean things up right. And so for

574
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 1: some that was an appealing prospect because our own legitimacy

575
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: of the people that we were propping up was so

576
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 1: dramatically undermined. Hey, so remember how we told you how

577
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: awesome premium membership was. Well, here we are again to

578
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,280
Speaker 1: remind you that becoming a premium member means you don't

579
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:45,560
Speaker 1: have to listen to our constant please for you to subscribe.

580
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 1: So what are you waiting for? Become a premium member

581
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 1: today by going to Breakingpoints dot com, which you can

582
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 1: click on in the show notes. Speaking of legitimacy being

583
00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: undermined to extending, that's a good transition, Chris Clomo, You

584
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 1: will recall after everything broke with his brother and he

585
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 1: was forced to ultimately resign, Chris suddenly went on a

586
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 1: birthday vacation, so we didn't hear for a event for

587
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 1: a week. And actually, I have to say, the fact

588
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 1: that then Afghanistan collapsed and that was what he stepped

589
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: back into kind of pushed the spotlight off of him

590
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 1: and his brother. But we did not want to let

591
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 1: them off the hook here, so he did respond to

592
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 1: all of the events that have been unfolding in some

593
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: of the allegations against him directly on CNN this week.

594
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen to what Chris Cuomo had to say.

595
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 1: I've told you it's never easy being in this business

596
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: and coming from a political family, especially now. The situation

597
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: is unlike anything I could have imagined. And yet I

598
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:51,040
Speaker 1: know what matters at work and at home. Everyone knows

599
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 1: you support your family. I know and appreciate that you

600
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: get that. But you should also know I never covered

601
00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: my brother's troubles because I obviously have a conflict, and

602
00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 1: there are rules at CNN about that. I said last

603
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: year that his appearances on this show would be short lived,

604
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 1: and they were. The last was over a year ago,

605
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: long before any kind of scandal. I also said back

606
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: then that a day would come when he would have

607
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: to be held to account, and I can't do that.

608
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: I said, point blank, I can't be objective when it

609
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 1: comes to my family. So I never reported on the scandal,

610
00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 1: and when it happened, I tried to be there for

611
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,040
Speaker 1: my brother. I'm not an advisor, I'm a brother. I

612
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 1: wasn't in control of anything. I was there to listen

613
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: and offer my take. And my advice to my brother

614
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 1: was simple and consistent. Own what you did, tell people,

615
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 1: what you'll do to be better, be contrite, and finally,

616
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,400
Speaker 1: except that it doesn't matter what you intended. What matters

617
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:58,320
Speaker 1: is how your actions and words were perceived. And yes,

618
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,960
Speaker 1: while it was something I ever imagined ever having to do,

619
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 1: I did urge my brother to resign when the time came.

620
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,360
Speaker 1: There are stories and critics saying all kinds of things

621
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:14,879
Speaker 1: about me, many unsupported, but know this, my position has

622
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:19,960
Speaker 1: never changed. I never misled anyone about the information I

623
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,920
Speaker 1: was delivering or not delivering on this program. I never

624
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 1: attacked nor encouraged anyone to attack any woman who came forward.

625
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: I never made calls to depress about my brother's situation.

626
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: I never influenced or attempted to control CNN's coverage of

627
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:40,000
Speaker 1: my family. And as you know, back in May, when

628
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,720
Speaker 1: I was told to no longer communicate with my brother's

629
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 1: aides and any group meetings, I acknowledged it was a mistake.

630
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 1: I apologized to my colleagues and I stopped and I

631
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 1: meant it. Oh man, wow, I feel sorry for everybody

632
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:56,839
Speaker 1: that we had to play them there. There's so much

633
00:34:56,880 --> 00:34:58,800
Speaker 1: going on here. First of all, I want to tackle

634
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 1: I'm not an advisor, I'm a brother, Okay, And he says, oh,

635
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:06,560
Speaker 1: these are some of these allegations are unsupported. We have

636
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: the Attorney General report that includes an email that you

637
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 1: drafted for him, drafted a literal statement, drafted a statement

638
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: for your brother who you were clearly advising in a

639
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:25,400
Speaker 1: political sense, basically being unrepentant about, you know, the allegations

640
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:28,279
Speaker 1: that were coming out around sexual harassment and ultimately some

641
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 1: allegations also have sexual assault. So the idea and he

642
00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:33,839
Speaker 1: was on It wasn't like they were talking about it

643
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:38,279
Speaker 1: over Sunday dinner. He was on calls regularly and repeatedly.

644
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:39,919
Speaker 1: That's the other thing we got out of the AG

645
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 1: report with not just his brother, but his brother's campaign advisors,

646
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 1: with the lawyers, all of them part of a regular group,

647
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 1: like a round table of advisors as he was moving

648
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 1: through this crisis. So don't let him spin this nonsense

649
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 1: on you. The other thing that is always just so

650
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 1: incredibly disingenuous is he was to have his brother on

651
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: his show when the times were good, and then the

652
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,360
Speaker 1: minute the news turned negative, then suddenly so, oh, I

653
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: can't talk about my brother. Well, you could talk about

654
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:10,919
Speaker 1: him when the news was good. There was nothing wrong

655
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,000
Speaker 1: with doing that at the time in your view. So

656
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 1: you have to be completely consistent when you have a

657
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 1: conflict of interest. It's not hard to figure out what

658
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 1: to do your hands off. You're either completely hands on

659
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,919
Speaker 1: and you fully disclosed, or you're completely hands off. He

660
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 1: tried to play it both ways. And then the last

661
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:28,919
Speaker 1: one I have to say is this idea of well,

662
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,360
Speaker 1: I never put calls into the press. I never attempted

663
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 1: to influence CNN's coverage. You are CNN's coverage exactly the rate,

664
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: the highest rate of It's a low bar, highest rated

665
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 1: CNN primetime host. You don't think what happens on your

666
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:46,719
Speaker 1: hour effects CNN coverage. What a ridiculous thing to say.

667
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:49,240
Speaker 1: I think the second point you made was the most important,

668
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:51,880
Speaker 1: which is that, look, if they had a consistent standard,

669
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 1: if they had a consistent standard, that Chris Kuomo would

670
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 1: never interview his brother ever. Fine, Okay, so be it. Yeah.

671
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:00,720
Speaker 1: I actually would be like, actually, that's quite appropriate, family member.

672
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:02,959
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, look, no matter whether it's good

673
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 1: or bad, I ain't ever going to cover it. I

674
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,279
Speaker 1: think that is an entirely fair thing to say. But

675
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 1: whenever you have the good times and you're propping him

676
00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,360
Speaker 1: up and you're making jokes about mom, why don't you

677
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: call mom and your schnas and holding up the thing,

678
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:20,560
Speaker 1: you know, like we would clow did this fit into

679
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: your colossal joking around? And then all of a sudden,

680
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: when the times turn bad, you come out and you say, look,

681
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,359
Speaker 1: obviously I know what's going on. I can't cover it.

682
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:31,560
Speaker 1: Other people are going to cover it. That is the

683
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: most ludicrous suggestion that there is. And this is a

684
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: joke of a news organization, and really what it is

685
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:42,560
Speaker 1: is it's shameful and cowardly. He should stand up and

686
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 1: say I screwed up. I put this network in a

687
00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:50,960
Speaker 1: bad position when I did that, and now I apologize.

688
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: Jake Tapper, his own colleague, even called him out, saying

689
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,280
Speaker 1: that he had put us all in a bad position.

690
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,359
Speaker 1: I can't imagine how anyone would think that was appropriate, right,

691
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,640
Speaker 1: And then Ryan Stilter, though, the little janitor that he is,

692
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:06,120
Speaker 1: goes and he's like, wow, it's just so crazy. Who

693
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,440
Speaker 1: wouldn't know what to do? It's actually pretty simple, like

694
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,759
Speaker 1: there's been entanglements before, you just never had to do

695
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,680
Speaker 1: it in interest before. That's never happened. And the funny

696
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,280
Speaker 1: thing is, Crystal, this goes back years. It's not just CNN.

697
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 1: He interviewed Cuomo whenever he was at ABC. He has

698
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 1: had his brother on his network for years. He has

699
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: used his position in power in order to prop up

700
00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 1: the political career of his brother. He is a great

701
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 1: a liar. And really what they are banking on is Afghanistan.

702
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:35,799
Speaker 1: Sadly for everybody to just completely forget about it, So

703
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:38,799
Speaker 1: I don't think you should. I don't forget. Oh it'll work,

704
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,760
Speaker 1: it'll And also just think about the highly inconsistent standard

705
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 1: that CNN has applied. They fired Mark Lamont Hill oh

706
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 1: R Palestine, They fired Rick Santorum for some Look, there

707
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,680
Speaker 1: were gross comments in my comments. He made a speech

708
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:58,919
Speaker 1: about Native Americans, and this dude, he's not he's not fired,

709
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:01,879
Speaker 1: he's not even punished, not censored, take it off the air.

710
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,960
Speaker 1: He doesn't even have to apologize, nothing, nothing in the

711
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 1: way of any sort of punishment or accountability. Here. It

712
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:14,080
Speaker 1: just tells you, like what they're actually what their bottom

713
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:16,359
Speaker 1: line is, the bottom line like it's just naked, it's

714
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:20,359
Speaker 1: complete mask off. Cuomo gets their highest ratings, and so

715
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:22,320
Speaker 1: they're not gonna touch him. They're gonna let him do

716
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:25,200
Speaker 1: whatever he wants next time. You know, if his brother

717
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 1: makes a political comeback and he's back in the news,

718
00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 1: he's gonna do the same shit over here again. Clearly

719
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 1: he doesn't think anything he did well, whether or not

720
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:34,720
Speaker 1: he thinks it's wrong, is beside the point. He wouldn't

721
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: change a thing. That's what comes out of this little statement. Yeah. No,

722
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:40,880
Speaker 1: it shows that not only would they not change anything,

723
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:43,319
Speaker 1: that they would do it all over again, that they're

724
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 1: not sorry. But I think what worse is this They

725
00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:49,720
Speaker 1: think they know the CNN audience doesn't care. And actually

726
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 1: that's the part that makes me the most sad, which

727
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 1: is that there are so many millions of people who

728
00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 1: are just so bought into the tribal warfare and the

729
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:00,440
Speaker 1: partisanship on all of this that there will to just

730
00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 1: forgive what really should be the unforgivable, and they're not

731
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:06,440
Speaker 1: willing to hold the people that give them the news

732
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 1: to the standard that they should be, and that's actually

733
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 1: probably the saddest part of this whole thing. So he's

734
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 1: going to get away with it as long as he

735
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,920
Speaker 1: tows the line that the audience wants to hear, then

736
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:18,399
Speaker 1: I think you're going to be okay you about that? Yeah?

737
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 1: That make it really makes me sad and okay, Well,

738
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,360
Speaker 1: speaking of something where people should be asking a whole

739
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:26,759
Speaker 1: lot of questions. There's some pretty big news that has

740
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,440
Speaker 1: been coming out. We already brought you that the Biden

741
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:33,759
Speaker 1: administration is going to be recommending booster shots for all Americans.

742
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 1: But buried within that is some new data from the

743
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: CDC which is a pretty bombshell revelation which I think

744
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:43,080
Speaker 1: they're downplaying and don't necessarily want to talk about. So

745
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,359
Speaker 1: let's put this up there on the screen. So the

746
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:49,720
Speaker 1: CDC says that there are three studies on Wednesday, according

747
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:52,600
Speaker 1: to them, that provided evidence that booster shots would be

748
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 1: needed in the coming months predicated on the idea that

749
00:40:56,200 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 1: early data shows a suggesting arise and breakthrough infection and

750
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:04,879
Speaker 1: a smaller increase in hospitalizations amongst the variants amongst vaccinated

751
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 1: as delta variant spread in July citing a decline in

752
00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:13,680
Speaker 1: efficacy of the vaccine. Now, the certain decline in efficacy

753
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:18,839
Speaker 1: is disputed. Basically, Maderna and Pfizer were around ninety five

754
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:24,600
Speaker 1: percent quote unquote effective against hospitalization, death and infection whenever

755
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:28,919
Speaker 1: it came to regular COVID whatever was circulating several months ago.

756
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:33,919
Speaker 1: Now it's somewhere in the like seventy ish type percentile.

757
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:38,960
Speaker 1: Obviously the twenty the delta in between there that's thousands

758
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,760
Speaker 1: millions of people if they get infected, So it matters.

759
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of questions that surround this crystal,

760
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 1: which is that they have said they have no guidance

761
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:49,600
Speaker 1: currently on booster shots for people who have Johnson and Johnson.

762
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:53,240
Speaker 1: But get this, Johnson and Johnson was already only seventy

763
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:56,760
Speaker 1: something percent effective, So does that make it fifty percent?

764
00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 1: So wouldn't it make sense that they're the ones that

765
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: need booster shots? The whole thing just seems completely crazy

766
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:07,560
Speaker 1: to me. And what they're recommending as of yesterday is

767
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 1: booster shots for all Americans after eight months. Now, Okay, maybe,

768
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:16,959
Speaker 1: but I've got a lot of questions here because isn't

769
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 1: it the elderly, yeah, and the immuno compromise who probably

770
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,759
Speaker 1: need those booster shots, maybe even first. I don't know

771
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: if they can even get them. The guidance on this

772
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:28,600
Speaker 1: still remains clear. They said, oh, well, we still need

773
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,319
Speaker 1: the FDA. I think that the rollout of this has

774
00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: been a total and complete disaster. They're saying eight months.

775
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: They're not being clear with the American people about the

776
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:41,319
Speaker 1: actual efficacy of the vaccine. But more importantly, they are

777
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: not talking about the very basic fact that breakthrough infection

778
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:49,719
Speaker 1: is both continues to be on balance extraordinarily rare and

779
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:53,040
Speaker 1: b that if you're vaccinated, you are not going to

780
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:55,759
Speaker 1: die from COVID. So that's the part where it's just

781
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:59,400
Speaker 1: driving me crazy. That's the really, really key point. And

782
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 1: by the way, it's not just us who are raising

783
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:03,080
Speaker 1: these questions. There are a lot of experts who are saying,

784
00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:06,880
Speaker 1: maybe booster shots for the elderly people in nursing homes

785
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:11,319
Speaker 1: maybe people are immunoici compromise. The entire population the death

786
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 1: doesn't really support that this is necessary. Why while it

787
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:18,120
Speaker 1: is true that they are finding, at least in these

788
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:23,080
Speaker 1: few studies, that vaccine efficacy wanes over time in terms

789
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:27,600
Speaker 1: of breakthrough infections, However, the thing we really care about

790
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 1: severe illness and death, hospitalizations and death, there continues to

791
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:38,719
Speaker 1: be very strong efficacy with the vaccines. So, just to

792
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:40,839
Speaker 1: read this piece from the New York Times, this says,

793
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,520
Speaker 1: taken together, the studies show that although the vaccines remain

794
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 1: highly effective against hospitalization and deaths, the bulwark they provide

795
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 1: against infection with the virus has weakened in the past

796
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,399
Speaker 1: few months. So what does that mean. That means you're

797
00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: more likely to get a break through infection, but it's

798
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:01,040
Speaker 1: going to be relatively minor. Yeah, it's going to be

799
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:03,759
Speaker 1: like having a cold, having a minor flu, like gray

800
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 1: gabbitas no sympt of experiencing right now, that is the

801
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:10,120
Speaker 1: data that we have right now. Now. Look, if you

802
00:44:10,160 --> 00:44:13,399
Speaker 1: go up the sort of risk spectrum, if you're an

803
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 1: older person, if you have a lot of comorbidities, if

804
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:19,280
Speaker 1: you are immuno compromised, then it starts to make sense

805
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,600
Speaker 1: that you might be one of those rare people who

806
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 1: gets the breakthrough infection and ends up in a really

807
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:27,560
Speaker 1: dire place because of it, just because you don't have

808
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: that strong immune system be able to fight back. Then

809
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:33,320
Speaker 1: it starts to make more sense. But just a blanket

810
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: decision that everyone should get the booster shots writ large

811
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: without really explaining effectively the American people why again, I

812
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 1: think it, you know, I think it's it's a very

813
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 1: sketchy decision, I'll say. And I also think it does

814
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 1: fuel those people who have been saying, look, this is

815
00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 1: all just about the money. To start with. Pfizer was

816
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,719
Speaker 1: reportedly really pushing for this, and it looks like the

817
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 1: administration ultimately sided with visor. Donald Trump actually said that

818
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:06,760
Speaker 1: yesterday and Diddy, Yeah, and it underminds like these vaccine

819
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:09,279
Speaker 1: I just want you guys to know, these vaccines work

820
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 1: really well. Yes, there are breakthrough infections in rare cases,

821
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:17,840
Speaker 1: and that is apparently increasing over time as the vaccine

822
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:21,520
Speaker 1: efficacy on that particular front wanes. But in terms of

823
00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:25,839
Speaker 1: the critical pieces, the vaccines work really really well. So

824
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:27,799
Speaker 1: that's like the key point that people need to keep

825
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 1: in mind. Yeah, and that matters most for the elderly. Now, look,

826
00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 1: data out of Israel is pretty good. If you're elderly

827
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,480
Speaker 1: and you watch the show, I recommend that you get

828
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,760
Speaker 1: a booster shot. Eighty six percent effective in preventing infection

829
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,279
Speaker 1: amongst the elderly, according to the new Israeli data. That

830
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:45,680
Speaker 1: looks pretty good to me. But I can't tell you,

831
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: Crystal about how many people who are vaccine hesitant have

832
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:54,880
Speaker 1: been joking and creating memes around booster shots for months,

833
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 1: being like, oh when does it end? And look they're

834
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 1: not wrong. I mean when does it end? What does

835
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 1: it mean? How long does the efficacy last? Why are

836
00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 1: we focused purely on efficacy of breakthrough infection? Why are

837
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,439
Speaker 1: we not focused on the efficacy of hospitalization and debt,

838
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:14,879
Speaker 1: which right now are really good. The reason we have

839
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:18,480
Speaker 1: even slight higher hospitalization right now across the country is

840
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:21,960
Speaker 1: what reason? It's amongst people who aren't vaccinated and they

841
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 1: made their choice. That's on them. I don't think there's

842
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 1: anything like in terms of the public health discussion around

843
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 1: all of this. Really, what I see is it's going

844
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,160
Speaker 1: to be the same thing like with mass already. If

845
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 1: you're one of those people who's not gonna get vaccinated.

846
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:39,920
Speaker 1: Then the booster shot thing is just going to confirm

847
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 1: your priors. And if you're one of those people who

848
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 1: are vaccinated, you're like, oh my god, I gotta go

849
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: get my booster you know, have the date exactly eight

850
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,520
Speaker 1: months to the day you're gonna go. Those people were

851
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 1: all probably fine anyway, and the country's just gonna split apart.

852
00:46:52,680 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 1: I also have questions around the vaccine thing. First of all,

853
00:46:55,239 --> 00:46:57,600
Speaker 1: I got my vaccine card laminated, So now what does

854
00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:00,120
Speaker 1: that mean ours? Because somebody going to sign it not

855
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:02,040
Speaker 1: supposed to be that right. I didn't know, but it's

856
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:04,080
Speaker 1: because I went abroad and you can't take it out

857
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 1: and it was getting all ready. But the real thing is,

858
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:11,400
Speaker 1: how does this apply to the vaccine passports places like

859
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:14,000
Speaker 1: San Francisco where you're gonna need it, So you're gonna

860
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:15,960
Speaker 1: need a booster shot in order to go out and

861
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,839
Speaker 1: eat two shots? Enough? What about New York? Same thing?

862
00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:22,000
Speaker 1: I mean, this is where things get real dicey in

863
00:47:22,080 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 1: terms of what you're going to force people to do, whatnot,

864
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 1: what the metrics are, and the American people just want answers.

865
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:32,919
Speaker 1: Do we care about breakthrough infection? If we do make

866
00:47:32,960 --> 00:47:35,799
Speaker 1: the case. I haven't heard a good case yet. Why

867
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:38,920
Speaker 1: exactly we should care more about breakthrough infection when every

868
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 1: single American on the planet has the ability whenever they

869
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:45,239
Speaker 1: want to go and get protection from COVID from the

870
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 1: worst symptoms. You have to convince me firmly given the

871
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 1: fact that children by and large are not affected by

872
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,799
Speaker 1: this disease. Yes, I know they can get sick, but

873
00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 1: in terms of the children who have been killed by

874
00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:02,440
Speaker 1: this virus, vast majority of them have the most insane

875
00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: core comorbidities, right, like leukemia or lymphoma or something which

876
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:10,000
Speaker 1: I am so sorry, I don't even know what to say,

877
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:13,000
Speaker 1: but like, that doesn't mean you can shut down process society,

878
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:16,880
Speaker 1: and I would like them to prioritize approving a vaccine

879
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 1: for kids over you know, pushing booster shots on a

880
00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:22,759
Speaker 1: population that probably doesn't need it. I just want to

881
00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:25,960
Speaker 1: give you some numbers to underscore this again. This is

882
00:48:25,960 --> 00:48:31,160
Speaker 1: from an epidemiologist Ellie Murray at Boston University Ellie Murray.

883
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:34,880
Speaker 1: Doctor Murray says, together the new studies indicate overall vaccines

884
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 1: have an effectiveness of roughly fifty five percent against all infections,

885
00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:42,120
Speaker 1: eighty percent against symptomatic infection so that you even know

886
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:45,680
Speaker 1: you have it is eighty percent and ninety percent or

887
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 1: higher against hospitalization. That's really pretty good, that's what she says.

888
00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:53,799
Speaker 1: Those numbers are actually very good. The only group that

889
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:56,840
Speaker 1: these data would suggest boosters for me for to me

890
00:48:57,160 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 1: is the immunal compromised, possibly the elderly is well, So

891
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:06,359
Speaker 1: those are just the straight numbers. Still, these vaccines work

892
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:10,400
Speaker 1: extremely well when you're talking about hospitalization and death and

893
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:14,360
Speaker 1: even symptomatic infection at all. So that's kind of the

894
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:18,239
Speaker 1: bottom line with the boosters. Make your own decisions about it.

895
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 1: If you're a person who's in a higher risk category

896
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:22,480
Speaker 1: then certainly, or if you're a person I mean if

897
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:24,520
Speaker 1: it ultimately ends up being that like you can't go

898
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:26,560
Speaker 1: out to eat or can't enter your workplace if you

899
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:28,759
Speaker 1: don't get that third shot, then yeah, that puts a

900
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:30,479
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on people to get it as well.

901
00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:34,600
Speaker 1: But just I want people to understand first and foremost

902
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,520
Speaker 1: that these vaccines continue to work. They continue to work

903
00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 1: very well protecting against the most severe instances, and that's

904
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:43,440
Speaker 1: I think what we all will. I just wish that

905
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:46,839
Speaker 1: we would care about that. Let's protect the elderly, let's

906
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:50,919
Speaker 1: protect you know, the Immuno compromise for everybody else. Let's

907
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:54,360
Speaker 1: just live our lives. Been eighteen months now of this stuff,

908
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:57,880
Speaker 1: So there we go. Yeah, all right, we saved the

909
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:01,640
Speaker 1: best for last, which is the third worst takes that

910
00:50:01,719 --> 00:50:05,040
Speaker 1: we have been able to compile around Afghanistan. Now, I

911
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:09,320
Speaker 1: can tell you there were many submissions for this contest.

912
00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:13,120
Speaker 1: There are many, many contenders. We narrowed it down to

913
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:15,799
Speaker 1: the very best. I think the guy who does take

914
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:19,440
Speaker 1: the cake here is Stephen Colbert, both for abandoning the

915
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:22,799
Speaker 1: legacy of actually being funny once upon a time, but

916
00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: giving probably the worst take yet that we've heard on Afghanistan.

917
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 1: Let's take it away, mister Colbert. He's right. We've had

918
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:36,280
Speaker 1: troops there for twenty years. They fought, They sacrificed, their family,

919
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:39,480
Speaker 1: sacrificed so that we wouldn't have a terrorist attack in

920
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:44,320
Speaker 1: America planned in a foreign country. Why should our soldiers

921
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:47,200
Speaker 1: be fighting radicals in a civil war in Afghanistan. We've

922
00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:51,239
Speaker 1: got our own on Capitol Hill. Then Biden pointed out.

923
00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:00,439
Speaker 1: Then Biden pointed out, the US did everything we could

924
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:04,399
Speaker 1: for the Afghans. We gave them every tool they could need.

925
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:08,960
Speaker 1: We pay their salaries provided for the maintenance of their

926
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:13,080
Speaker 1: air force. We gave them every chance to determine their

927
00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:18,440
Speaker 1: own future. We could not provide them was the will

928
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 1: to fight for that future. Just a thought, maybe we

929
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:24,399
Speaker 1: should have checked with the Afghan Army if they had

930
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:27,080
Speaker 1: the will before we gave them the tools and the weapons,

931
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:29,880
Speaker 1: because now the Taliban has the will and the weapons,

932
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,240
Speaker 1: and the former Afghan Army soldiers are at home rubbing

933
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:35,440
Speaker 1: miracles grow on their face, trying to squeeze out a

934
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:40,920
Speaker 1: beard by dawn. In the end, Biden argued that whenever

935
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:44,400
Speaker 1: we pulled out, the Taliban would have taken over the

936
00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:49,400
Speaker 1: events re seed okay, Chris sol I mean the I

937
00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:51,800
Speaker 1: don't even know what to say in terms of because

938
00:51:51,800 --> 00:51:53,839
Speaker 1: it's the worst. The worst thing of all would be,

939
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:56,160
Speaker 1: let's bring our troops home so we can fight the

940
00:51:56,280 --> 00:52:00,839
Speaker 1: terrorists here. I'm like, oh my god, you're like you're

941
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:03,200
Speaker 1: almost making me be like, all right, keep them over there,

942
00:52:03,320 --> 00:52:06,319
Speaker 1: that's what you're going with them. Well, I saw a

943
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:10,040
Speaker 1: lot of this genre of quote unquote joke of like,

944
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:14,399
Speaker 1: really the Talibans like the right, or really the Talibans

945
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:16,960
Speaker 1: like the left, Antifa or whatever, Please don't do this.

946
00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:21,359
Speaker 1: Please just don't. It's not funny, it's not insightful, it's

947
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:24,720
Speaker 1: not true. It doesn't help anything but to make people

948
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:27,719
Speaker 1: like hate each other more. And yeah, just taking that

949
00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 1: at like face value, that what you really want is

950
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:32,080
Speaker 1: to bring the troops home so that they can wage

951
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:35,399
Speaker 1: war on our own citizenry. No, no, I don't think

952
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: that that's worse than the war in Afghanistan. And that's

953
00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:42,080
Speaker 1: actually yeah, I did. I did actually support his take

954
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:46,360
Speaker 1: though thereabout maybe I should have checked with them before

955
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 1: we gave them that they had the will, before we

956
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:51,319
Speaker 1: gave him the one good joke in there. He had

957
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:55,399
Speaker 1: one good joke followed up previously with a horrible joke,

958
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:57,319
Speaker 1: So there you go. Okay, the next one is very

959
00:52:57,320 --> 00:53:01,920
Speaker 1: good too, all right, So what we have is they CNN.

960
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:04,800
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, they have to give the people

961
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:11,320
Speaker 1: good information, unlike this channel here they're unable to bring you.

962
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:14,239
Speaker 1: You know, somebody like Craig Whitlock the Afghan papers, who

963
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:16,480
Speaker 1: actually knows what he's talking about, broke the story about

964
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:19,680
Speaker 1: all the lies being told. Instead, they turned to one

965
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:23,640
Speaker 1: of the chief liars themselves in order to explain what

966
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:27,880
Speaker 1: was going on. Not a joke, they invited John Bolton

967
00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:30,960
Speaker 1: on the air of CNN in order to break down

968
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:33,880
Speaker 1: the Afghan War for their viewers. Let's take a listen.

969
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:36,880
Speaker 1: First of all, in your view, was it a mistake

970
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:41,600
Speaker 1: how the US withdrew from Afghanistan or that it withdrew

971
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:45,120
Speaker 1: at all? Well, there are two mistakes at work here.

972
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:49,680
Speaker 1: The first is the strategic mistake of withdrawing, which Biden

973
00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:52,800
Speaker 1: made but which Trump fully supported. Had Trump been reelected,

974
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:55,080
Speaker 1: he'd be doing the same thing. On this question of

975
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:59,120
Speaker 1: withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump and Biden are like tweedlede and

976
00:53:59,160 --> 00:54:03,680
Speaker 1: tweedled dumb. The second question, though, is did the withdrawal

977
00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:06,840
Speaker 1: occur in the best possible way? And the answer to

978
00:54:06,880 --> 00:54:09,080
Speaker 1: that is no, It's been a catastrophe and I'm afraid

979
00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 1: it's only going to get worse. I think Biden does

980
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 1: bear a primary responsibility for that. Although you see now

981
00:54:15,680 --> 00:54:18,920
Speaker 1: fingers being pointed saying Trump didn't leave us with any plans.

982
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:21,000
Speaker 1: We'll have to see how that shakes out. There are

983
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:25,480
Speaker 1: two mistakes being made simultaneously right now, just amazing. I

984
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:29,080
Speaker 1: can't First of all, of course, he's doing tweedled tweedled dumb. Yeah,

985
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:31,600
Speaker 1: I am so glad that he was kicked out of

986
00:54:31,600 --> 00:54:33,680
Speaker 1: the White House. I mean, one of the best things

987
00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:37,200
Speaker 1: that Trump did was fire him whatever was hiring, right,

988
00:54:37,280 --> 00:54:40,920
Speaker 1: and then whenever he fired him because he was so

989
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:43,840
Speaker 1: upset that we were going to invite the Taliban to

990
00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 1: Camp David in order to have piece of talks. Probably

991
00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:47,960
Speaker 1: one of the best things that Trump even tried to

992
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:50,840
Speaker 1: do whenever he was president. Yes, just says everything you

993
00:54:50,880 --> 00:54:52,720
Speaker 1: need to know that these are the guys who get airtimes.

994
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:55,440
Speaker 1: First of all, let's just say no one should be

995
00:54:55,480 --> 00:54:58,560
Speaker 1: listening to a goddamn word of what John Bolton has

996
00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:02,080
Speaker 1: to say on anything, especially something like war on terror

997
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:04,080
Speaker 1: and Afghanistan. I don't want to hear from you. I

998
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:07,239
Speaker 1: don't want to hear from George W. Bush, who you know,

999
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:09,040
Speaker 1: put out his little statement. I don't want to hear

1000
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:11,880
Speaker 1: from Connolly's a Rice Wu published. Not that all like

1001
00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:17,080
Speaker 1: the idea that you would treat seriously what any of

1002
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:20,279
Speaker 1: these people have to say when we are watching the

1003
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:24,560
Speaker 1: fruits of their manifest incompetence and insanity is just like

1004
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:27,720
Speaker 1: I cannot wrap my mind around that. So that's number one.

1005
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:30,200
Speaker 1: Number two on the substance of what he actually says

1006
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:33,920
Speaker 1: It just brings back for me the way that so

1007
00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:37,280
Speaker 1: much of the media, and especially guys like John Boulten,

1008
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:41,160
Speaker 1: they would always criticize Trump for exactly the wrong thing, right,

1009
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:43,319
Speaker 1: Like they find like the one thing that he did

1010
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:45,600
Speaker 1: that I actually support, and they'd be like, this is

1011
00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:48,240
Speaker 1: why can you believe this guy wanting to have peace?

1012
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:51,799
Speaker 1: I'm out of here. So that's number one, Like that

1013
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:54,640
Speaker 1: was a consistent theme both with them and with the media.

1014
00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:57,600
Speaker 1: Number Two, I think the idea, and you've been making

1015
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:00,239
Speaker 1: this point that Trump would have actually followed through and

1016
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:04,320
Speaker 1: done the same thing as as Biden is highly highly dubious.

1017
00:56:04,600 --> 00:56:07,120
Speaker 1: So I think he's just wrong there in terms of

1018
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:10,240
Speaker 1: that the outcome is ultimately the same. But he would

1019
00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:13,680
Speaker 1: have supported, of course, the capitulation to the war machine

1020
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:16,239
Speaker 1: and endless wars and not having the courage to do

1021
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:19,000
Speaker 1: what Biden did ultimately stand out, stand up and get out.

1022
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:23,000
Speaker 1: So terrible to have him on, terrible commentary, wrong in

1023
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:25,920
Speaker 1: every single way. But those are the sorts of people

1024
00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:27,719
Speaker 1: that see in and make sure to make time for

1025
00:56:27,920 --> 00:56:31,680
Speaker 1: in their lineup to be bipartisan. Here we also had

1026
00:56:31,680 --> 00:56:34,279
Speaker 1: a bad take from one Senator Ted Cruz. We can

1027
00:56:34,320 --> 00:56:36,600
Speaker 1: throw this up on the screen. So we brought you

1028
00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 1: early in the earlier in the show, Clarissa Ward, who's

1029
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:42,840
Speaker 1: been a phenomenal voice on the ground, really just accurately

1030
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:44,960
Speaker 1: reporting what's going on, whether it's the chaos at the

1031
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:47,239
Speaker 1: airport or also being on the streets of kabble and

1032
00:56:47,280 --> 00:56:51,280
Speaker 1: showing people what's going on there. She said, in this piece,

1033
00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:54,719
Speaker 1: they're chanting about the Taliban. She's standing right there as

1034
00:56:54,760 --> 00:56:57,280
Speaker 1: Taliban is right behind her, and she says they're chanting

1035
00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:00,000
Speaker 1: death to America, but they seem friendly at the same time.

1036
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 1: It's really bizarre. Okay, she got dragged for this, and

1037
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:05,480
Speaker 1: of course Ted Cruz has to say, is there an

1038
00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:09,920
Speaker 1: enemy of America for whom CNN won't cheerlead in mandatory burkas? No?

1039
00:57:10,000 --> 00:57:11,800
Speaker 1: Less well, Listen, of course, if you're on the streets

1040
00:57:11,800 --> 00:57:14,320
Speaker 1: of kable reporting at this point and you're a woman,

1041
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:16,840
Speaker 1: you're gonna wear burka so that you don't have any

1042
00:57:16,920 --> 00:57:19,120
Speaker 1: trouble on the streets being able to go and do

1043
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 1: the reporting. I can assure you she probably doesn't want

1044
00:57:21,560 --> 00:57:23,120
Speaker 1: to wear it. I used to live in a Muslim

1045
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:25,439
Speaker 1: country and my female friends and more used to drive

1046
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:27,320
Speaker 1: them crazy, but they did it. Because they didn't want

1047
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:29,320
Speaker 1: to be harassed. Yeah, thank you, So okay, so there

1048
00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:32,440
Speaker 1: you go. Second of all, what she was saying was

1049
00:57:32,520 --> 00:57:36,360
Speaker 1: actually a very interesting insight that you have this bizarre

1050
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:41,480
Speaker 1: situation where it's the Taliban. They have this radical extremist ideology,

1051
00:57:41,760 --> 00:57:43,400
Speaker 1: but on the other hand, they're trying to put on

1052
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:46,440
Speaker 1: this charm offensive yes, to convince people like we're different

1053
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:51,200
Speaker 1: this time. So her report, just accurately explaining what's going

1054
00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:54,920
Speaker 1: on the ground here, provided a lot more useful information

1055
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:58,480
Speaker 1: than so much of the propaganda that we've seen out

1056
00:57:58,520 --> 00:58:00,640
Speaker 1: of the media at this point. Has been one of

1057
00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:03,520
Speaker 1: the best voices, I would say, and most accurate in

1058
00:58:03,600 --> 00:58:06,000
Speaker 1: terms of depicting what's actually happening right now. Once again,

1059
00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:08,440
Speaker 1: this is culture war just rotting their brains. These guys

1060
00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:10,520
Speaker 1: all stood tall. First of all, they just want to

1061
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:12,840
Speaker 1: dunk on c and look, I'm all for dunking on CNN,

1062
00:58:12,960 --> 00:58:14,560
Speaker 1: look at our own show, But you got to do

1063
00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:18,040
Speaker 1: it whenever it's appropriate. But this is the thing they've happened.

1064
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:23,360
Speaker 1: You don't have to create it. They but watching. More importantly,

1065
00:58:23,520 --> 00:58:26,320
Speaker 1: the same people who didn't give a damn whenever Trump

1066
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:29,360
Speaker 1: withdrew from Syria and left the Kurds because they were

1067
00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:31,720
Speaker 1: all like, this is a real commander, Like this is

1068
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:34,040
Speaker 1: what it looks like when you take strategic action and

1069
00:58:34,280 --> 00:58:37,920
Speaker 1: stick it to the military industrial complex. Bo I actually

1070
00:58:37,960 --> 00:58:40,320
Speaker 1: agreed with that at the time, But now all of

1071
00:58:40,360 --> 00:58:42,919
Speaker 1: a sudden they're like, oh, our allies, I just love

1072
00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:46,440
Speaker 1: too about how these same people are all like amateur

1073
00:58:46,520 --> 00:58:49,720
Speaker 1: logistics experts. Now right, They're like, oh, well, if we

1074
00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:51,880
Speaker 1: had gotten these I'm like, you don't give a damn.

1075
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:54,560
Speaker 1: You don't actually care. One hundred percent of Trump would

1076
00:58:54,560 --> 00:58:57,000
Speaker 1: have done this, You would have supported it three thousand percent.

1077
00:58:57,320 --> 00:59:00,040
Speaker 1: Only a few of them were actually consistent, people like

1078
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:02,800
Speaker 1: Ben Sass. The rest of them are just craven partisans.

1079
00:59:02,840 --> 00:59:05,880
Speaker 1: I'm not saying to respect Ben Sas, but is consistent

1080
00:59:05,960 --> 00:59:10,360
Speaker 1: right if you like warhawks were like Adam Kinzinger, I mean,

1081
00:59:10,480 --> 00:59:12,080
Speaker 1: the wrong take under Trump, but he has the wrong

1082
00:59:12,120 --> 00:59:14,240
Speaker 1: take now, but it's consistent wrong at least, just could

1083
00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:16,760
Speaker 1: I respect people who are principal these are just the

1084
00:59:16,880 --> 00:59:20,400
Speaker 1: craven partisanship. And then look to wrap it all full

1085
00:59:20,400 --> 00:59:23,640
Speaker 1: circle in terms of the American Taliban and all that.

1086
00:59:23,720 --> 00:59:26,320
Speaker 1: Michael Moore I reference this. He's been having some a

1087
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:28,600
Speaker 1: lot of terrible takes lately. This this is what I'm

1088
00:59:28,640 --> 00:59:32,080
Speaker 1: talking about. Their Taliban, our Taliban. Everybody's got to Taliban.

1089
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:34,360
Speaker 1: They're at their best when they confiscate the halls of power.

1090
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:37,520
Speaker 1: And he has a picture juxtaposing the Taliban taking over

1091
00:59:37,560 --> 00:59:42,240
Speaker 1: the Afghan Palace and these QAnon morons it's going into

1092
00:59:42,280 --> 00:59:45,440
Speaker 1: the capitals. Really been downhill ever since the q shaman

1093
00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:50,640
Speaker 1: control of Congress and named himself president and really grabbed

1094
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:52,600
Speaker 1: control of the levers of power. This is what I'm

1095
00:59:52,600 --> 00:59:56,760
Speaker 1: talking about. It's like, why why why? It's not funny

1096
00:59:56,800 --> 00:59:59,800
Speaker 1: and worse, what it is is just in's like in

1097
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:04,520
Speaker 1: asserting even more cultural partisan warfare into a thing where

1098
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:07,480
Speaker 1: we should try to do our best to say what

1099
01:00:07,640 --> 01:00:10,720
Speaker 1: is best for America, for the American citizens, for there,

1100
01:00:10,880 --> 01:00:13,600
Speaker 1: for the Afghan interpreters that helped us. If we focus

1101
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:15,280
Speaker 1: on those three things, we could get out of that

1102
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:18,880
Speaker 1: country in two weeks and actually settle on Okay, what

1103
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:21,520
Speaker 1: went wrong, what was good? How do we fix this

1104
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:23,800
Speaker 1: in the future. But instead it's just going to be

1105
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:28,560
Speaker 1: endless cultural bs. This reminds me of Benghazi, because I

1106
01:00:28,560 --> 01:00:32,320
Speaker 1: remember I was always so mystified. Yeah, I think Benghazi

1107
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:35,560
Speaker 1: was bad, but it's like the Republicans focused on the

1108
01:00:35,880 --> 01:00:38,240
Speaker 1: one thing like Benghazi and not the fact that we

1109
01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:42,520
Speaker 1: collapsed Libya. I always was like, what is going on here?

1110
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:45,000
Speaker 1: Like do we not see what the I mean, Look,

1111
01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:47,000
Speaker 1: I'm not saying, you know, I think it was tragedy

1112
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:49,720
Speaker 1: would happen to Benghazi, but like, I think Libya is

1113
01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:52,040
Speaker 1: a way bigger tragedy. And they were like, oh, you know,

1114
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:56,200
Speaker 1: everybody knew the minute timeline of the secretary Clinton called

1115
01:00:56,560 --> 01:00:58,920
Speaker 1: you know this and stand down and yeah. And I

1116
01:00:58,960 --> 01:01:00,960
Speaker 1: was like, oh, and what's happening and Libya? Now yeah,

1117
01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:03,520
Speaker 1: I was yeah exactly. I was like, you know, isis

1118
01:01:03,600 --> 01:01:06,800
Speaker 1: just took over Bengazi? That seems like way worse to me, right,

1119
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:09,160
Speaker 1: And they were like what, Look, they didn't even know

1120
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:12,800
Speaker 1: and focusing on these things, turning them into flashpoints, trying

1121
01:01:12,800 --> 01:01:15,600
Speaker 1: to gaslight the base, and it becomes an entire partisan

1122
01:01:15,640 --> 01:01:18,480
Speaker 1: thing where we're all just fighting about the withdrawal and

1123
01:01:18,560 --> 01:01:22,200
Speaker 1: instead or you know, trying to compare people to American

1124
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:24,400
Speaker 1: citizens instead of saying what the hell went wrong in

1125
01:01:24,400 --> 01:01:26,920
Speaker 1: this country over the last twenty years. I would love

1126
01:01:27,240 --> 01:01:30,640
Speaker 1: to see some sort of real introspection on that. What

1127
01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:32,200
Speaker 1: do we need to do to make sure that we

1128
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:36,440
Speaker 1: never do this again back here again, And all of

1129
01:01:36,480 --> 01:01:39,240
Speaker 1: these people on our list of infamy here are doing

1130
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:43,200
Speaker 1: their best to gaslight you that will ultimately lead us

1131
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:46,360
Speaker 1: back to exactly the same place, rather than being clear

1132
01:01:46,400 --> 01:01:49,000
Speaker 1: eyed about what actually happened and who was actually to blame.

1133
01:01:49,320 --> 01:01:52,080
Speaker 1: Because it's not the far left or the far right

1134
01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:55,240
Speaker 1: in terms of regular people who are to blame for this.

1135
01:01:55,480 --> 01:01:58,040
Speaker 1: It's the leadership class, it's the elites, it's the military

1136
01:01:58,040 --> 01:02:02,080
Speaker 1: industrial complex. That's where your eye needs to ultimately be aimed.

1137
01:02:02,120 --> 01:02:06,200
Speaker 1: That's where you're cutting biting jokes. Need to focus on

1138
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: where the blame actually lies. Because you know, there's a

1139
01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:13,360
Speaker 1: chance for this to be a bipartisan moment, because there

1140
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:17,560
Speaker 1: has been it over the years, bipartisan support for getting

1141
01:02:17,560 --> 01:02:19,760
Speaker 1: out of these wars. And sometimes the reasoning is a

1142
01:02:19,760 --> 01:02:22,880
Speaker 1: little bit different or the ideology or philosophy behind it,

1143
01:02:23,240 --> 01:02:27,920
Speaker 1: but there's been a real consistent disgust among bipartisan swaths

1144
01:02:27,960 --> 01:02:30,840
Speaker 1: of the American people at the way these elites lied

1145
01:02:30,880 --> 01:02:33,480
Speaker 1: to them, about the way that you know, working class

1146
01:02:33,520 --> 01:02:36,800
Speaker 1: people of all racist creeds and colors have been dragged

1147
01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:40,000
Speaker 1: into these wars and used as ponds used as cannon fodder,

1148
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:44,560
Speaker 1: and so that unifying conversation could be happening, but instead

1149
01:02:44,560 --> 01:02:46,600
Speaker 1: and a lot of I have one more entry for

1150
01:02:46,720 --> 01:02:49,720
Speaker 1: worse taking. It just happened this morning. Jonah Goldberg quote.

1151
01:02:49,760 --> 01:02:52,120
Speaker 1: I am really struggling to think of a time when

1152
01:02:52,120 --> 01:02:54,480
Speaker 1: I despaired more for the country and had so much

1153
01:02:54,520 --> 01:02:58,160
Speaker 1: contempt not just for both parties, but the basis of

1154
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:02,280
Speaker 1: both parties, as in contempt for the people who vote,

1155
01:03:02,560 --> 01:03:05,160
Speaker 1: contempt for the people who want to get out of Afghanistan.

1156
01:03:05,480 --> 01:03:07,760
Speaker 1: This is an all time good because what it really

1157
01:03:07,800 --> 01:03:11,480
Speaker 1: is is calling out the voters themselves for being misguided

1158
01:03:11,760 --> 01:03:14,640
Speaker 1: not listening to mister Goldberg. Yeah, the all knowing saint

1159
01:03:14,760 --> 01:03:17,720
Speaker 1: and God. Apparently what was that? There was that Atlantic

1160
01:03:17,760 --> 01:03:19,520
Speaker 1: Tom Nichols at the Yeah, are the same thing You're

1161
01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:22,760
Speaker 1: to blame is your fault, right because you didn't care. Actually,

1162
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:24,920
Speaker 1: we cared, and we cared enough to vote in order

1163
01:03:24,960 --> 01:03:27,280
Speaker 1: to make sure that people like you weren't in charge anymore. Yep,

1164
01:03:27,360 --> 01:03:30,800
Speaker 1: So exactly right. Wow, you guys must really like listening

1165
01:03:30,800 --> 01:03:32,840
Speaker 1: to our voices. Well, I know this is annoying. Instead

1166
01:03:32,840 --> 01:03:35,560
Speaker 1: of making you listen to a Viagra commercial when you're done.

1167
01:03:35,720 --> 01:03:38,120
Speaker 1: Check out the other podcast I do with Marshall Kasoff

1168
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:40,440
Speaker 1: called The Realignment. We talk a lot about the deeper

1169
01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:43,840
Speaker 1: issues that are changing realigning in American society. You always

1170
01:03:43,920 --> 01:03:47,920
Speaker 1: need more Crystal and Sager in your daily lives. Take care, guys, Sager,

1171
01:03:48,000 --> 01:03:50,200
Speaker 1: what are you looking at? There's a lot of partisan

1172
01:03:50,240 --> 01:03:53,240
Speaker 1: hay being made on Afghanistan today. Everybody, it seems as

1173
01:03:53,280 --> 01:03:56,480
Speaker 1: turned into an amateur logistics expert saying how they exactly

1174
01:03:56,520 --> 01:04:00,200
Speaker 1: would have conducted a proper withdrawal. Many find themselves in

1175
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:03,040
Speaker 1: the camp of I wanted to leave, but not like this.

1176
01:04:03,560 --> 01:04:05,840
Speaker 1: I would say to that group, I sympathize with you.

1177
01:04:06,160 --> 01:04:08,640
Speaker 1: I'm one of you in spirit. But after long and

1178
01:04:08,720 --> 01:04:12,360
Speaker 1: careful consideration, I have resigned myself to the fact that

1179
01:04:12,440 --> 01:04:15,920
Speaker 1: the situation today as it stands, may well be the

1180
01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:19,600
Speaker 1: best worst option that we had to conclude this hellish war.

1181
01:04:20,120 --> 01:04:22,160
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you how I got here. Let's start

1182
01:04:22,200 --> 01:04:24,600
Speaker 1: from the very beginning. It may seem like a lifetime ago.

1183
01:04:25,040 --> 01:04:27,000
Speaker 1: Right around the time we were dealing with the first

1184
01:04:27,080 --> 01:04:30,360
Speaker 1: cases of COVID, the United States and the Taliban signed

1185
01:04:30,360 --> 01:04:33,800
Speaker 1: an agreement on February twenty ninth, twenty twenty to end

1186
01:04:33,920 --> 01:04:36,880
Speaker 1: the war in Afghanistan. The terms of the deal were

1187
01:04:36,920 --> 01:04:40,560
Speaker 1: as follows. Within fourteen months of signing the agreement May one,

1188
01:04:40,720 --> 01:04:44,560
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, the United States and NATO would withdraw troops.

1189
01:04:44,840 --> 01:04:48,400
Speaker 1: In return, the Taliban pledged to prevent any group of

1190
01:04:48,440 --> 01:04:52,080
Speaker 1: individuals from using Afghan soil to threaten the United States,

1191
01:04:52,240 --> 01:04:55,040
Speaker 1: to sever its ties with al Qaeda, and included a

1192
01:04:55,080 --> 01:04:58,920
Speaker 1: prisoner swap. It set the stage for negotiations between the

1193
01:04:58,960 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 1: Afghan government, which we backed, and the Taliban to come

1194
01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:07,400
Speaker 1: to some sort of negotiated solution. Now, I can't go

1195
01:05:07,440 --> 01:05:10,240
Speaker 1: into a lot of detail around the signing of that date.

1196
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:13,440
Speaker 1: I was invited to a meeting at the State Department

1197
01:05:13,640 --> 01:05:16,240
Speaker 1: with some of the people who signed this deal. Now

1198
01:05:16,280 --> 01:05:19,120
Speaker 1: with me so far, here's where things get very messy.

1199
01:05:19,560 --> 01:05:23,600
Speaker 1: COVID happens. A month later. The whole world is on lockdown,

1200
01:05:23,840 --> 01:05:27,320
Speaker 1: but in Kabble there is major trouble brewing. The trouble

1201
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:30,960
Speaker 1: being that the Afghan government that we back doesn't want

1202
01:05:31,000 --> 01:05:33,920
Speaker 1: to negotiate with the Taliban. I pose this question to

1203
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:37,040
Speaker 1: the negotiators. They didn't have an answer. They wanted to

1204
01:05:37,120 --> 01:05:39,480
Speaker 1: keep all the spoils for themselves. In terms of the

1205
01:05:39,520 --> 01:05:43,040
Speaker 1: Afghan government because they know that if we leave, their

1206
01:05:43,080 --> 01:05:46,400
Speaker 1: gravy train is over. Obviously, then we had an election.

1207
01:05:46,560 --> 01:05:49,560
Speaker 1: Joe Biden won the presidency, but critically, while Trump was

1208
01:05:49,560 --> 01:05:53,000
Speaker 1: in office, he desperately wanted to get out of Afghanistan too,

1209
01:05:53,400 --> 01:05:56,640
Speaker 1: so he reduced the number of American forces down to

1210
01:05:56,720 --> 01:05:59,480
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred troops. Now remember that number because it's

1211
01:05:59,480 --> 01:06:02,600
Speaker 1: actually very That is the floor on which the Biden

1212
01:06:02,600 --> 01:06:06,200
Speaker 1: administration is going to inherit. Biden comes into office, he

1213
01:06:06,240 --> 01:06:09,960
Speaker 1: announces a review in his first few months. On April thirteenth,

1214
01:06:10,000 --> 01:06:13,760
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, Biden announces all US forces will withdraw from

1215
01:06:13,800 --> 01:06:17,280
Speaker 1: Afghanistan on nine to eleven, twenty twenty one. As part

1216
01:06:17,320 --> 01:06:19,920
Speaker 1: of that draw down, Biden says he will continue to

1217
01:06:20,040 --> 01:06:23,680
Speaker 1: pressure a peace process between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

1218
01:06:23,920 --> 01:06:26,640
Speaker 1: The interim months there are critical to understand how we

1219
01:06:26,680 --> 01:06:30,040
Speaker 1: got here, because Ashraf Ghani, the guy we back to

1220
01:06:30,080 --> 01:06:32,480
Speaker 1: fled a few days ago with a big cash in

1221
01:06:32,480 --> 01:06:37,120
Speaker 1: that process. He basically refused to have any real peace

1222
01:06:37,160 --> 01:06:40,280
Speaker 1: process with the Taliban. He wanted to hang on to

1223
01:06:40,360 --> 01:06:43,600
Speaker 1: the presidency in any sort of deal with them. They

1224
01:06:43,640 --> 01:06:47,320
Speaker 1: said no. The Taliban then had the upper military hand.

1225
01:06:47,360 --> 01:06:51,200
Speaker 1: They refused this deal. This is critical too. It shows

1226
01:06:51,320 --> 01:06:55,040
Speaker 1: our political partner in the country was himself rejecting a

1227
01:06:55,120 --> 01:06:59,360
Speaker 1: core tenant of the peace process which we initiated. Furthermore,

1228
01:06:59,640 --> 01:07:02,080
Speaker 1: during the time that we only have twenty five hundred

1229
01:07:02,080 --> 01:07:04,360
Speaker 1: troops in country, which was the level set by the

1230
01:07:04,360 --> 01:07:07,760
Speaker 1: Trump administration, that we have a plan for withdrawal. It

1231
01:07:07,840 --> 01:07:12,040
Speaker 1: is hinged on two things. Number One, no withdrawal of

1232
01:07:12,080 --> 01:07:15,600
Speaker 1: our citizens and translators is possible at that troop level

1233
01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:20,720
Speaker 1: without the cooperation of the Afghan national security forces. Two,

1234
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:25,480
Speaker 1: we were relying on a political partner in Afghanistan to

1235
01:07:25,680 --> 01:07:30,320
Speaker 1: set the conditions for peace by themselves recognizing reality and

1236
01:07:30,440 --> 01:07:35,120
Speaker 1: negotiating with the Taliban. Those two critical assumptions and reliances

1237
01:07:35,240 --> 01:07:38,200
Speaker 1: are where things fell apart. So it's important to understand

1238
01:07:38,280 --> 01:07:41,160
Speaker 1: that from here, this is where things become a mess.

1239
01:07:41,440 --> 01:07:45,360
Speaker 1: While Gani dithered, the US continued a pretty slow withdrawal

1240
01:07:45,600 --> 01:07:49,240
Speaker 1: predicated on the belief that the Afghan forces would actually,

1241
01:07:49,360 --> 01:07:52,120
Speaker 1: you know, fight the Taliban and would stuck to the

1242
01:07:52,200 --> 01:07:55,640
Speaker 1: letter of their deal. Now, on May first, twenty twenty,

1243
01:07:55,760 --> 01:07:58,720
Speaker 1: the Taliban controlled about nineteen percent of the country. Now

1244
01:07:58,760 --> 01:08:01,160
Speaker 1: beginning On May first, which is when our peace deal

1245
01:08:01,160 --> 01:08:04,680
Speaker 1: officially expired, they launched an offensive that swept across the

1246
01:08:04,720 --> 01:08:08,120
Speaker 1: rural parts of that country. Nearly one third of thirty

1247
01:08:08,120 --> 01:08:10,520
Speaker 1: percent of the control of the country was under Theirs

1248
01:08:10,640 --> 01:08:14,080
Speaker 1: by mid June. A month later, they controlled half the country.

1249
01:08:14,240 --> 01:08:17,000
Speaker 1: Then in early August the world woke up. Taliban took

1250
01:08:17,000 --> 01:08:20,559
Speaker 1: their first provincial capital from there, Kandahar Herat in the west,

1251
01:08:20,720 --> 01:08:24,360
Speaker 1: finally capturing Mazara Sharif A few days later, they're in Kabal.

1252
01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:26,720
Speaker 1: That's where we are today. I took you through this

1253
01:08:26,760 --> 01:08:29,559
Speaker 1: timeline because I think it's important to see how things

1254
01:08:29,800 --> 01:08:32,839
Speaker 1: where we are right now, which is this horrible situation.

1255
01:08:33,320 --> 01:08:36,280
Speaker 1: We have five to ten thousand citizens in Afghanistan that

1256
01:08:36,320 --> 01:08:39,479
Speaker 1: we need to evacuate. Obviously a lot of supplies, the

1257
01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:43,120
Speaker 1: government collapsed. Many are saying, how did we not plan better?

1258
01:08:43,479 --> 01:08:46,439
Speaker 1: I agree with every single one of those criticisms, and

1259
01:08:46,479 --> 01:08:50,559
Speaker 1: I think the situation is dire. But consider here, given

1260
01:08:50,600 --> 01:08:52,960
Speaker 1: the fact that we had a negotiating partner in the

1261
01:08:52,960 --> 01:08:56,360
Speaker 1: Afghan government which refused to act in good faith and

1262
01:08:56,560 --> 01:08:58,960
Speaker 1: was just trying to grab the spoils on the way out.

1263
01:08:59,160 --> 01:09:01,800
Speaker 1: Given the fact that the Afghan army melted away within

1264
01:09:01,920 --> 01:09:05,439
Speaker 1: three weeks. Who are the ones themselves that left behind

1265
01:09:05,520 --> 01:09:08,400
Speaker 1: or sold equipment to the Taliban? Given that we only

1266
01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:12,479
Speaker 1: had twenty five hundred troops in country, was a better

1267
01:09:12,760 --> 01:09:17,400
Speaker 1: withdrawal possible, I will say maybe yes, but maybe only

1268
01:09:17,439 --> 01:09:20,599
Speaker 1: on the margins. To accomplish the perfect exit, we would

1269
01:09:20,640 --> 01:09:22,920
Speaker 1: have had to do a number of the following. Number

1270
01:09:22,920 --> 01:09:25,960
Speaker 1: one to dramatically increase the number of US troops in

1271
01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:28,720
Speaker 1: country and send them to the frontline in Kabble to

1272
01:09:28,800 --> 01:09:32,639
Speaker 1: protect the city. Number two, as the Afghan army melted away,

1273
01:09:32,920 --> 01:09:35,880
Speaker 1: it would have required direct assistance by the United States

1274
01:09:36,000 --> 01:09:39,240
Speaker 1: via air power to keep the Taliban back from Kabble.

1275
01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:42,320
Speaker 1: That would have meant we violated the peace term, and

1276
01:09:42,360 --> 01:09:45,519
Speaker 1: it would we are back at war with the Taliban

1277
01:09:45,960 --> 01:09:49,519
Speaker 1: once again. This would have required thousands more troops to

1278
01:09:49,600 --> 01:09:53,320
Speaker 1: assist in combat operations. It would have put hundreds of

1279
01:09:53,360 --> 01:09:56,439
Speaker 1: American lives at risk. Worse, it would have meant we

1280
01:09:56,479 --> 01:09:59,919
Speaker 1: were directly inserting ourselves into the middle of the Afghan

1281
01:10:00,080 --> 01:10:05,240
Speaker 1: civil war. Can anyone confidently tell me that, after resurging troops,

1282
01:10:05,439 --> 01:10:09,320
Speaker 1: after inserting ourselves in that battle, getting engaged, that we

1283
01:10:09,520 --> 01:10:12,160
Speaker 1: really only would have stayed to get our people out

1284
01:10:12,200 --> 01:10:15,400
Speaker 1: and then left. By that time, US troops are dead,

1285
01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:18,719
Speaker 1: We're involved. Now the Afghan Army is going to say, really,

1286
01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:20,840
Speaker 1: we just fought so you could get your people out. No,

1287
01:10:21,360 --> 01:10:24,000
Speaker 1: you have to stand and fight. The generals, the media,

1288
01:10:24,080 --> 01:10:26,639
Speaker 1: they would have brought all the pressure to bear about

1289
01:10:26,680 --> 01:10:30,759
Speaker 1: abandoning the fight, and then voila, you just bought yourself

1290
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:35,480
Speaker 1: another year in Afghanistan. I, along with you, am disgusted

1291
01:10:35,520 --> 01:10:38,120
Speaker 1: by the images of the Kabl Airport, of the men

1292
01:10:38,160 --> 01:10:41,240
Speaker 1: who spilled American blood holding the arms that we gave

1293
01:10:41,320 --> 01:10:43,719
Speaker 1: to the Afghan Army, and I pray for the safe

1294
01:10:43,720 --> 01:10:46,920
Speaker 1: return of every US citizen there, every Afghan who stood

1295
01:10:46,920 --> 01:10:49,280
Speaker 1: with us on a front line. But given the facts

1296
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:51,360
Speaker 1: of the situation that I best know and have laid

1297
01:10:51,400 --> 01:10:53,400
Speaker 1: out for you, I think this is as good as

1298
01:10:53,400 --> 01:10:56,120
Speaker 1: it probably was ever going to get. The alternative is

1299
01:10:56,200 --> 01:11:00,640
Speaker 1: far worse, more war, more dead boys, more dead end Afghans,

1300
01:11:00,760 --> 01:11:04,599
Speaker 1: and worse forever war. So there you have it. That's

1301
01:11:04,640 --> 01:11:07,200
Speaker 1: why I think what I think. You're welcome to disagree,

1302
01:11:07,320 --> 01:11:09,760
Speaker 1: but I urge you to stay away from hyperbole and

1303
01:11:09,840 --> 01:11:11,640
Speaker 1: to do with so many in the media and in

1304
01:11:11,720 --> 01:11:15,439
Speaker 1: the Pentagon fail to consider for twenty years, what are

1305
01:11:15,520 --> 01:11:19,920
Speaker 1: the downsides to my actions in war? The United States

1306
01:11:19,920 --> 01:11:22,960
Speaker 1: has forgotten for far too long. The enemy gets a

1307
01:11:23,040 --> 01:11:25,560
Speaker 1: vote to So that's the thing, Crystal. I wanted to

1308
01:11:25,560 --> 01:11:28,799
Speaker 1: take people through the timeline. Yeah, one more thing, I promise.

1309
01:11:29,160 --> 01:11:31,360
Speaker 1: Just wanted to make sure you knew about my podcast

1310
01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:34,200
Speaker 1: with Kyle Kolinski. It's called Crystal, Kyle and Friends, where

1311
01:11:34,200 --> 01:11:36,960
Speaker 1: we do long form interviews with people like Nom Chomsky,

1312
01:11:37,080 --> 01:11:40,360
Speaker 1: Cornell West, and Glenn Greenwald. You can listen on any

1313
01:11:40,400 --> 01:11:43,800
Speaker 1: podcast platform, or you can subscribe over on substack to

1314
01:11:43,800 --> 01:11:45,800
Speaker 1: get the video a day early. We're going to stop

1315
01:11:45,840 --> 01:11:48,519
Speaker 1: bugging you now, enjoy Crystal. What are you taking a

1316
01:11:48,520 --> 01:11:51,719
Speaker 1: look at today? Well, one thing has become abundantly clear

1317
01:11:51,760 --> 01:11:55,200
Speaker 1: this week. The deep state has declared all out war

1318
01:11:55,320 --> 01:11:58,959
Speaker 1: on President Joe Biden. The leaks are coming fast and furious.

1319
01:11:59,080 --> 01:12:02,360
Speaker 1: The media spin and propaganda is loud. It is unified

1320
01:12:02,360 --> 01:12:05,080
Speaker 1: and full throated. And by the way, the stakes are

1321
01:12:05,080 --> 01:12:07,960
Speaker 1: really quite high here. So just take a look at

1322
01:12:07,960 --> 01:12:10,720
Speaker 1: this article as one example of the type of propaganda

1323
01:12:10,760 --> 01:12:13,000
Speaker 1: and leaks and spin that we're getting from The New

1324
01:12:13,080 --> 01:12:17,720
Speaker 1: York Times. Intelligence warned of Afghan military collapse despite Biden's

1325
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:20,960
Speaker 1: assurances in it. The stenographers in The New York Times

1326
01:12:21,080 --> 01:12:24,080
Speaker 1: right that, according to current and former government officials, our

1327
01:12:24,160 --> 01:12:27,840
Speaker 1: sage intelligence community warned Biden that Kabble could fall quickly

1328
01:12:27,920 --> 01:12:31,400
Speaker 1: to the Taliban, but he just wouldn't listen, pushing ahead

1329
01:12:31,439 --> 01:12:34,120
Speaker 1: with his plan in spite of their wise guidance that

1330
01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:37,639
Speaker 1: he should delay our troop withdrawal, yet again ignoring their

1331
01:12:37,640 --> 01:12:41,200
Speaker 1: assessments to intentionally mislead the American people that the Afghan

1332
01:12:41,360 --> 01:12:44,360
Speaker 1: army was in fact strong. Now, look, there are a

1333
01:12:44,400 --> 01:12:48,240
Speaker 1: couple possibilities for what actually happened here. One is that

1334
01:12:48,360 --> 01:12:52,479
Speaker 1: the intelligence agencies completely failed, that they gave Biden really

1335
01:12:52,520 --> 01:12:55,639
Speaker 1: bad information from extremely flawed assessments, and that they are

1336
01:12:55,640 --> 01:12:58,400
Speaker 1: now just flat out lying to the press. It's obvious

1337
01:12:58,439 --> 01:13:00,400
Speaker 1: to see how they would benefit from such a self

1338
01:13:00,400 --> 01:13:02,960
Speaker 1: serving lie. We tried to warn him there, trying to

1339
01:13:02,960 --> 01:13:07,000
Speaker 1: convince them. In fact, apparently the CIA director was on

1340
01:13:07,040 --> 01:13:10,200
Speaker 1: a big six day Middle East swing when Cobble fell,

1341
01:13:10,280 --> 01:13:13,000
Speaker 1: which would seem to suggest they did not in fact

1342
01:13:13,040 --> 01:13:17,840
Speaker 1: think that Afghanistan was hours away from collapse. Another possibility

1343
01:13:17,880 --> 01:13:20,040
Speaker 1: not contemplated by The New York Times or the many

1344
01:13:20,080 --> 01:13:22,680
Speaker 1: other outlets running their own version of this siop is

1345
01:13:22,680 --> 01:13:25,760
Speaker 1: that the intelligence community did in fact give Biden increasingly

1346
01:13:25,800 --> 01:13:29,000
Speaker 1: dire assessments, but he didn't believe him because they've literally

1347
01:13:29,040 --> 01:13:32,400
Speaker 1: been lying NonStop about Afghanistan for the entire duration of

1348
01:13:32,439 --> 01:13:34,920
Speaker 1: the war. They lied to Barack Obama to get him

1349
01:13:34,960 --> 01:13:36,840
Speaker 1: to do the surge, then they lied that the search

1350
01:13:37,000 --> 01:13:38,800
Speaker 1: was working, then they lied to Trump to get him

1351
01:13:38,840 --> 01:13:41,120
Speaker 1: to do another surge. Biden has been around not just

1352
01:13:41,120 --> 01:13:43,360
Speaker 1: to watch the lies on Afghanistan, but also the lies

1353
01:13:43,400 --> 01:13:45,120
Speaker 1: on a rock and the lies on a million Cold

1354
01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:47,400
Speaker 1: War adventures, and at the start of his career force

1355
01:13:47,520 --> 01:13:49,960
Speaker 1: the lies on Vietnam. So if they came to him

1356
01:13:50,000 --> 01:13:51,760
Speaker 1: this time and said, hey, you got to push off

1357
01:13:51,760 --> 01:13:54,320
Speaker 1: this Withdrawala again and we probably need another troop surch

1358
01:13:54,400 --> 01:13:57,479
Speaker 1: to hold back the Taliban, he was one hundred percent

1359
01:13:57,600 --> 01:14:01,200
Speaker 1: correct to say screw you. And it was completely understandable

1360
01:14:01,200 --> 01:14:04,080
Speaker 1: that he would assume they were overstating their dire estimates

1361
01:14:04,120 --> 01:14:06,400
Speaker 1: in an attempt to manipulate him the way that they

1362
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:10,000
Speaker 1: always manipulate the commander in chief. And here is another

1363
01:14:10,080 --> 01:14:12,840
Speaker 1: example of this genre of propaganda, but with this one

1364
01:14:12,880 --> 01:14:15,080
Speaker 1: with a little more bite to it. It suggests that

1365
01:14:15,120 --> 01:14:18,559
Speaker 1: Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal was a failure because his staff is

1366
01:14:18,600 --> 01:14:22,120
Speaker 1: too heavy on think tankers and too light on field experience,

1367
01:14:22,720 --> 01:14:26,280
Speaker 1: as if the generals with the field experience weren't exactly

1368
01:14:26,320 --> 01:14:28,800
Speaker 1: the same people who lied to us and helped keep

1369
01:14:28,880 --> 01:14:32,720
Speaker 1: us there for years and years, or who told soldiers

1370
01:14:32,760 --> 01:14:36,400
Speaker 1: to look the other way when our Afghan allies kept

1371
01:14:36,520 --> 01:14:41,040
Speaker 1: child sex slaves. Thank god Biden used his own brain

1372
01:14:41,240 --> 01:14:45,000
Speaker 1: and his own moral compass rather than relying on these people.

1373
01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:48,320
Speaker 1: Here's another direction that the media is trying out, rekindling

1374
01:14:48,360 --> 01:14:51,759
Speaker 1: that old fear of al Qaeda and Islamic terror quote.

1375
01:14:51,880 --> 01:14:54,519
Speaker 1: America's top general said Sunday that the United States could

1376
01:14:54,560 --> 01:14:57,439
Speaker 1: now face a rise in terrorist threats from a Taliban

1377
01:14:57,600 --> 01:15:00,760
Speaker 1: band run Afghanistan. General Mark Mill, the chairman of the

1378
01:15:00,840 --> 01:15:02,840
Speaker 1: Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on a brief and

1379
01:15:02,880 --> 01:15:05,760
Speaker 1: call Sunday that US officials are expected to alter their

1380
01:15:05,760 --> 01:15:10,160
Speaker 1: earlier assessments about the pace of terrorist groups reconstituting in Afghanistan.

1381
01:15:10,200 --> 01:15:13,719
Speaker 1: A person familiar with the matter told VAP, this, of course,

1382
01:15:13,760 --> 01:15:16,280
Speaker 1: has been the tried and true method for getting Americans

1383
01:15:16,320 --> 01:15:20,200
Speaker 1: to accept mass surveillance and disastrous imperial adventures for more

1384
01:15:20,240 --> 01:15:23,320
Speaker 1: than two decades now, the media is only too happy

1385
01:15:23,479 --> 01:15:27,000
Speaker 1: to reprint lies in propaganda or to apply their selective

1386
01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:30,840
Speaker 1: outrage in ways that benefit the pro war establishment. As

1387
01:15:30,840 --> 01:15:35,400
Speaker 1: Glenn Greenwald points out regarding that carefully selected outrage, of course,

1388
01:15:35,720 --> 01:15:38,080
Speaker 1: the images from Kable in the wake of US withdrawal

1389
01:15:38,120 --> 01:15:41,599
Speaker 1: are harrowing to any decent person. The twenty year US

1390
01:15:41,680 --> 01:15:45,479
Speaker 1: war itself created massive amounts of suffering and death as well,

1391
01:15:45,760 --> 01:15:48,759
Speaker 1: but the images of that remain mostly hidden, and thus

1392
01:15:48,880 --> 01:15:52,240
Speaker 1: they never produce the same reaction. They also don't even

1393
01:15:52,280 --> 01:15:55,240
Speaker 1: try to hide their pro war bias with the parade

1394
01:15:55,280 --> 01:15:58,400
Speaker 1: of criminals and war profiteers that they trod down as experts,

1395
01:15:58,680 --> 01:16:01,719
Speaker 1: when in any sane war, these people should be banished

1396
01:16:01,760 --> 01:16:05,320
Speaker 1: from polite society, never to be heard from again. At

1397
01:16:05,360 --> 01:16:10,559
Speaker 1: the very very least, why would anyone listen to a

1398
01:16:10,720 --> 01:16:13,479
Speaker 1: word on foreign policy, and especially on the War on

1399
01:16:13,600 --> 01:16:18,160
Speaker 1: Terror from John Bolton or Judith Miller or Paul Wolfowitz

1400
01:16:18,400 --> 01:16:21,680
Speaker 1: or Condoleeza Rice. They've been elevating these people. It is

1401
01:16:21,800 --> 01:16:26,840
Speaker 1: sheer madness that the revelation that Afghanistan was even more

1402
01:16:26,960 --> 01:16:29,960
Speaker 1: of a catastrophe than anyone could have imagined would lead

1403
01:16:30,000 --> 01:16:33,000
Speaker 1: to our top news outlet saying, hey, let's bring on

1404
01:16:33,040 --> 01:16:35,400
Speaker 1: the old crew who lied us into all of this,

1405
01:16:35,760 --> 01:16:39,760
Speaker 1: and then unironically ask them for their advice for more

1406
01:16:39,760 --> 01:16:41,720
Speaker 1: on how to deal with rising inequality. Let's bring in

1407
01:16:41,760 --> 01:16:44,080
Speaker 1: Jeff Bezos and the monopoly guy with the top hat.

1408
01:16:44,200 --> 01:16:48,520
Speaker 1: That's like what they're doing here. It's all unbelievably shameless.

1409
01:16:48,680 --> 01:16:50,799
Speaker 1: But there's a very simple reason that they are spinning

1410
01:16:50,880 --> 01:16:53,719
Speaker 1: so hard on this. The stakes, as I said earlier,

1411
01:16:53,800 --> 01:16:56,800
Speaker 1: are quite high. As shant miss Robian points out, there

1412
01:16:56,880 --> 01:16:59,400
Speaker 1: is no one who is more vindicated by the events

1413
01:16:59,479 --> 01:17:02,519
Speaker 1: unfolding in Afghanistan than the anti war faction of American

1414
01:17:02,560 --> 01:17:04,960
Speaker 1: politics on the left and the right. There will be

1415
01:17:05,000 --> 01:17:07,639
Speaker 1: a lot of sigh out bullshit in the media aimed

1416
01:17:07,640 --> 01:17:12,120
Speaker 1: at obscuring this very obvious fact. Well said, the very

1417
01:17:12,200 --> 01:17:15,320
Speaker 1: clear and very obvious lesson to learn from all of

1418
01:17:15,360 --> 01:17:18,439
Speaker 1: this is don't get into these damn conflicts to start with,

1419
01:17:18,840 --> 01:17:22,920
Speaker 1: And the moment anyone says nation building, laugh them out

1420
01:17:22,960 --> 01:17:26,360
Speaker 1: of the room and straight into the Hague. But if

1421
01:17:26,400 --> 01:17:28,960
Speaker 1: the American people clearly learn that lesson, which should be

1422
01:17:29,080 --> 01:17:32,160
Speaker 1: very obvious, then that drives up trillions and contracts and

1423
01:17:32,320 --> 01:17:36,559
Speaker 1: untold prestige and power for Blob warmongers. So instead they

1424
01:17:36,560 --> 01:17:38,960
Speaker 1: want people to think all this all would have been

1425
01:17:39,000 --> 01:17:42,799
Speaker 1: perfectly fine if Biden had just planned better, given another

1426
01:17:42,960 --> 01:17:46,240
Speaker 1: month or process more visas. They need you to think

1427
01:17:46,600 --> 01:17:49,760
Speaker 1: that the real horror is a messy exit rather than

1428
01:17:49,800 --> 01:17:53,240
Speaker 1: the hundreds of thousands of lives and two trillion dollars

1429
01:17:53,240 --> 01:17:58,120
Speaker 1: spent just to leave Afghanistan poorer and the Taliban stronger.

1430
01:17:58,760 --> 01:18:02,040
Speaker 1: I am begging you, please do not fall for their lives,

1431
01:18:02,160 --> 01:18:04,679
Speaker 1: or you will not believe how fast we find ourselves

1432
01:18:04,680 --> 01:18:08,280
Speaker 1: deceived into the next endless war. And actually, on that

1433
01:18:08,320 --> 01:18:11,599
Speaker 1: first piece about the intelligence assessment, we have even more so.

1434
01:18:11,640 --> 01:18:13,840
Speaker 1: We have a fantastic guest here. Michael Tracy is an

1435
01:18:13,880 --> 01:18:17,240
Speaker 1: independent journalist. He's over on substack and has a phenomenal

1436
01:18:17,280 --> 01:18:19,040
Speaker 1: piece that Zager and I have both been taking a

1437
01:18:19,040 --> 01:18:21,719
Speaker 1: look at and already referenced here once this morning. So Michael,

1438
01:18:21,760 --> 01:18:24,439
Speaker 1: great to see you. Good to see Michael, Great to

1439
01:18:24,479 --> 01:18:27,320
Speaker 1: be with you. Guys. Yeah, just lay on for us

1440
01:18:27,360 --> 01:18:31,400
Speaker 1: sort of your view on the withdrawal and particularly some

1441
01:18:31,439 --> 01:18:34,960
Speaker 1: of the most I guess potent criticism of Biden is like, well,

1442
01:18:35,000 --> 01:18:37,320
Speaker 1: we wanted to get out, but not this way. We

1443
01:18:37,360 --> 01:18:40,479
Speaker 1: should have done managed the execution of the withdrawal much

1444
01:18:40,479 --> 01:18:44,880
Speaker 1: more effectively. What do you make of that critique, Well,

1445
01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:47,439
Speaker 1: I just think it's extremely ironic that you have a

1446
01:18:47,479 --> 01:18:53,120
Speaker 1: fairly widespread bipartisan acknowledgment that the public is war weary,

1447
01:18:53,320 --> 01:18:57,560
Speaker 1: right or wanting to end endless war. That was the repeated,

1448
01:18:57,840 --> 01:19:03,920
Speaker 1: almost cliched refrain for years now, and then when a

1449
01:19:04,000 --> 01:19:08,559
Speaker 1: president actually takes the decision and implements that decision to

1450
01:19:08,720 --> 01:19:13,320
Speaker 1: end one of these supposedly lamentable endless wars, it becomes

1451
01:19:13,520 --> 01:19:17,400
Speaker 1: the biggest scandal of his entire presidency, according to the

1452
01:19:17,400 --> 01:19:22,400
Speaker 1: corporate media and the political class. Look, if you're upset

1453
01:19:22,680 --> 01:19:28,200
Speaker 1: about the execution of policy as pertains to Afghanistan, I

1454
01:19:28,280 --> 01:19:32,120
Speaker 1: think those complaints will be best directed at the architects

1455
01:19:32,200 --> 01:19:36,160
Speaker 1: of a twenty year fail policy, at the heart of

1456
01:19:36,200 --> 01:19:43,679
Speaker 1: which was chronic and systematic graft, corruption, waste, misery, and death.

1457
01:19:44,560 --> 01:19:49,120
Speaker 1: I don't know when it became this outlandishly contrarian position

1458
01:19:49,840 --> 01:19:53,479
Speaker 1: to say that the Afghanistan War ought to be over,

1459
01:19:54,400 --> 01:19:57,840
Speaker 1: and whatever actions are necessary to implement to see to

1460
01:19:57,960 --> 01:20:02,120
Speaker 1: it that the war is over should be But you

1461
01:20:02,240 --> 01:20:09,280
Speaker 1: have these figures like David Petraeus trotted out on television

1462
01:20:09,720 --> 01:20:15,400
Speaker 1: to give his expert opinion. When David Petraeus presided over

1463
01:20:15,840 --> 01:20:20,160
Speaker 1: the deadliest portion of the entire Afghanistan War, which let's

1464
01:20:20,200 --> 01:20:24,320
Speaker 1: remember was in twenty ten and twenty eleven, which itself

1465
01:20:24,439 --> 01:20:28,280
Speaker 1: was insane because that's about a decade after the nine

1466
01:20:28,280 --> 01:20:30,120
Speaker 1: to eleven attacks, and yet that was when the US

1467
01:20:30,200 --> 01:20:35,040
Speaker 1: was incurring the most casualties because of this counterinsurgency strategy

1468
01:20:35,400 --> 01:20:40,519
Speaker 1: that Obama implemented and Petraeus executed. So why isn't that

1469
01:20:41,000 --> 01:20:46,759
Speaker 1: execution of policy being declared catastrophic? Why is it only

1470
01:20:46,920 --> 01:20:51,160
Speaker 1: when the rare event occurs, which is that the US

1471
01:20:51,240 --> 01:20:57,840
Speaker 1: actually extricates itself from a foreign war. That's when everybody's

1472
01:20:57,960 --> 01:21:02,720
Speaker 1: up in arms and declaring some kind of abomination on display.

1473
01:21:02,840 --> 01:21:05,799
Speaker 1: It really gets to the heart of a pathological sickness

1474
01:21:06,479 --> 01:21:10,400
Speaker 1: in US political and media culture and shows that I

1475
01:21:10,400 --> 01:21:14,479
Speaker 1: think a lot of these pretenses to be opposed to

1476
01:21:14,520 --> 01:21:17,280
Speaker 1: enlist war are really just that they're hollow and their

1477
01:21:17,320 --> 01:21:20,080
Speaker 1: slogan earing, and they're talking points. I want you to

1478
01:21:20,120 --> 01:21:21,840
Speaker 1: stick with that one second, Michael, I want you to

1479
01:21:21,840 --> 01:21:23,599
Speaker 1: stick with that. And this is a quote from your piece.

1480
01:21:23,680 --> 01:21:25,880
Speaker 1: Let's put the let's put a tear sheet of that

1481
01:21:26,000 --> 01:21:28,680
Speaker 1: up on the screen. You say, Republicans now insist that

1482
01:21:28,720 --> 01:21:32,520
Speaker 1: the withdrawal plant Trump withdrawal plan was in fact fundamentally

1483
01:21:32,560 --> 01:21:35,920
Speaker 1: different than Biden's because it would have been quote conditions based,

1484
01:21:36,200 --> 01:21:39,639
Speaker 1: which is just code for the withdrawal would have never

1485
01:21:40,080 --> 01:21:42,679
Speaker 1: actually happened. Can you break that down for the audience?

1486
01:21:42,720 --> 01:21:46,479
Speaker 1: I think it is so critical. Yeah, So this is

1487
01:21:46,680 --> 01:21:49,920
Speaker 1: the claim being trotted out now by Republicans who have

1488
01:21:50,000 --> 01:21:55,000
Speaker 1: to maneuver themselves into a position where they're condemning Biden

1489
01:21:55,120 --> 01:22:00,479
Speaker 1: for supposedly overseeing a botched or faulty withdrawal, yet also

1490
01:22:01,040 --> 01:22:05,280
Speaker 1: justify why it is that Trump undertook when at the

1491
01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:09,439
Speaker 1: time were fairly ground bait breaking negotiations direct negotiations with

1492
01:22:10,160 --> 01:22:12,680
Speaker 1: the Taliban. Remember that was unthinkable under George Bush. We

1493
01:22:12,680 --> 01:22:16,960
Speaker 1: will never negotiate with terrorists. Like if you talk, if

1494
01:22:16,960 --> 01:22:19,360
Speaker 1: you teleport it back to two thousand and four or

1495
01:22:19,400 --> 01:22:22,040
Speaker 1: something and ask the average system whether the United States

1496
01:22:22,080 --> 01:22:24,840
Speaker 1: could ever be in direct negotiations with the Taliban. That

1497
01:22:24,880 --> 01:22:26,920
Speaker 1: would have looked at you like you grew two heads.

1498
01:22:27,640 --> 01:22:31,080
Speaker 1: So this was a major advance on a diplomatic front,

1499
01:22:31,800 --> 01:22:34,720
Speaker 1: and it was Trump who, to his credit, I would say,

1500
01:22:34,840 --> 01:22:39,720
Speaker 1: undertook it because supermajorities of the American public wanted to

1501
01:22:39,720 --> 01:22:44,559
Speaker 1: withdraw from Afghanistan. Now, there's been some partisan differentiation there

1502
01:22:44,600 --> 01:22:46,280
Speaker 1: over the years. I've just pulled up a poll from

1503
01:22:46,280 --> 01:22:50,960
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen which actually showed that plurality of Democrats were

1504
01:22:51,000 --> 01:22:54,559
Speaker 1: against withdrawing from Afghanistan because Trump would be the one

1505
01:22:54,560 --> 01:22:56,519
Speaker 1: overseeing that, right, And we see sort of the inverse

1506
01:22:56,560 --> 01:23:00,839
Speaker 1: happening now with Republicans no longer favoring withdrawal because Biden

1507
01:23:00,920 --> 01:23:04,920
Speaker 1: is presided for it. But that notwithstanding, Republicans are in

1508
01:23:04,960 --> 01:23:07,559
Speaker 1: this bind now where they have to kind of manage

1509
01:23:07,600 --> 01:23:13,240
Speaker 1: these seemingly contradictory impulses, and so they're saying that Trump's

1510
01:23:13,280 --> 01:23:16,880
Speaker 1: withdrawal would have been fundamentally different because it was conditions based.

1511
01:23:16,920 --> 01:23:19,960
Speaker 1: Trump himself, you know, emerged from his cavern in mar

1512
01:23:20,000 --> 01:23:23,280
Speaker 1: A Lago and went on Sean Hannity this week and

1513
01:23:23,520 --> 01:23:25,920
Speaker 1: repeated this talking point. POMPEII has been all over Fox

1514
01:23:25,960 --> 01:23:28,479
Speaker 1: and such repeating the talking point. Well, what they say,

1515
01:23:28,520 --> 01:23:31,360
Speaker 1: it's conditions based. That means they could have just reneged

1516
01:23:31,880 --> 01:23:34,920
Speaker 1: on their commitment to actually withdraw by a stated date

1517
01:23:35,000 --> 01:23:39,040
Speaker 1: because of some vague concern over conditions which are just

1518
01:23:39,240 --> 01:23:43,400
Speaker 1: defined according to the whims of who's ever in charge, right,

1519
01:23:44,040 --> 01:23:48,559
Speaker 1: and it deflects from what the fundamental condition quote unquote

1520
01:23:48,960 --> 01:23:51,760
Speaker 1: of the Afghanistan intervention really was, which is that the

1521
01:23:51,800 --> 01:23:56,719
Speaker 1: government that the US taxpayer was propping up, funding arming

1522
01:23:57,160 --> 01:24:00,519
Speaker 1: and so forth for twenty years was funded mentally a

1523
01:24:00,560 --> 01:24:06,639
Speaker 1: fictitious entity. And there's no amount of delay or minor

1524
01:24:06,760 --> 01:24:10,920
Speaker 1: policy adjustment around the margins that could have rectified that

1525
01:24:11,080 --> 01:24:16,719
Speaker 1: fundamental condition. Yes, and so yeah, there's another piece here, Michael,

1526
01:24:16,760 --> 01:24:19,519
Speaker 1: I want you to speak to again, grabbing a quote

1527
01:24:19,560 --> 01:24:23,320
Speaker 1: from your excellent substack post, which says, why aren't these

1528
01:24:23,320 --> 01:24:27,200
Speaker 1: same pundits you mentioned Petraeus McMaster and other like minded pundits,

1529
01:24:27,200 --> 01:24:29,080
Speaker 1: which is all that's been on the airwaves, by the way,

1530
01:24:29,280 --> 01:24:32,760
Speaker 1: why aren't these same pundits and operatives now opportunistically posturing

1531
01:24:32,760 --> 01:24:35,839
Speaker 1: as pure hearted humanitarians seem to mind or even notice

1532
01:24:36,120 --> 01:24:38,880
Speaker 1: when those US subsidized deaths were piling up in the

1533
01:24:39,080 --> 01:24:41,320
Speaker 1: very recent past, over the past couple of years, with

1534
01:24:41,479 --> 01:24:44,479
Speaker 1: no strategic game to speak of. Do you actually care

1535
01:24:44,479 --> 01:24:47,920
Speaker 1: about dead Afghans or do you only incidentally care when

1536
01:24:47,920 --> 01:24:51,639
Speaker 1: those dead bodies help you make a cheap political point.

1537
01:24:51,760 --> 01:24:56,080
Speaker 1: I think that is so important and so well said. Yeah,

1538
01:24:56,120 --> 01:25:01,720
Speaker 1: So in twenty eighteen there were a peak of Afghan

1539
01:25:01,760 --> 01:25:06,439
Speaker 1: civilian casualties. And again we're talking seventeen years after the war,

1540
01:25:06,479 --> 01:25:11,160
Speaker 1: which is itself an absurdity that a US subsidized force

1541
01:25:12,120 --> 01:25:17,800
Speaker 1: is engaging in military conduct that leads to this astronomical

1542
01:25:18,320 --> 01:25:21,200
Speaker 1: increase in death that far after nine to eleven, when

1543
01:25:21,200 --> 01:25:23,960
Speaker 1: the supposed which was the supposed impetus for the intervention, right,

1544
01:25:25,640 --> 01:25:31,760
Speaker 1: and was it perceived as some gigantic humanitarian scandal that

1545
01:25:32,120 --> 01:25:36,280
Speaker 1: every politician had to go out and fulminate against, or

1546
01:25:36,320 --> 01:25:38,760
Speaker 1: that every corporate news network had to devote wal to

1547
01:25:38,800 --> 01:25:43,160
Speaker 1: wall covers to when record numbers of Afghanistan Afghan civilians

1548
01:25:43,160 --> 01:25:46,760
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen were being killed. I don't remember hearing

1549
01:25:46,800 --> 01:25:48,439
Speaker 1: a whole lot about it at all. You had to

1550
01:25:48,520 --> 01:25:52,800
Speaker 1: kind of actually delve into the niche press to even

1551
01:25:52,920 --> 01:25:55,760
Speaker 1: any awareness that this was going on, because Afghanistan had

1552
01:25:55,800 --> 01:25:58,280
Speaker 1: sort of faded into the background. So for these people

1553
01:25:58,320 --> 01:26:00,960
Speaker 1: now to go on TV or to go on social

1554
01:26:01,040 --> 01:26:05,599
Speaker 1: media and kind of peacock as though they are these

1555
01:26:06,640 --> 01:26:10,559
Speaker 1: principled humanitarians, and that's why they're so agreeved that the

1556
01:26:10,600 --> 01:26:15,799
Speaker 1: manner of Biden's withdrawal, it's nonsense, because in twenty eighteen,

1557
01:26:15,880 --> 01:26:20,320
Speaker 1: they were probably all freaking out about some you know,

1558
01:26:21,160 --> 01:26:25,160
Speaker 1: obscure Trump controversy that nobody could even recollect the details

1559
01:26:25,160 --> 01:26:29,640
Speaker 1: of anymore. So it doesn't make any sense. It's all circumstantial,

1560
01:26:29,720 --> 01:26:32,519
Speaker 1: it's all incidental. And it gets to why it's so

1561
01:26:32,720 --> 01:26:37,000
Speaker 1: obnoxious to kind of funnel this Afghanistan issue now into

1562
01:26:37,080 --> 01:26:40,479
Speaker 1: a cheap partisan issue, because that's actually very convenient for

1563
01:26:40,640 --> 01:26:43,640
Speaker 1: the political class. I'm vote in both parties, because the

1564
01:26:43,720 --> 01:26:48,519
Speaker 1: failure in Afghanistan is a profound indictment of the entire

1565
01:26:48,560 --> 01:26:54,559
Speaker 1: political system, the entire military leadership, the entire kind of

1566
01:26:54,560 --> 01:26:58,120
Speaker 1: think tank and consultant class. And so now if they're

1567
01:26:58,120 --> 01:27:03,560
Speaker 1: just bickering as the it's it can be distilled into

1568
01:27:03,600 --> 01:27:08,360
Speaker 1: a kind of cheap partisan food fight that actually absolves

1569
01:27:08,400 --> 01:27:10,960
Speaker 1: them from the scrutiny that they really deserve. And that

1570
01:27:11,000 --> 01:27:13,160
Speaker 1: goes that we were talking about Republicans, but that goes

1571
01:27:13,160 --> 01:27:16,599
Speaker 1: for Democrats too. I got into Eric Swalwell, who I

1572
01:27:16,640 --> 01:27:19,160
Speaker 1: think is probably among the most dim witted members of

1573
01:27:19,160 --> 01:27:24,479
Speaker 1: Congress He attacked me on Twitter out of nowhere a

1574
01:27:24,560 --> 01:27:27,920
Speaker 1: few days ago because I mocked his criticism, believe or not,

1575
01:27:28,000 --> 01:27:31,439
Speaker 1: of Trump and Pompeo. He was saying how horrible it

1576
01:27:31,560 --> 01:27:34,720
Speaker 1: was that Pompeo negotiated with terrorists who are now overseeing

1577
01:27:35,120 --> 01:27:40,240
Speaker 1: this supposed humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. And I just said, okay, So,

1578
01:27:40,320 --> 01:27:42,559
Speaker 1: if that's your criticism of Trump and Pompeo, that they

1579
01:27:42,600 --> 01:27:45,559
Speaker 1: quote negotiated with terrorists, what do you think the Biden

1580
01:27:45,600 --> 01:27:48,920
Speaker 1: administration is doing right this very much we speak to

1581
01:27:49,160 --> 01:27:53,759
Speaker 1: ensure to ensure that there's some semblance of a means

1582
01:27:53,800 --> 01:27:59,120
Speaker 1: for the Kabul airport to be able to have flights

1583
01:27:59,160 --> 01:28:02,320
Speaker 1: taking off from and American citizens. Exactly. It just makes

1584
01:28:02,360 --> 01:28:06,640
Speaker 1: no sense. And that's why so that these partisan squabbles

1585
01:28:07,160 --> 01:28:11,160
Speaker 1: always have embedded within the major fallacies that really serve

1586
01:28:11,280 --> 01:28:14,680
Speaker 1: no purpose except to redirect blame from where it ought

1587
01:28:14,720 --> 01:28:16,600
Speaker 1: to be directed, which is at the heart of the

1588
01:28:16,640 --> 01:28:22,040
Speaker 1: political class. Was justified and defended a fundamentally and inherently

1589
01:28:22,760 --> 01:28:28,639
Speaker 1: failed intervention for twenty years at massive, unthinkable taxpayer expense.

1590
01:28:28,800 --> 01:28:30,880
Speaker 1: That is really well said, Michael. Thank you so much

1591
01:28:30,880 --> 01:28:33,280
Speaker 1: for joining us man. We really appreciate it everybody out there.

1592
01:28:33,360 --> 01:28:35,920
Speaker 1: We'll have a link down there to Michael Substack. I

1593
01:28:35,960 --> 01:28:38,840
Speaker 1: encourage you all to go and subscribe. Excellent post there,

1594
01:28:38,880 --> 01:28:41,519
Speaker 1: and we should support Michael's work. So thanks man, Thanks Michael.

1595
01:28:41,560 --> 01:28:44,640
Speaker 1: Good to see you all right, Thanks lot, guys, absolutely,

1596
01:28:45,680 --> 01:28:48,040
Speaker 1: thank you guys so much for watching. This week has

1597
01:28:48,080 --> 01:28:51,360
Speaker 1: been I just think, you know, really such an important

1598
01:28:51,360 --> 01:28:53,840
Speaker 1: one for us to be able to offer a counter

1599
01:28:53,960 --> 01:28:56,960
Speaker 1: to what we both see as just the unconscionable way

1600
01:28:57,200 --> 01:29:00,720
Speaker 1: the media has behaved to elevate people who are not

1601
01:29:00,880 --> 01:29:03,719
Speaker 1: like Michael, or to people like Craig Whitlock or Richard

1602
01:29:03,720 --> 01:29:08,240
Speaker 1: Hanania who are giving real counter voices to the establishment,

1603
01:29:08,320 --> 01:29:11,479
Speaker 1: and then having John Bolton and Condoaleza Rice and more.

1604
01:29:11,720 --> 01:29:14,040
Speaker 1: That's why the show exists. I wake up every day

1605
01:29:14,080 --> 01:29:16,160
Speaker 1: for days like this, so you know, if you guys

1606
01:29:16,160 --> 01:29:18,599
Speaker 1: can support us, it means the world link is down

1607
01:29:18,600 --> 01:29:21,760
Speaker 1: there in the description. It's what enables us to do

1608
01:29:21,800 --> 01:29:23,640
Speaker 1: this every day. In return, you know, you get the

1609
01:29:23,680 --> 01:29:26,080
Speaker 1: show an hour early and all of that, but really

1610
01:29:26,080 --> 01:29:27,960
Speaker 1: what it is is that we need this show to

1611
01:29:28,000 --> 01:29:30,479
Speaker 1: survive so that we can continue to give the takes

1612
01:29:30,520 --> 01:29:33,160
Speaker 1: like this, Because I've heard from so many people Crystal,

1613
01:29:33,320 --> 01:29:36,040
Speaker 1: who are service members and more who are like, thank you.

1614
01:29:36,160 --> 01:29:39,519
Speaker 1: I don't hear this anywhere else. And that's what we

1615
01:29:39,600 --> 01:29:42,120
Speaker 1: try to do herew new poll out this morning, two

1616
01:29:42,160 --> 01:29:44,679
Speaker 1: thirds think about this. Two thirds of the American people,

1617
01:29:44,720 --> 01:29:48,400
Speaker 1: even with all of this happening, say the Afghanistan war

1618
01:29:48,680 --> 01:29:52,320
Speaker 1: was not worth fighting. Okay, do you see that view

1619
01:29:52,640 --> 01:29:54,760
Speaker 1: which is an over even if the polliman get of

1620
01:29:54,800 --> 01:29:58,440
Speaker 1: a ten boy margins there, it's still fifty percent overwhelming

1621
01:29:59,280 --> 01:30:02,720
Speaker 1: majority Americans who say we should never have been there

1622
01:30:02,760 --> 01:30:05,679
Speaker 1: in the first place. And do you see that view

1623
01:30:06,200 --> 01:30:08,640
Speaker 1: represented in media? I mean, that's what this week you

1624
01:30:08,680 --> 01:30:10,840
Speaker 1: talked about this week and how important it has been

1625
01:30:10,880 --> 01:30:12,639
Speaker 1: for us. I think part of why we've both felt

1626
01:30:12,680 --> 01:30:15,519
Speaker 1: it that way to be that way is because all

1627
01:30:15,560 --> 01:30:21,479
Speaker 1: of the worst biases and excesses and blind spots and

1628
01:30:21,560 --> 01:30:25,880
Speaker 1: partisan hackery and just being part of, you know, stenographers

1629
01:30:25,920 --> 01:30:28,920
Speaker 1: for the national security establishment, all of that has been

1630
01:30:29,000 --> 01:30:32,920
Speaker 1: on full display this week. So we just feel really

1631
01:30:33,080 --> 01:30:35,000
Speaker 1: proud to be able to provide you with some different

1632
01:30:35,120 --> 01:30:38,200
Speaker 1: voices who you know, are just trying to be honest

1633
01:30:38,240 --> 01:30:40,479
Speaker 1: about what's going on there. We feel really grateful to

1634
01:30:40,520 --> 01:30:43,880
Speaker 1: you guys for helping us make that possible, so thank

1635
01:30:43,920 --> 01:30:46,639
Speaker 1: you for sticking with us this week. Enjoy your weekend.

1636
01:30:46,680 --> 01:30:48,120
Speaker 1: Of course, we're going to post some great content for

1637
01:30:48,160 --> 01:30:50,120
Speaker 1: you over the weekend as well, but we will see

1638
01:30:50,160 --> 01:30:51,960
Speaker 1: you back here for a full show on Monday. See

1639
01:30:51,960 --> 01:31:08,479
Speaker 1: you Monday. Thanks for listening to the show, guys, we

1640
01:31:08,520 --> 01:31:10,920
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. To help other people find the show,

1641
01:31:11,000 --> 01:31:12,960
Speaker 1: go ahead and leave us a five star rating on

1642
01:31:13,040 --> 01:31:16,519
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts really helps

1643
01:31:16,560 --> 01:31:19,840
Speaker 1: other people find the show as always special. Thank you

1644
01:31:19,880 --> 01:31:23,479
Speaker 1: to Supercast for powering our premium membership. If you want

1645
01:31:23,479 --> 01:31:26,479
Speaker 1: to find out more, go to Crystalansager dot com.