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Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to Fast Politics. I'm Molly Johnfest, and we

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Speaker 1: have a great show for you today. Later in the show,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk to Matthew Cole about his new book, Princes

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Speaker 1: and Thieves, Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Zayed's secret plot

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Speaker 1: to remake the Middle East. But first, we have the

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Speaker 1: good liar's own Jason Selvig to tell us about what

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Speaker 1: he's been seeing on the ground at MAGA rallies. Welcome, welcome, Jason.

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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Molly, I can't believe we're talking today.

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Speaker 2: It has been 55 years since we last talked three

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Speaker 2: weeks ago or four weeks ago. At least for me,

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Speaker 2: at least I've aged 55 years. I can say that.

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Speaker 1: It's canceled, uncanceled day. Today, Donald Trump uncanceled. And this

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Speaker 1: is like, we are breaking news here because I was

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Speaker 1: on Morning Joe and we heard that he had canceled

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Speaker 1: all of these rallies and that he was doing tele-rallies, right?

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Speaker 1: It was canceled, canceled, canceled.

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Speaker 2: No Iowa.

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Speaker 1: No Kansas, maybe. No Florida. Donald Trump just go into

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Speaker 1: the bunker, hang out with his special assistant, who has

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Speaker 1: a totally normal and appropriate relationship with, Natalie Harp.

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Speaker 2: Watch some TV. Watch some TV. Watch some TV that's

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Speaker 2: nice to him. He was just going to have a nice,

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Speaker 2: normal weekend. Maybe play some golf. Who knows?

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Speaker 1: Golf, catch up, maybe whatever. But now, they are uncanceled. Well.

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Speaker 2: I think he's, you know, in a weird way, this

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Speaker 2: feels like a farewell tour. And of course, you know,

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Speaker 2: they're also selling hats to, say, Trump 2028. these rallies.

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Speaker 2: So I'm not going to say it's definitely a farewell tour.

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Speaker 2: But from what I've talked to people at that rally,

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Speaker 2: from what I've heard from people at the rally, some

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Speaker 2: people are going there treating it like a farewell tour.

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Speaker 2: People in these red states that I've been to in

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Speaker 2: South Carolina and in Georgia, people have said like, I

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Speaker 2: just never saw him before and I want to go.

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Speaker 2: I have all these Trump hats. I have all these

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Speaker 2: Trump shirts. I'm going to go to a rally and

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Speaker 2: see him and hear him play the hits.

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Speaker 1: First, tell us where you have been, because you haven't

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Speaker 1: been to every place Trump has been, but you've been

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Speaker 1: to worse places.

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Speaker 2: I have been... Yeah, it's interesting, because during 2024, a

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Speaker 2: lot of what we were doing was going to swing states.

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Speaker 2: So we'd be going back to North Carolina, going back

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Speaker 2: to Pennsylvania, the same places, or at least states, over

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Speaker 2: and over again. And now Trump has opened it up,

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Speaker 2: at least for us, and for me, I get to

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Speaker 2: go to new places, because he's going to all these

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Speaker 2: red states, because they're now suddenly in jeopardy. So I've

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Speaker 2: been to South Carolina twice. I was in Georgia last week.

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Speaker 2: I was in South Carolina last week. Florida. I've been

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Speaker 2: to Michigan. I've been to Arizona. So I've been all

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Speaker 2: over the country and Nebraska. And the thing I will

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Speaker 2: say is we talked about this on the show, how

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Speaker 2: I went to a North Carolina rally and they were

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Speaker 2: kind of like censoring us and like not letting us

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Speaker 2: talk to people. And it was a very, very small rally.

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Speaker 2: There were only a few hundred people waiting before the

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Speaker 2: doors opened or when the doors opened. These red state

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Speaker 2: rallies are huge. They're huge. Nebraska was thousands of people

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Speaker 2: lined up. It felt like 2024. It felt like 2020.

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Speaker 2: when he had this huge support in the swing states.

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Speaker 2: But the thing to keep in mind is there are

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Speaker 2: red states where he hasn't been in a very long time.

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Speaker 2: He hadn't been to Nebraska, I think, since maybe 2018

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Speaker 2: or 2022, 2018, I think. And Mississippi, places like that,

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Speaker 2: he never needed to go there because there was never

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Speaker 2: a challenge for Republicans there. And now he's going to

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Speaker 2: these places. And my theory is that the red state

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Speaker 2: tour is as much for like helping Republicans and like

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Speaker 2: making sure they win as it is for making Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump feel good about himself and seeing big crowds again.

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Speaker 2: And having him say his do his train of thought

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Speaker 2: monologue one man show and having the crowd kind of

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Speaker 2: eat it up because they haven't seen him in a

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Speaker 2: long time. And he's very popular in these states. I

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Speaker 2: feel like with any anything with Trump, you got to

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Speaker 2: look at it like, how is this helping him? How

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Speaker 2: is this making him feel good? And I think it's,

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Speaker 2: it's making him feel good to be around thousands of

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Speaker 2: people who are cheering his name and excited to see

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Speaker 2: him because he hasn't been there in so long.

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Speaker 1: So I'd love you to look, can we just dig

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Speaker 1: in for a minute on like, one of the questions

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Speaker 1: I always, always, always ask you, and I'm always disappointed

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Speaker 1: is do you, you know, the question I'm going to

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Speaker 1: ask you, like, do you sit down with anyone and

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Speaker 1: they go, Oh, you know, you're right. Or, oh, there

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Speaker 1: might be something here. Or, I mean, like, you've gotten

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Speaker 1: so good at interviewing these people and trying to, like...

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Speaker 1: I mean, I remember the free money thing where you

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Speaker 1: were trying to, like, you know... Is the earth round?

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Speaker 2: Easy money. Yeah. Right.

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Speaker 1: Easy money. And they were like, no, it's not. And

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Speaker 1: you were like, are you sure? And they're like, yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean, are you seeing any more? Like, does the Jonestown,

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Speaker 1: does it feel like the Kool-Aid is wearing off? And

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Speaker 1: is it different in swing states? like in Michigan or

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Speaker 1: even in North Carolina than in Nebraska? So it's two questions. One,

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Speaker 1: do you see any daylight? And two, is different states

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Speaker 1: providing different places of where the electorate is, the Trump electorate,

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Speaker 1: the Republican?

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, in South Carolina, I talked to a guy

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Speaker 2: who said, I asked about what he hoped if Republicans won,

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Speaker 2: what he hopes Trump would do. And he was like,

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Speaker 2: he really wants the gas price to go down, especially diesel,

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Speaker 2: drives a diesel truck. And I asked him about if

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Speaker 2: he blamed Trump. And he was like, no, I blame Biden.

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Speaker 2: This is all Biden's fault. And I posted this video online,

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Speaker 2: the last part of this interaction. I say, well, the

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Speaker 2: gas price went up because of Trump. He was like, no,

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Speaker 2: it's Biden. I say, but no, after the bombing in Iran,

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Speaker 2: that's when the prices started to go up. And then

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Speaker 2: he had like a moment. He was like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 2: you're right. And then there was a pause. And then

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Speaker 2: you could see him kind of think about this like, oh, okay,

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Speaker 2: that's true. Now, was he going to stop supporting Donald Trump? No.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 2: And a lot of it is like that they don't know.

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Speaker 2: Like we said this before, the algorithms are different. The

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Speaker 2: echo chamber is different. So they're not getting that information

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Speaker 2: that it's just this is the cause and effect of

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Speaker 2: Iran right now. And I talked to somebody this week

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Speaker 2: in Iowa who had a sign that said Trump 2027,

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Speaker 2: make America affordable again. Yeah. No, there's a lot to

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Speaker 2: unpack there. I asked him, well, 2027, he's not running

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Speaker 2: for president. What does that mean? He's like, well, that's

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Speaker 2: when I hope it becomes affordable again and gas prices

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Speaker 2: go down. I said, well, do you blame Trump for

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Speaker 2: the gas prices? He's like, no, of course not. No.

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Speaker 2: He says he's trying his best to to bring down

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Speaker 2: the prices. I said, well, the same exact thing I

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Speaker 2: said to this guy in South Carolina, like the war

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Speaker 2: in Iran, that has caused the gas prices to go up.

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Speaker 2: If you just look at a calendar and the gas prices,

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Speaker 2: you'll see that it's the same time. And he said- listen, listen,

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Speaker 2: I'm not political. I just like Trump. I just think

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Speaker 2: he's funny. And he kind of thinks like I do,

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Speaker 2: and I like him. And asked if there's anything that

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Speaker 2: would give him pause if he found out that he's

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Speaker 2: paying more because of Trump, if that would change his opinion.

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Speaker 2: He was like, no, I like him. What do you

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Speaker 2: want me to say here? I like the guy. That's

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Speaker 2: why I'm here. So there's moments where there will be reflection.

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Speaker 2: But I think at the end of the day, it's

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Speaker 2: basically that interaction with a lot of these people They're

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Speaker 2: not plugged into politics all the time. Some of them are.

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Speaker 2: Some of them are watching Newsmax all the time, and

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Speaker 2: that's when they're coming out. Some of them are just like,

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Speaker 2: I like the guy. I think he's funny. And I

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Speaker 2: like having a president that thinks like me.

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Speaker 1: I want to die. Every time we talk, I want...

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Speaker 1: There's a part of me that just wants to die

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Speaker 1: because we work so hard. We spend so much time

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Speaker 1: thinking about legislating. And then we have voters who are like,

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Speaker 1: I like him. He says racist stuff. Yeah. But I

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Speaker 1: want you to, I just want to drill down on this.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that we've seen here, and you

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Speaker 1: just talked about earlier before we started taping, was this

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Speaker 1: idea that people are like going on the farewell tour,

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Speaker 1: like the Grateful Dead. An interesting dynamic we have not

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Speaker 1: seen before. So explain that to us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, some people, like talking to somebody in South Carolina,

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Speaker 2: and then somebody in Georgia, too. The woman in Georgia

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Speaker 2: said that she had been to four Trump rallies. This

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Speaker 2: was her fifth. And she was excited to be there,

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Speaker 2: to see the people who were there for the first time,

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Speaker 2: and see... how excited they get to see Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: do the YMCA and to dance at the end and

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Speaker 2: to say his one-liners. And she said that was more

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Speaker 2: thrilling to her now because she can't experience it again.

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Speaker 2: She remembered how much fun she had the first time

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Speaker 2: that she was there. And this is the first time

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Speaker 2: I've heard this from a Trump supporter. I've heard this,

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Speaker 2: and I've said this before, and lots of people have

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Speaker 2: said this before. But she was like, it's like a

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Speaker 2: pro wrestling show. It's like a football game. And it's

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Speaker 2: an experience that you all have together. And You get

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Speaker 2: to laugh and high five and know that you can,

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Speaker 2: if you say like, let's go Brandon, somebody's going to

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Speaker 2: cheer and give you a high five. And if you

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Speaker 2: say build a wall, somebody's going to cheer. And it's

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Speaker 2: an experience that you get to have in like a

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Speaker 2: community there. And I thought it was really interesting the

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Speaker 2: way she was talking about it, because she was talking

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Speaker 2: about it sort of like, this is going to come

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Speaker 2: to an end soon. And I want to experience it

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Speaker 2: one more time and kind of live through the people

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Speaker 2: who are there for the first time, because that was

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Speaker 2: obviously a very meaningful moment for her, because she loves Trump.

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Speaker 2: She loves Trump. But it really felt like people were going...

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Speaker 2: Some people were like, We heard that more than once.

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Speaker 2: Number one, they called it a show. They said, we're

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Speaker 2: here for the show. We heard that like three times

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Speaker 2: in South Carolina. Not a political rally. It's a show.

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Speaker 2: And they said, a lot of people would say, I

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Speaker 2: haven't seen Trump before live. And this might be my

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Speaker 2: last opportunity. And I just had to do it. I

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Speaker 2: had to call out of work to to go to

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Speaker 2: go to the rally.

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Speaker 1: It's wild um i wonder if one of the things

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Speaker 1: that i mean it's not wild depressing it's upsetting.

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Speaker 2: It's lots of yeah are you.

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Speaker 1: Are there are there things change have other things change

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Speaker 1: fundamentally like the merchandise the rhetoric around like You know,

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Speaker 1: Trump is not technically on the ballot. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if you know this.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: I do know that. So are you hearing like when

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Speaker 1: you talk to voters, are they like Pete Ricketts? He's

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Speaker 1: the guy. Or are they like, you know, Darlene Graham? Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, we love that, Lindsay.

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Speaker 2: I will say, look, I'm not going to say this

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Speaker 2: like a blanket statement, because there are people there who

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Speaker 2: are wearing like the hats and the buttons and the

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Speaker 2: pins for the for the for the for the midterm

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Speaker 2: for the midterm kids.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: There are people, but well, the campaigns are handing out

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Speaker 2: the t-shirts. So I do see some t-shirts, but that

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Speaker 2: also just might be like, hey, free t-shirt. I'm going

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Speaker 2: to put that on. Sure. But I would say like

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Speaker 2: some of the people there are there because they're Republicans

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Speaker 2: and they think the midterms are really important and they

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Speaker 2: want to go support the local candidates and get the

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Speaker 2: word out and they're going to vote red in every election.

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Speaker 2: midterm otherwise. And some people, especially in Nebraska, talking to

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Speaker 2: people in Nebraska, and I would bring up the midterms.

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Speaker 2: And some of the people, you could kind of see

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Speaker 2: the wheels turn in their head. They're like, what are

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Speaker 2: the midterms? They didn't understand there was like a midterm

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Speaker 2: election happening. And that's why Trump was here and supporting

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Speaker 2: the candidates there. So some of them, it's definitely more

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Speaker 2: about Trump than it is, you know, getting out and vote.

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Speaker 2: And they're going to hear that message there. Like Trump's

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Speaker 2: going to say that every speaker who gets up there

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Speaker 2: is going to say, you got to get out and vote.

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Speaker 2: So like maybe at a very like grassroots level, it's

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Speaker 2: going to, these people aren't going to feel motivated to

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Speaker 2: get out and vote that actually attend the rallies. But

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Speaker 2: I don't think a lot of them care about about

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Speaker 2: the midterms. It's more about Trump's star power, and they

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Speaker 2: still love Trump, so they want to go out and

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Speaker 2: see Trump. And the other people speaking, if they say

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Speaker 2: one of the one-liners they know, or they talk about

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Speaker 2: a group that they think are the bad guys because

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Speaker 2: they see that on Newsmax or on Facebook, which I

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Speaker 2: heard from several people, are there two main sources of

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Speaker 2: news is Newsmax and Facebook. Pause. Pause.

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Speaker 1: There are two main sources of news because this is

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Speaker 1: really important. This is something I spend a lot of

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Speaker 1: time thinking about where people get their news are Facebook.

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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Speaker 1: And Newsmax.

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Speaker 2: Facebook and Newsmax. Yes. Yes.

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Speaker 1: Did they used to watch Fox News? Do you do

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Speaker 1: you push into this a little bit?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think a lot of– depending on like–

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Speaker 2: it's like there's so many different buckets of Trump supporters

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Speaker 2: and you kind of get the vibe. Like there's the

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Speaker 2: QAnon people who believe the stuff that's really out there.

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Speaker 2: Then you've got the people that are like really got

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Speaker 2: upset about the 2020 election and think it was stolen.

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Speaker 2: And that's like an important part of their mega identity.

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Speaker 2: And that's like another bucket. Those people all went to

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Speaker 2: the Newsmaxes and the OANs. Like they– where Fox betrayed

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Speaker 2: us and don't even watch Fox. But I would say

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Speaker 2: a majority of the people that go to a rally,

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Speaker 2: they still watch Fox News. And you can kind of

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Speaker 2: hear over the last couple months, the different opinions that

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Speaker 2: we would hear two months ago, they've now... The 20

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Speaker 2: have now gone into like three, which are like Muslims

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Speaker 2: are bad and they're trying to take over the country

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Speaker 2: and there's going to be Sharia law. And the Democrats

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Speaker 2: are communists and they're going to take over and everyone's

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Speaker 2: going to be going to the food lines if the

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Speaker 2: Democrats win the midterms. And actually, that's basically it. That's it.

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Speaker 2: Like you still, you still hear like some of like

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Speaker 2: the trans like sports stuff, but like, it's not as like,

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Speaker 2: those are the two big things that I think have been,

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Speaker 2: been echoed on Fox over and over again. And I'm

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Speaker 2: assuming on Newsmax and OAN as well.

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Speaker 1: But, But I have a question for you, which is,

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Speaker 1: so yes, I get that. But I wonder if you

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Speaker 1: could explain, like, are they mad at Fox News? Because

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Speaker 1: we know Fox News's numbers are down now because we

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Speaker 1: don't know why, but we know they're down like 15, 20%.

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Speaker 1: We just saw... And so I wonder, do you think

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Speaker 1: there's been a schism where these people are going to

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Speaker 1: Newsmax because it's more Trumpy or more conspiratorial or more something?

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Speaker 2: I think so. And also it's like, I think cable news,

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Speaker 2: they're down across the board.

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Speaker 1: But Newsmax is cable news too.

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Speaker 2: Right. But my question to answer this question, have Newsmax

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Speaker 2: ratings gone up while this is happening? I have no idea.

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Speaker 1: Have you ever watched Newsmax? It's so low rent. It

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Speaker 1: makes PIX11 look like HBO.

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Speaker 2: No, it looks like it's like Cable Access or something. Right.

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Speaker 2: I mean, basically. High school news, like the local news.

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Speaker 2: But the sentiment against Fox, we would hear that more

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Speaker 2: from Fox around 2020 and 2022. And then I think

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Speaker 2: in 2024, when Trump was running again, and they kind

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Speaker 2: of like had a handshake agreement that we're going to

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Speaker 2: work together here, that that's... And Trump kind of cooled

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Speaker 2: on Fox a little bit. I'm like, at least throwing

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Speaker 2: like bombs at Fox and being like, I'm mad at Fox.

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Speaker 2: So I haven't heard that as much, but I guess

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Speaker 2: I don't hear people say they watch Fox as the

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Speaker 2: number one. It's really online. Like you see, people are

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Speaker 2: like getting their news from... like literally memes on Facebook

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Speaker 2: that look like headlines. And then they'll say like, did

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Speaker 2: you hear this thing that happened? And I'm like, let's

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Speaker 2: look it up. And you can't find it because it doesn't,

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Speaker 2: there's no article on it. It's just a picture that

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Speaker 2: was like created, like maybe by AI or whatever, somebody

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Speaker 2: just like messed around with Photoshop and it's a fake

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Speaker 2: headline and people are running with it. Like I saw

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Speaker 2: it on Facebook, so it's gotta be real.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting because in the reporting in The New York

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Speaker 1: Times that I read from yesterday, there was a big

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Speaker 1: piece about how Donald Trump is in the White House

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Speaker 1: with Bill Pulte and Natalie Harp and that Bill Pulte,

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Speaker 1: he's drowning in AI slump.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I saw that. And it's all printed out

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Speaker 2: for him so he can pick what to put out,

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Speaker 2: which is just like, it's just the president. Just take

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Speaker 2: a moment to be like, the president of the United

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Speaker 2: States is getting a stack of paper. And it's not

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Speaker 2: from the military. It's not about the price of gas.

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Speaker 2: It's what the funny AI means. It's like him, here

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Speaker 2: you are as Superman.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Flying a plane and dropping poop on protesters. Like it's,

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Speaker 2: it's absolutely wild.

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Speaker 1: We've gone from the PDB, the presidential daily brief, which

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Speaker 1: is the best information calls from the best intelligent sources

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Speaker 1: to MAGA news one, two, three on Facebook.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's interesting because with Trump, everything is about

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Speaker 2: his ego and making him feel good so he's not

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Speaker 2: mean to you. Everyone around him is like, I got

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Speaker 2: to say something nice so he's not mad at me.

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Speaker 2: And so all he's getting for news is articles that

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Speaker 2: are saying he's the greatest guy in the world and

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Speaker 2: memes that are showing him as a superhero. And everything

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Speaker 2: else they're just telling is not real. Just don't worry

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Speaker 2: about that. Don't worry about that. So they're doing it

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Speaker 2: to him because they're afraid. The people around him, they're

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Speaker 2: only giving him what he likes to hear. It's just

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Speaker 2: such a dangerous thing to have that for the president

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Speaker 2: of the United States. And it's also just so weird.

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Speaker 2: It's so weird that somebody is that fragile that they

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Speaker 2: need to have people... printing out things like AI images

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Speaker 2: of him and be like, here you go, Mr. President.

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Speaker 2: Let's get some work done. Take a look at this.

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Speaker 2: Which one do you want to post today? This is

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Speaker 2: very important. Which one will go on True Social today?

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Speaker 2: And then the fact that he dictated that whole thing

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Speaker 2: about Bill Maher, the 1,200 word... post and he was

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Speaker 2: just like saying it out loud and she's like okay

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Speaker 2: here we go here we go it's 20 pages long i.

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Speaker 1: Love it so much and i'm telling you it is

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Speaker 1: we are we have entered in time jason jason jason.

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Speaker 2: Jason molly molly molly molly.

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Speaker 1: Another day in paradise.

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Speaker 2: Another day in paradise let we'll just make sure i'm

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Speaker 2: just doing a check-in with me soon because my brain

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Speaker 2: is it's it's on thin ice right now my brain.

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Speaker 1: Your brain is cooked and you know whose brain is also.

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Speaker 4: Molly, it's time for the headlines. So, as we know, Mr.

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Speaker 4: Trump and the Republicans in Alaska are really throwing a

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Speaker 4: hissy fit over this Ann Sullivan thing on the ballot.

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Speaker 4: I found this funny. Do you know about what's happening

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Speaker 4: in Nevada?

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Speaker 2: Nevada?

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Speaker 1: Nevada.

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Speaker 2: No. Tell us, Jesse.

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Speaker 1: What is happening in Nevada?

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Speaker 4: Okay, so, interestingly, just like what they're complaining about in Alaska,

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Speaker 4: there's a candidate named Daniel Ford on the ballot, and

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Speaker 4: there's also Aaron Ford, who we had on this podcast.

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Speaker 4: And you'll be shocked to hear Republicans are sending out

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Speaker 4: things saying AOC endorsed her and all these things to

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Speaker 4: try to draw votes away from him. And one of

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Speaker 4: the funny things about this is this happens in races constantly,

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Speaker 4: even in our your district in this last election. They

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Speaker 4: tried to do this.

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Speaker 1: It actually happened to Mary Patola within her congressional candidates

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Speaker 1: candidacy two years ago and they ran someone who was

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Speaker 1: in jail. So look, do we think it's good for

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Speaker 1: Democrats to do dirty tricks? In this case, yes. It's Alaska,

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Speaker 1: and they don't give a fuck, and they like her.

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Speaker 1: She's a good candidate. She's very Alaska. She curses. She's

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Speaker 1: very naughty. She maybe eats salad with a comb.

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Speaker 3: And you know what?

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Speaker 4: Post-woke queen, as they say.

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Speaker 1: Post-woke queen. And, you know, it's the state of Alaska.

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Speaker 1: It's very cold. People have to drive far. And sometimes

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Speaker 1: they need to eat their salad with a comb. And

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Speaker 1: that is why I say to you, but interestingly enough, okay,

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Speaker 1: during an interview with News Nation, which is, uh, one

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Speaker 1: of the many terrible cable news networks that is not

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Speaker 1: a good one. The good one is MSNL. The Republican

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Speaker 1: governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy, said that he will ask

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Speaker 1: whether he would certify the election. By the way, these

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Speaker 1: are insane questions to ask. Of course, you are going

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Speaker 1: to certify the fucking election if the candidate wins. But

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Speaker 1: he said, of course, we're going to investigate it because

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Speaker 1: he's a Republican. He wants Trump to love him. And

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Speaker 1: we're going to follow the law. FYI, states do elections,

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Speaker 1: not Donald J. Trump and his merry band of lunatics.

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Speaker 1: So as much as you, if you're a Republican, are

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Speaker 1: going to him in a hall and try to make

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Speaker 1: Big Daddy happy, at the end of the day, the

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Speaker 1: states do the elections, not Donald Trump. And so the

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Speaker 1: states are going to certify the elections and they're going

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Speaker 1: to run them the way they're supposed to.

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Speaker 4: So, Molly, we're seeing much more election fuckery. We have

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Speaker 4: something we knew would happen, which is Attorney General Ken

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Speaker 4: Paxton's office is suing over too many people of color

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Speaker 4: early voting because I could have predicted that without a

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Speaker 4: crystal ball.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So Ken Paxton is running for Senate. He is the

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Speaker 1: most low-T Republican. Oh, you like that?

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Speaker 2: A callback.

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Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, he's a low-T Republican running against

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Speaker 1: a very handsome 37-year-old who they have tried to attack

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Speaker 1: in every which way. And here's what's happening. He is

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Speaker 1: the AG. He has been known for dirty tricks. He

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Speaker 1: has been known to make Texas, I mean, he's basically

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Speaker 1: made Texas a haven for some of the worst and

431
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,080
Speaker 1: sleaziest tech billionaires. So now he has a lawsuit claiming

432
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:11,400
Speaker 1: that the Get Out to Vote advertisement campaign from Harris

433
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 1: County's office constitutes reverse racism because it encourages Black and

434
00:22:18,580 --> 00:22:23,570
Speaker 1: Latino voters, groups with historically lower access to elections, to vote.

435
00:22:24,050 --> 00:22:26,449
Speaker 1: And that's what this election is about, right? This is

436
00:22:26,510 --> 00:22:28,950
Speaker 1: about trying to keep people of color from voting. Why

437
00:22:28,970 --> 00:22:30,869
Speaker 1: do they want to keep people of color from voting?

438
00:22:30,890 --> 00:22:33,490
Speaker 1: Because they want, you know, they want white people to

439
00:22:33,530 --> 00:22:36,590
Speaker 1: vote for them because racism is part of this. And

440
00:22:36,810 --> 00:22:40,369
Speaker 1: so this is an insane, there is no world in

441
00:22:40,410 --> 00:22:44,260
Speaker 1: which this lawsuit passes. But it's important to realize it

442
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:48,460
Speaker 1: comes as Harris County is shattering early voting records with

443
00:22:48,619 --> 00:22:55,380
Speaker 1: over 950,000 residents having cast their ballots and one day

444
00:22:55,420 --> 00:23:00,210
Speaker 1: of early voting still left. The previous record for non-presidential elections,

445
00:23:01,350 --> 00:23:10,490
Speaker 1: the previous record was total 850,000. 5,000 in 2018 for non-presidential.

446
00:23:10,550 --> 00:23:15,460
Speaker 1: So here's what's happening. We really are seeing Republicans freaking

447
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 1: out because they know that the Texas Senate may flip.

448
00:23:19,619 --> 00:23:23,940
Speaker 1: And look, Republicans did this themselves. John Cornyn was a particularly,

449
00:23:24,510 --> 00:23:27,409
Speaker 1: you know, he was a relatively popular incumbent and Donald

450
00:23:27,430 --> 00:23:31,270
Speaker 1: Trump took him out. So the idea that somehow this

451
00:23:31,450 --> 00:23:34,940
Speaker 1: is Democrats' fault, like Democrats had a good candidate But

452
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,280
Speaker 1: Republicans really did this themselves. And so here we are.

453
00:23:38,820 --> 00:23:42,420
Speaker 4: Yes, I couldn't agree more. So last episode, we talked

454
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:46,570
Speaker 4: about the reporting of, you know, everyone warning Vivek not

455
00:23:46,609 --> 00:23:49,090
Speaker 4: to be a sociopath and put up that stupid ad

456
00:23:49,130 --> 00:23:52,590
Speaker 4: against Amy Acton. Well, he's now pulled the ad and

457
00:23:52,609 --> 00:23:56,429
Speaker 4: there's a poll from the GOP firm that shows it's

458
00:23:56,490 --> 00:23:57,830
Speaker 4: flipping voters to Amy Acton.

459
00:23:58,290 --> 00:23:58,590
Speaker 2: Yeah.

460
00:23:58,730 --> 00:24:01,290
Speaker 1: So that I mean, anyone who's seen that ad knows

461
00:24:01,310 --> 00:24:01,990
Speaker 1: it was ridiculous.

462
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 2: Atrocious, right?

463
00:24:03,820 --> 00:24:07,350
Speaker 4: Well, anybody, anyone who doesn't pass the psychopath test.

464
00:24:07,930 --> 00:24:11,230
Speaker 1: Anyone who watches it, people basically decide that they want

465
00:24:11,369 --> 00:24:16,610
Speaker 1: to vote for Amy because it's so disgusting to try

466
00:24:16,630 --> 00:24:22,889
Speaker 1: to re-litigate her childhood sexual assault. And so here we

467
00:24:23,190 --> 00:24:27,919
Speaker 1: are because it shows what bad character Vivek has. And again,

468
00:24:28,340 --> 00:24:34,130
Speaker 1: like we knew Ohio well being... somewhat MAGA is really

469
00:24:34,250 --> 00:24:37,210
Speaker 1: not MAGA the way MAGA is MAGA. And so an

470
00:24:37,300 --> 00:24:40,380
Speaker 1: ad like this, when you have someone like Mike DeWine

471
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:43,820
Speaker 1: as governor, who is very, very, very conservative, but largely

472
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,780
Speaker 1: a pretty decent fellow, though I disagree with almost everything

473
00:24:47,820 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 1: he believes, is really disgusting. And so here we are.

474
00:24:53,260 --> 00:24:57,060
Speaker 1: It's having a significant effect on the gubernatorial race. That's

475
00:24:57,180 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 1: what a memo attached to the polling says.

476
00:24:59,810 --> 00:25:00,010
Speaker 2: And.

477
00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:05,060
Speaker 1: This means that it will also help Sherrod Brown in

478
00:25:05,100 --> 00:25:09,909
Speaker 1: the Senate. And remember, Sherrod Brown is being, the crypto

479
00:25:09,950 --> 00:25:13,209
Speaker 1: lobby is spend, spend, spending against Sherrod Brown because they

480
00:25:13,369 --> 00:25:14,710
Speaker 1: do not want him in office.

481
00:25:16,109 --> 00:25:17,710
Speaker 4: Well, they're about to be out of money after what

482
00:25:17,750 --> 00:25:19,390
Speaker 4: happened yesterday with Biden.

483
00:25:19,910 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 1: Exactly. And by a two to one ratio, those who

484
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,619
Speaker 1: said they were familiar with the ad made it more

485
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:31,370
Speaker 1: likely for them to vote for Acton. Oh, that's not

486
00:25:31,390 --> 00:25:34,790
Speaker 1: what ads are supposed to do right there.

487
00:25:34,869 --> 00:25:36,169
Speaker 3: That is not what they're supposed to do.

488
00:25:36,170 --> 00:25:38,619
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're going to be teaching this in political science

489
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,580
Speaker 4: courses for many a year to come. And the lesson

490
00:25:41,660 --> 00:25:44,480
Speaker 4: is don't run a psychopath at the top of the ticket.

491
00:25:44,900 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 4: And I really like, I don't know if you've seen

492
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,350
Speaker 4: the social media trend of what's happening to Vivek because

493
00:25:49,369 --> 00:25:51,750
Speaker 4: of this. Have you seen this? People go up to

494
00:25:51,790 --> 00:25:54,210
Speaker 4: him for the selfies as he walks around the fairs

495
00:25:54,250 --> 00:25:56,090
Speaker 4: and the events. And they say, when they go to

496
00:25:56,250 --> 00:25:59,900
Speaker 4: say smile, they say, Pedophile. There's numerous videos, I might add.

497
00:26:00,180 --> 00:26:00,460
Speaker 2: Yeah.

498
00:26:00,780 --> 00:26:01,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

499
00:26:01,500 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 2: Pedophile.

500
00:26:02,260 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 1: There you go, ladies and gentlemen.

501
00:26:04,420 --> 00:26:08,209
Speaker 4: Somali, we are now seeing Chris Murphy sounding the alarm

502
00:26:08,270 --> 00:26:12,270
Speaker 4: that it seems the Trump administration is going to do

503
00:26:12,330 --> 00:26:16,629
Speaker 4: a psychotic plan against Iran and really go into a

504
00:26:16,730 --> 00:26:17,970
Speaker 4: post-election assault.

505
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:23,000
Speaker 1: Chris Murphy has said that he has seen the plan

506
00:26:23,020 --> 00:26:26,420
Speaker 1: and it's insane. Now, I actually watched the clip of

507
00:26:26,830 --> 00:26:31,050
Speaker 1: Chris Murphy saying that. And basically what he says is

508
00:26:31,109 --> 00:26:34,990
Speaker 1: that they're going to hit civilian targets. We know that

509
00:26:35,050 --> 00:26:38,250
Speaker 1: Trump has said he wants to hit civilian targets. So

510
00:26:38,730 --> 00:26:43,270
Speaker 1: not a huge surprise. Um, but we don't, but again, like,

511
00:26:43,390 --> 00:26:46,850
Speaker 1: what is, no one wants this war. Okay. The only

512
00:26:46,890 --> 00:26:50,869
Speaker 1: people who want this war are Benjamin Netanyahu and maybe,

513
00:26:51,170 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe Trump on his worst day, thinks

514
00:26:54,619 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 1: it's a good idea.

515
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:57,700
Speaker 4: I mean, there was that article today that the oil

516
00:26:57,740 --> 00:26:59,169
Speaker 4: companies are pretty thrilled with it.

517
00:26:59,300 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: Right. It's good for oil companies, but it's bad for

518
00:27:01,500 --> 00:27:05,689
Speaker 1: the rest of us. So again, but remember, uh, Murphy

519
00:27:05,750 --> 00:27:08,430
Speaker 1: is in the gang of eight, so he gets briefed. Um,

520
00:27:09,350 --> 00:27:12,090
Speaker 1: so maybe he's, you know, he's probably seeing some worse

521
00:27:12,130 --> 00:27:15,290
Speaker 1: stuff even than that. Look, there's a lot of talk

522
00:27:15,390 --> 00:27:18,300
Speaker 1: on the scenes that Hegseth is in trouble, that Hegseth

523
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:23,250
Speaker 1: is trying to get, um, is trying to get nominated

524
00:27:23,550 --> 00:27:28,660
Speaker 1: to Marsha Blackburn seed as, uh, I'm serious. There's all

525
00:27:28,700 --> 00:27:31,020
Speaker 1: sorts of Hail Mary stuff going on behind the scenes

526
00:27:31,060 --> 00:27:34,220
Speaker 1: with Hegseth. And then there's also talk that he wants

527
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,280
Speaker 1: Kane out who is like actually doing the, that would.

528
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:38,100
Speaker 3: Be a disaster.

529
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:43,070
Speaker 1: Um, and last night I saw a few good men, which, uh,

530
00:27:43,170 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 1: made me think about all the many ways. And it's a,

531
00:27:46,430 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: actually a really great play written by Andrew Ross Sorkin.

532
00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:51,940
Speaker 3: Nope.

533
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 1: Written by Aaron Sorkin, not to be confused with Andrew

534
00:27:56,119 --> 00:28:00,460
Speaker 1: Ross Sorkin, no relation. And in it, there's just a

535
00:28:00,590 --> 00:28:03,230
Speaker 1: lot of talk about what does it mean to serve

536
00:28:03,330 --> 00:28:07,710
Speaker 1: honorably and to serve God and country. And so it

537
00:28:08,490 --> 00:28:13,640
Speaker 1: is just pretty incredible here to be in a moment

538
00:28:13,780 --> 00:28:17,179
Speaker 1: where we are in such a dangerous moment for the

539
00:28:17,220 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 1: American people and for America writ large. Matthew Cole is

540
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,750
Speaker 1: an investigative journalist and the author of Princes and Thieves,

541
00:28:26,810 --> 00:28:32,270
Speaker 1: Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Zayed's secret plot to remake

542
00:28:32,590 --> 00:28:35,649
Speaker 1: the Middle East. Welcome, welcome, Matthew Cole.

543
00:28:36,109 --> 00:28:37,030
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Molly.

544
00:28:37,390 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: So first, Give me the 411 on Jared Kushner and

545
00:28:42,220 --> 00:28:48,500
Speaker 1: his lawyer and most recent denials or letters or what?

546
00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:53,130
Speaker 3: Uh, well, I can't speak about any kind of litigation threat.

547
00:28:53,150 --> 00:28:55,590
Speaker 3: I have nothing to say, but I, I, before we

548
00:28:55,630 --> 00:28:59,590
Speaker 3: get into what the book, uh, princes and thieves is about,

549
00:28:59,930 --> 00:29:04,010
Speaker 3: it is important to say that, uh, Mr. Kushner and

550
00:29:04,050 --> 00:29:09,310
Speaker 3: his lawyer, uh, unequivocally and emphatically deny every allegation in

551
00:29:09,350 --> 00:29:13,980
Speaker 3: the book. And so, you know, your listeners should just

552
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,280
Speaker 3: know that he says none of this is true.

553
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:16,980
Speaker 2: Okay.

554
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:22,440
Speaker 1: And you've had experiences like this before when reporting on,

555
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,690
Speaker 1: I mean, this is not so unusual. No.

556
00:29:26,730 --> 00:29:29,470
Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, I've been sued for libel

557
00:29:29,490 --> 00:29:34,110
Speaker 3: before by Eric Prince, which was dismissed. And I've certainly

558
00:29:34,130 --> 00:29:38,810
Speaker 3: have reported on, you know, government secrets for a long

559
00:29:38,850 --> 00:29:42,650
Speaker 3: time and experienced all sorts of forms of uh blanket

560
00:29:42,670 --> 00:29:46,300
Speaker 3: denials you know this probably uh takes the cake for

561
00:29:46,340 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 3: sure but but um you know it's not it's not

562
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 3: my first.

563
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:54,780
Speaker 1: Rodeo read it before every interview no is that no choice.

564
00:29:55,140 --> 00:29:57,860
Speaker 3: No that's a choice i mean i think actually look

565
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 3: it's um I think it's actually in fairness. It's both

566
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 3: fair and responsible. The book very diligently included his copious denials. And,

567
00:30:11,660 --> 00:30:13,700
Speaker 3: you know, the way the book opens up is I

568
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:17,530
Speaker 3: say that, you know, everything that you're about to read, Mr. Kushner,

569
00:30:17,550 --> 00:30:23,250
Speaker 3: through a lawyer, denies. And I took his denials very seriously.

570
00:30:23,290 --> 00:30:27,380
Speaker 3: And I went back to sources after we got the denials.

571
00:30:27,670 --> 00:30:31,690
Speaker 3: And My story is the same. It stays the same.

572
00:30:31,730 --> 00:30:35,340
Speaker 3: And the sources don't budge and I don't budge. And I,

573
00:30:35,410 --> 00:30:37,030
Speaker 3: you know, what I say to the reader is, is

574
00:30:37,090 --> 00:30:39,100
Speaker 3: that it's up to the reader to decide which version

575
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 3: they think is more credible. I'm totally confident that my

576
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,410
Speaker 3: story is accurate and I stand behind it.

577
00:30:45,900 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 1: Give us this sort of larger 25,000 foot story, which

578
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 1: involves both the Dutch and the GRU.

579
00:30:57,750 --> 00:31:00,110
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I will, but I just want to say

580
00:31:00,150 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 3: for your audience, the whole Dutch and the GRU thing,

581
00:31:04,650 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 3: it's not that it's not interesting, it's not that it's

582
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 3: not significant, but it's really a very small part of

583
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 3: the book and the story. It really is the means

584
00:31:12,300 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 3: in which, as the reporter, I got onto the story.

585
00:31:16,700 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 3: And it's used for that purpose. I mean, it's sort

586
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:25,780
Speaker 3: of the trail of custody, if you will, for... the

587
00:31:25,820 --> 00:31:30,580
Speaker 3: information and some of the facts. At the 50,000 foot level,

588
00:31:31,140 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 3: this is a story about Jared Kushner's hidden diplomacy when

589
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,460
Speaker 3: he was in the White House, which has everything from

590
00:31:41,020 --> 00:31:46,380
Speaker 3: sexual blackmail and murder to assassins and mercenaries. And, you know,

591
00:31:46,420 --> 00:31:49,550
Speaker 3: I think all told, it's sort of like Jared Kushner

592
00:31:49,590 --> 00:31:52,530
Speaker 3: got in the middle of a real life Game of

593
00:31:52,590 --> 00:31:57,170
Speaker 3: Thrones between three Arab very, very wealthy Gulf Arab rulers.

594
00:31:58,260 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 3: And that's the sort of setting that, I mean, that's

595
00:32:02,260 --> 00:32:04,140
Speaker 3: sort of like the terrain that the book lays out,

596
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:08,590
Speaker 3: which is the vision that Jared Kushner embraced when he

597
00:32:08,630 --> 00:32:13,190
Speaker 3: started working with MBZ, Mohammed bin Zayed, the ruler of

598
00:32:13,230 --> 00:32:17,870
Speaker 3: the UAE. And I think, I feel strongly that what

599
00:32:17,910 --> 00:32:19,510
Speaker 3: the book lays out, I mean, it goes, obviously it

600
00:32:19,530 --> 00:32:21,950
Speaker 3: goes back to the very beginning of the first Trump administration.

601
00:32:22,010 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 3: So we're talking about late 2026, or it's really almost 20,

602
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:29,459
Speaker 3: 10 years ago. But that story, which was, which was

603
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 3: about reshaping the Middle East when Trump came into office,

604
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 3: helps explain how the hell we got into the war

605
00:32:34,980 --> 00:32:38,140
Speaker 3: with Iran. And so I want to just lay, I just,

606
00:32:38,570 --> 00:32:40,450
Speaker 3: you know, so now if you want me to answer

607
00:32:40,470 --> 00:32:42,190
Speaker 3: the question, if you want me to answer the question

608
00:32:42,230 --> 00:32:43,470
Speaker 3: about the GRU.

609
00:32:43,930 --> 00:32:46,910
Speaker 1: But you don't get into the phone without the Dutch.

610
00:32:47,550 --> 00:32:50,830
Speaker 1: And the GRU. You don't get to see what happens

611
00:32:51,010 --> 00:32:55,290
Speaker 1: in this whole story exists because somebody got a look

612
00:32:55,450 --> 00:32:57,660
Speaker 1: at what was happening in Jared Kushner's phone.

613
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,020
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. That's right. So in I mean, it

614
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:02,980
Speaker 3: depends on how you want me to answer it. My experience,

615
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 3: my way through it or just what happened. The Russian

616
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,950
Speaker 3: intelligence service, the military intelligence unit, the GRU, at some

617
00:33:11,990 --> 00:33:17,970
Speaker 3: point in 2017 had successfully hacked into Kushner's phone. And

618
00:33:17,990 --> 00:33:20,350
Speaker 3: we'll stop there for a second. There was a GRU

619
00:33:21,870 --> 00:33:26,050
Speaker 3: operative who was traveling through Europe and going to make

620
00:33:26,090 --> 00:33:30,740
Speaker 3: his way into England. The Dutch intelligence service known as

621
00:33:30,780 --> 00:33:35,820
Speaker 3: the MIVD, which is sort of their version of the NSA,

622
00:33:37,340 --> 00:33:40,460
Speaker 3: saw it happening and ran an operation to try to

623
00:33:40,500 --> 00:33:43,090
Speaker 3: flip him, to stop him and flip him. They did.

624
00:33:43,130 --> 00:33:43,870
Speaker 3: They were able to.

625
00:33:44,350 --> 00:33:45,390
Speaker 1: Or the GRU officer.

626
00:33:45,410 --> 00:33:50,190
Speaker 3: The GRU Russian, I'm sorry. And to flip the operative

627
00:33:50,510 --> 00:33:52,810
Speaker 3: and give him an opportunity to work for the Dutch

628
00:33:53,310 --> 00:33:55,750
Speaker 3: or to be arrested in England. He chose to go

629
00:33:55,770 --> 00:33:59,500
Speaker 3: with the Dutch. They started working with him. He gave

630
00:33:59,580 --> 00:34:06,660
Speaker 3: them some ability to access a secret Russian GRU server

631
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 3: where they were putting their take, let's just call it,

632
00:34:09,340 --> 00:34:14,049
Speaker 3: remote server. And it was in Rostov, Russia. And when

633
00:34:14,090 --> 00:34:18,989
Speaker 3: the Dutch in late 2017 got into that server, they

634
00:34:19,030 --> 00:34:25,739
Speaker 3: discovered Jared Kushner's phone or screenshots, some indication that the

635
00:34:25,820 --> 00:34:28,779
Speaker 3: Russians were looking at Jared's phone, had hacked his phone.

636
00:34:29,420 --> 00:34:32,540
Speaker 3: And so that set off a series of alarms. And

637
00:34:32,780 --> 00:34:38,060
Speaker 3: it's a little murky. Intelligence stories are always murky. But

638
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 3: the Dutch service, their specialty is focusing almost exclusively on

639
00:34:41,980 --> 00:34:44,989
Speaker 3: the GRU and on the Russians because that's their essentially

640
00:34:45,050 --> 00:34:48,130
Speaker 3: main enemy. And they're very good at it. And they

641
00:34:48,150 --> 00:34:48,910
Speaker 3: work with the U.S.

642
00:34:49,290 --> 00:34:49,730
Speaker 2: Frequently.

643
00:34:49,770 --> 00:34:52,230
Speaker 3: They've had a history of hacking into the GRU. They've

644
00:34:52,250 --> 00:34:55,070
Speaker 3: had a history of hacking into the GRU and sharing

645
00:34:55,090 --> 00:34:57,610
Speaker 3: that information with the U.S. when they watched the GRU,

646
00:34:58,370 --> 00:35:02,049
Speaker 3: for instance, attacking the U.S. government in 2014 by trying

647
00:35:02,070 --> 00:35:05,060
Speaker 3: to break into and successfully breaking into State Department emails.

648
00:35:06,420 --> 00:35:09,950
Speaker 3: And so... they eventually decide that they want to figure

649
00:35:09,989 --> 00:35:13,089
Speaker 3: out how the Russians got into the phone. And they

650
00:35:13,130 --> 00:35:16,690
Speaker 3: spend a while working on that, and eventually they do.

651
00:35:17,190 --> 00:35:22,820
Speaker 3: And so by early, early 2018, the Dutch have accessed

652
00:35:23,540 --> 00:35:27,860
Speaker 3: Jared Kushner's iPhone, one of his iPhones. And In the

653
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,819
Speaker 3: course of that access, my understanding is, and I think

654
00:35:30,860 --> 00:35:32,830
Speaker 3: the reporting in the book, they weren't able to control

655
00:35:32,870 --> 00:35:35,890
Speaker 3: the phone. It wasn't malware where they could manipulate the phone.

656
00:35:36,230 --> 00:35:38,170
Speaker 3: But they had the ability to see the phone when

657
00:35:38,210 --> 00:35:42,230
Speaker 3: the phone was on. And in that process, they see

658
00:35:42,690 --> 00:35:50,060
Speaker 3: Jared Kushner accessing or viewing a UAE-based bank account. And

659
00:35:50,180 --> 00:35:53,360
Speaker 3: in that bank account, money, hundreds of millions of dollars

660
00:35:53,420 --> 00:35:57,730
Speaker 3: are flowing into that account from Azerbaijan. I'll just stop

661
00:35:57,770 --> 00:35:59,850
Speaker 3: there and say that just as it would be for

662
00:35:59,910 --> 00:36:02,190
Speaker 3: anybody else, and it was for me as a reporter

663
00:36:02,230 --> 00:36:05,130
Speaker 3: at the time, the Dutch could not understand what they

664
00:36:05,150 --> 00:36:07,930
Speaker 3: were looking at, right? What does Azerbaijan have to do

665
00:36:07,969 --> 00:36:10,509
Speaker 3: with it? But there were suspicions. And again, just to

666
00:36:10,550 --> 00:36:15,090
Speaker 3: bring your audience back, you know, this was a Russiagate era.

667
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:18,220
Speaker 3: And so one of the hysterias wasn't just in the U.S.,

668
00:36:18,540 --> 00:36:22,219
Speaker 3: but with also NATO partners was that, you know, Trump

669
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:26,969
Speaker 3: was a Russian plant and that he had been bought off. And,

670
00:36:27,030 --> 00:36:29,729
Speaker 3: you know, was this evidence that his son-in-law was getting

671
00:36:29,770 --> 00:36:33,750
Speaker 3: money from the Russians because Azerbaijan is on the Caspian?

672
00:36:34,450 --> 00:36:38,770
Speaker 1: So one of the ways that Jon Stewart pushed back

673
00:36:38,890 --> 00:36:42,460
Speaker 1: on you yesterday was that he said, why didn't the

674
00:36:42,580 --> 00:36:48,740
Speaker 1: Dutch call the Biden administration after they hacked Jared's phone?

675
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 2: Why?

676
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 1: Didn't the government learn about this? Right.

677
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,720
Speaker 3: Well, well, yeah. And I, you know, there's sort of,

678
00:36:55,850 --> 00:36:57,630
Speaker 3: I want, I want to give sort of two answers.

679
00:36:57,670 --> 00:37:01,469
Speaker 3: You know, the first answer is, is I don't know. And, but, but, but,

680
00:37:01,790 --> 00:37:04,330
Speaker 3: but the second answer is, and as someone who's covered intelligence,

681
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 3: I can't ever see any scenario as to why they

682
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:10,360
Speaker 3: would do this. They U S the U S is

683
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:14,260
Speaker 3: a NATO ally. Intelligence agencies keep secrets. That is literally

684
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,140
Speaker 3: what they do for a living. And so, you know, they're,

685
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,510
Speaker 3: number one, they're greedy. If they can get into something,

686
00:37:19,550 --> 00:37:21,770
Speaker 3: they will. And if they can gather something, they will.

687
00:37:21,810 --> 00:37:23,340
Speaker 3: And you never know what you're going to do with it.

688
00:37:23,790 --> 00:37:26,230
Speaker 3: And just because they hadn't told the U.S. government doesn't

689
00:37:26,250 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 3: mean that one day they might not tell the government.

690
00:37:27,860 --> 00:37:32,060
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, that's a, in a sense, it's like,

691
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:36,540
Speaker 3: and in a certain way, it's unimportant. And in part,

692
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,859
Speaker 3: at least from the reporting that I have, You know,

693
00:37:39,900 --> 00:37:42,580
Speaker 3: I don't know where they are today in terms of

694
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 3: how they view what they found in his account. But

695
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:46,540
Speaker 3: I know at the beginning and through the time which

696
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 3: they were in account, they were at a loss as

697
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:52,299
Speaker 3: to what the account was about. And so the question is,

698
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:54,370
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, so in a sense, it's like,

699
00:37:54,910 --> 00:37:56,930
Speaker 3: what would they tell the U.S.? And they certainly are

700
00:37:56,950 --> 00:37:59,089
Speaker 3: not going to tell Donald Trump. What are they going

701
00:37:59,110 --> 00:37:59,689
Speaker 3: to tell Joe Biden?

702
00:38:00,110 --> 00:38:04,170
Speaker 1: Isn't there sort of a possibility that they did tell

703
00:38:04,489 --> 00:38:06,549
Speaker 1: that the U.S. does know and we don't know?

704
00:38:06,570 --> 00:38:08,310
Speaker 2: I mean, why? No, I don't.

705
00:38:08,350 --> 00:38:08,760
Speaker 1: Well, I.

706
00:38:09,590 --> 00:38:12,030
Speaker 3: I have no indication at all that that is the case.

707
00:38:12,530 --> 00:38:14,460
Speaker 3: And I would highly doubt that.

708
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:17,420
Speaker 1: But it's possible. I mean, the idea that the government

709
00:38:17,460 --> 00:38:20,399
Speaker 1: knows things that the people don't, right?

710
00:38:20,420 --> 00:38:23,860
Speaker 3: Well, yes, but my view is as an investigative reporter,

711
00:38:23,940 --> 00:38:27,569
Speaker 3: and actually I think what is the most important thing

712
00:38:27,590 --> 00:38:31,069
Speaker 3: that I've figured out from reporting the book and writing

713
00:38:31,110 --> 00:38:33,330
Speaker 3: the book is that it's not just what the government

714
00:38:33,370 --> 00:38:36,230
Speaker 3: doesn't tell us. I mean, it's, you know, the government

715
00:38:36,270 --> 00:38:39,770
Speaker 3: in the sense of it's, classified secrets. But the truth is,

716
00:38:39,870 --> 00:38:43,290
Speaker 3: is that, you know, the average person doesn't, we don't

717
00:38:43,330 --> 00:38:46,090
Speaker 3: know very much about what goes on behind closed doors

718
00:38:46,530 --> 00:38:48,650
Speaker 3: in our government. And I think that's part of that

719
00:38:48,750 --> 00:38:51,669
Speaker 3: right now, that is a huge problem because the, the,

720
00:38:52,070 --> 00:38:54,310
Speaker 3: at least in foreign policy, our government has shrunk to

721
00:38:54,330 --> 00:38:57,489
Speaker 3: like three people, essentially a family and a few friends. Right. Right.

722
00:38:57,590 --> 00:38:59,710
Speaker 3: And so the truth is, is that secrets can be

723
00:38:59,730 --> 00:39:02,790
Speaker 3: kept for a very long time and very well. Um,

724
00:39:02,989 --> 00:39:05,430
Speaker 3: and so You know, that's a that's an issue that

725
00:39:05,450 --> 00:39:07,720
Speaker 3: I think the book I mean, the book is trying

726
00:39:07,739 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 3: to lift the veil and I think does on what

727
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:11,319
Speaker 3: power looks like on the real side, you know, what

728
00:39:11,380 --> 00:39:14,620
Speaker 3: power really looks like as it's been going on since

729
00:39:14,660 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 3: Trump came into office in 2016, 2017.

730
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:22,650
Speaker 1: So let's get to the I have some sort of

731
00:39:22,730 --> 00:39:27,049
Speaker 1: more in the woods questions here. Dutch intelligence, they learned

732
00:39:27,070 --> 00:39:34,100
Speaker 1: about the slush fund right through. this GRU asset. Do

733
00:39:34,140 --> 00:39:38,259
Speaker 1: you have a sense of the exposure of this material

734
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:41,529
Speaker 1: to the GRU or other intelligence agencies?

735
00:39:41,550 --> 00:39:46,230
Speaker 3: I don't. There are some indications in my reporting which

736
00:39:46,610 --> 00:39:49,609
Speaker 3: are not in the book because it was... it gets

737
00:39:49,730 --> 00:39:55,350
Speaker 3: complicated that there are other NATO allies that have seen

738
00:39:55,370 --> 00:39:59,620
Speaker 3: or are aware that the Dutch were in there and

739
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 3: that they had access to Kushner's phone.

740
00:40:03,020 --> 00:40:03,340
Speaker 2: Okay.

741
00:40:03,540 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 1: Wow. And that makes sense.

742
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 2: Okay.

743
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:11,720
Speaker 1: Do you have any visibility into when money left the account,

744
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:16,100
Speaker 1: where it went, or even the general foreign policy priorities

745
00:40:16,460 --> 00:40:19,990
Speaker 1: of the administration at the time, Kushner or a surrogate,

746
00:40:20,030 --> 00:40:21,210
Speaker 1: withdrew from the account?

747
00:40:21,670 --> 00:40:24,709
Speaker 3: That's a big question. I'm going to try to break

748
00:40:24,790 --> 00:40:30,509
Speaker 3: these things separately. So let's start with, there were more

749
00:40:30,550 --> 00:40:33,669
Speaker 3: than one account. My book lays out two bank accounts.

750
00:40:33,730 --> 00:40:36,130
Speaker 3: I call one alpha and I call the other beta.

751
00:40:36,310 --> 00:40:38,730
Speaker 1: And one is in Abu Dhabi.

752
00:40:38,930 --> 00:40:42,610
Speaker 3: One is in the UAE. One is in the UAE

753
00:40:42,670 --> 00:40:45,310
Speaker 3: and one was held in Israel. The account that the

754
00:40:45,350 --> 00:40:47,969
Speaker 3: Dutch were able to see or glean from was in

755
00:40:47,989 --> 00:40:50,399
Speaker 3: the UAE. And that account in the book I call

756
00:40:50,420 --> 00:40:55,160
Speaker 3: the Alpha account. And that account receives money from Azerbaijan.

757
00:40:55,860 --> 00:41:00,680
Speaker 3: But the money going out, that pool of money is

758
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:06,210
Speaker 3: essentially a foreign policy fund. That's for operations. And one

759
00:41:06,230 --> 00:41:09,969
Speaker 3: of the ways, and I didn't get a chance to

760
00:41:10,070 --> 00:41:13,069
Speaker 3: sort of explain this to Jon Stewart last night, but

761
00:41:13,570 --> 00:41:15,910
Speaker 3: We're talking about verification, and I have to be very

762
00:41:15,950 --> 00:41:18,310
Speaker 3: careful about sourcing. But one of the things that I

763
00:41:18,350 --> 00:41:24,319
Speaker 3: was able to do was to corroborate transfers, that information

764
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 3: that the Dutch had and gleaned with other people who

765
00:41:28,260 --> 00:41:31,060
Speaker 3: had nothing to do with or any awareness at all

766
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 3: of a hack and the Dutch at all, but knew

767
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:34,800
Speaker 3: about the bank account.

768
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 2: Okay.

769
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:39,970
Speaker 3: And that's a very, you know, It's a big gulf

770
00:41:40,270 --> 00:41:45,500
Speaker 3: to bridge in terms of reporting. And so the first

771
00:41:45,820 --> 00:41:50,680
Speaker 3: transfer out of the account from the Alpha account that

772
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:55,590
Speaker 3: the Dutch could see on his phone was a, if

773
00:41:55,660 --> 00:41:58,790
Speaker 3: memory serves, the first one was roughly $ 20 million to

774
00:41:58,930 --> 00:42:02,810
Speaker 3: Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater. And the second one

775
00:42:02,910 --> 00:42:08,560
Speaker 3: was to Khalifa Haftar, for $ 85 million. He was the renegade,

776
00:42:08,580 --> 00:42:11,719
Speaker 3: he still is, the renegade ruler of Eastern Libya who

777
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:16,830
Speaker 3: had tried to overthrow the government in Tripoli. And then,

778
00:42:17,750 --> 00:42:19,890
Speaker 3: we'll get into the other ones later, but let's start

779
00:42:19,910 --> 00:42:23,450
Speaker 3: with those two and what's going on. Those transfers happened

780
00:42:23,469 --> 00:42:29,660
Speaker 3: in the summer of 2018. At that time, the Khalifa Haftar,

781
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:35,270
Speaker 3: the UAE, was working to support Haftar's effort to overthrow

782
00:42:35,290 --> 00:42:36,649
Speaker 3: the government there.

783
00:42:37,190 --> 00:42:37,470
Speaker 2: Okay.

784
00:42:38,110 --> 00:42:40,069
Speaker 3: Um, the other thing that you have to understand about

785
00:42:40,090 --> 00:42:46,180
Speaker 3: the alpha account is the alpha account was in a, uh, UAE.

786
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:48,580
Speaker 3: The bank account was actually held by, it was the

787
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:53,359
Speaker 3: account for a UAE government charity, a domestic charity called

788
00:42:53,620 --> 00:42:58,219
Speaker 3: Watani al-Emarat. It's, it's since been shut down because it was, um,

789
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,940
Speaker 3: used in, it, it was served in, as a cover

790
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:06,660
Speaker 3: for UAE intelligence and military operations. Specifically, one of the

791
00:43:06,739 --> 00:43:10,180
Speaker 3: managers of the account who worked with both Kushner and

792
00:43:10,260 --> 00:43:17,899
Speaker 3: Eric Prince was the head of the foundation, Durar Bilal al-Falasi,

793
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:18,840
Speaker 3: it's a mouthful.

794
00:43:19,450 --> 00:43:19,700
Speaker 2: Mr.

795
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:25,370
Speaker 3: al-Falasi had a secret role and he oversaw the purchase

796
00:43:25,650 --> 00:43:31,070
Speaker 3: of arms for UAE's secret wars. I just want to

797
00:43:31,090 --> 00:43:32,770
Speaker 3: stop there for a second. So we have in the

798
00:43:32,830 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 3: summer of 2018, Jared Kushner has access to, I don't

799
00:43:38,219 --> 00:43:41,219
Speaker 3: say that he controlled, I'm not saying that he was

800
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:44,330
Speaker 3: in charge, but he had access to a bank account

801
00:43:44,750 --> 00:43:49,510
Speaker 3: whose function was to help fund, secretly fund a war

802
00:43:49,690 --> 00:43:53,790
Speaker 3: in Libya. OK. And now what did the book does

803
00:43:53,830 --> 00:43:56,239
Speaker 3: not say? And I don't report. What did Eric Prince

804
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,420
Speaker 3: do with what ultimately ended up being about 60 million dollars? Now,

805
00:43:59,460 --> 00:44:02,339
Speaker 3: there are some indications in the book. I do talk

806
00:44:02,380 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 3: about that in the book. But the point is, is

807
00:44:05,420 --> 00:44:09,219
Speaker 3: that simply by having access to that account, Mr. Kushner

808
00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:13,590
Speaker 3: has tied himself to the UAE's secret foreign policy.

809
00:44:14,150 --> 00:44:14,330
Speaker 2: Right.

810
00:44:14,410 --> 00:44:19,509
Speaker 3: And that foreign policy was about thwarting Iran's undoing the

811
00:44:19,570 --> 00:44:23,100
Speaker 3: last remnants of the Arab Spring and generally remaking the

812
00:44:23,140 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 3: map in the Middle East to try to make a

813
00:44:25,700 --> 00:44:29,800
Speaker 3: deal that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the willingness

814
00:44:29,860 --> 00:44:34,569
Speaker 3: to marginalize the Palestinians in that deal, right? And so

815
00:44:34,590 --> 00:44:37,469
Speaker 3: the bank account is important, but it's more of a

816
00:44:37,550 --> 00:44:42,210
Speaker 3: symbol in the sense of what Jared Kushner and by extension,

817
00:44:42,410 --> 00:44:46,050
Speaker 3: President Trump were embracing when they were working with the

818
00:44:46,500 --> 00:44:47,140
Speaker 3: Emirati ruler.

819
00:44:48,090 --> 00:44:52,870
Speaker 1: David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, did he have

820
00:44:52,890 --> 00:44:57,570
Speaker 1: access to these? Again, I know you have. They were signatories.

821
00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:00,379
Speaker 1: Jared was a signatory, but we don't.

822
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 3: OK, but they're separate. My understanding is and what I

823
00:45:04,660 --> 00:45:07,240
Speaker 3: report is Kushner was a signatory on the Alpha account.

824
00:45:07,930 --> 00:45:11,069
Speaker 3: The work that he did with what I report on,

825
00:45:11,910 --> 00:45:14,850
Speaker 3: Ambassador David Friedman, is with the beta account. I don't

826
00:45:14,890 --> 00:45:17,219
Speaker 3: report and I don't know whether he had any access.

827
00:45:17,550 --> 00:45:20,700
Speaker 3: What I wrote and described was his role in communicating,

828
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:24,280
Speaker 3: serving as a sort of go-between to communicate between Kushner

829
00:45:24,900 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 3: and Netanyahu when they wanted to coordinate withdrawals or transfers

830
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:33,650
Speaker 3: from the beta account, which sat in Israel. That account is, again,

831
00:45:33,810 --> 00:45:39,149
Speaker 3: very distinct, totally distinct from the alpha account. except that

832
00:45:39,330 --> 00:45:41,629
Speaker 3: it's still this large pot of money that has been

833
00:45:41,969 --> 00:45:44,660
Speaker 3: created and funded by a foreign government leader.

834
00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:54,460
Speaker 1: This story feels like.

835
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:53,140
Speaker 2: 5% of a much larger story.

836
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:56,140
Speaker 3: Do you agree? Well, I don't know if I would

837
00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 3: categorize it as 5%. But I mean the beginning. Well,

838
00:46:01,100 --> 00:46:05,480
Speaker 3: what I think is what my reporting shows is this

839
00:46:05,540 --> 00:46:08,100
Speaker 3: is the tip of the iceberg. I don't know how

840
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:10,380
Speaker 3: big the iceberg is. And I don't pretend to. I

841
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:13,989
Speaker 3: think that the story that I've reported is exhaustive. And

842
00:46:14,030 --> 00:46:16,170
Speaker 3: I think that there is a full, there is by

843
00:46:16,250 --> 00:46:18,870
Speaker 3: far a large enough picture for anyone to pick up

844
00:46:18,930 --> 00:46:21,710
Speaker 3: the book, read the book, and understand that there is

845
00:46:21,770 --> 00:46:26,750
Speaker 3: this whole vast secret world that was going on behind

846
00:46:26,790 --> 00:46:31,410
Speaker 3: the scenes that very much, I believe, has brought us

847
00:46:31,430 --> 00:46:35,690
Speaker 3: to Trump's decision to go to war in Iran. And certainly,

848
00:46:35,910 --> 00:46:38,719
Speaker 3: to your point about seeing just a sliver of it

849
00:46:39,180 --> 00:46:43,600
Speaker 3: is should be generating questions about, you know, so in

850
00:46:43,620 --> 00:46:47,780
Speaker 3: the beta account, the question is, um, if the Israeli

851
00:46:47,820 --> 00:46:50,990
Speaker 3: government or the president, the prime minister of Israel served

852
00:46:51,210 --> 00:46:54,609
Speaker 3: in some capacity as the custodian for money, secret money

853
00:46:54,650 --> 00:46:59,469
Speaker 3: between the UAE and Jared Kushner, what role, if any,

854
00:46:59,530 --> 00:47:01,690
Speaker 3: did that play in the decision to go to war,

855
00:47:01,790 --> 00:47:04,910
Speaker 3: to join Israel in a war with Iran? Right. It's,

856
00:47:05,390 --> 00:47:07,989
Speaker 3: you know, that's, and so, There are, I mean, I

857
00:47:08,030 --> 00:47:10,360
Speaker 3: would say in that way, the book provokes hundreds of

858
00:47:10,390 --> 00:47:12,799
Speaker 3: questions like that. And to your point, yes, I don't, again,

859
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:14,739
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's 5%, but yes, it's the

860
00:47:14,780 --> 00:47:15,540
Speaker 3: tip of the iceberg.

861
00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:15,860
Speaker 2: Right.

862
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 1: It just doesn't, it doesn't, like, we know there are

863
00:47:19,180 --> 00:47:22,739
Speaker 1: two bank accounts and we know there's money going to

864
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:24,759
Speaker 1: all different countries, but we don't know where the money

865
00:47:24,820 --> 00:47:25,300
Speaker 1: is from.

866
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:28,080
Speaker 3: Well, no, no, I know where the money is from

867
00:47:28,140 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 3: and I report where the money is from. Azerbaijan, the

868
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:33,719
Speaker 3: book lays out, Azerbaijan was just a laundering station. So

869
00:47:34,140 --> 00:47:37,990
Speaker 3: the alpha money It came from the Saudis, came from MBS,

870
00:47:38,190 --> 00:47:40,880
Speaker 3: and it was part of a pool. And it was

871
00:47:40,950 --> 00:47:44,260
Speaker 3: managed by the UAE, but it was funded by Saudi

872
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:47,240
Speaker 3: Arabia because at that point they were sort of together,

873
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,950
Speaker 3: the MBS and MBC, the leaders of the respective countries.

874
00:47:50,969 --> 00:47:52,150
Speaker 1: Now they've had a falling out.

875
00:47:52,390 --> 00:47:54,710
Speaker 3: Yes, and they had a falling out during this time

876
00:47:54,810 --> 00:47:57,669
Speaker 3: as well, but it was more hidden. It was behind

877
00:47:57,690 --> 00:48:01,150
Speaker 3: the scenes. The beta account was just from the UAE

878
00:48:01,310 --> 00:48:05,670
Speaker 3: and MBZ, but the money went through Azerbaijan. And so

879
00:48:06,370 --> 00:48:08,170
Speaker 3: we do know where the money is. We don't know

880
00:48:08,350 --> 00:48:10,170
Speaker 3: all of the money. And what I report in the

881
00:48:10,210 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 3: book is that these accounts are– there were at least

882
00:48:13,300 --> 00:48:16,340
Speaker 3: two accounts. There were indications that there were other bank accounts.

883
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:20,899
Speaker 3: I tried to be extremely responsible in only putting– only

884
00:48:21,060 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 3: publishing what I could support with my reporting and with

885
00:48:24,660 --> 00:48:27,969
Speaker 3: my sourcing. So we know of two accounts. We know

886
00:48:27,989 --> 00:48:32,290
Speaker 3: there are surely more questions than answers. But I think

887
00:48:32,350 --> 00:48:35,910
Speaker 3: what I've done is I've presented enough information about these

888
00:48:35,950 --> 00:48:40,940
Speaker 3: accounts to demonstrate that they're A, real, and B, that

889
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:44,859
Speaker 3: they're the public, Congress, everyone. I mean, we all need

890
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:47,359
Speaker 3: to be asking, what the hell is this about? And

891
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,140
Speaker 3: let's get to the bottom of it because it's significant.

892
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:55,860
Speaker 1: And is Khashoggi somehow involved in this, the murder of Khashoggi?

893
00:48:56,360 --> 00:49:00,500
Speaker 3: No, only as a, you know, I have in there,

894
00:49:00,540 --> 00:49:03,040
Speaker 3: I actually report about another murder that the UAE is

895
00:49:03,100 --> 00:49:06,430
Speaker 3: responsible for in a similar, you know, they killed an

896
00:49:06,530 --> 00:49:10,450
Speaker 3: editor and a poet from the Emirates, but that never

897
00:49:10,489 --> 00:49:12,350
Speaker 3: got picked up and no one knew about. And I

898
00:49:12,350 --> 00:49:15,040
Speaker 3: put them sort of side by side because what I'm

899
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:18,799
Speaker 3: trying to demonstrate here is is that the people that

900
00:49:18,890 --> 00:49:22,799
Speaker 3: Jared Kushner and Donald Trump have embraced and then got

901
00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:25,740
Speaker 3: involved with, you know, some kind of secret, secret financial

902
00:49:25,780 --> 00:49:27,260
Speaker 3: transaction are murderous.

903
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:27,940
Speaker 1: Yeah.

904
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:30,490
Speaker 3: And, and that's, and that's just a, that's just a,

905
00:49:30,780 --> 00:49:32,930
Speaker 3: you know, I'm laying out and I'm partly laying out

906
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,750
Speaker 3: who these people are, what they do and, and who,

907
00:49:37,469 --> 00:49:40,450
Speaker 3: you know, Jared Kushner is, you know, the second most

908
00:49:40,510 --> 00:49:43,250
Speaker 3: important person in America in terms of American foreign policy,

909
00:49:44,219 --> 00:49:46,680
Speaker 3: you know, and these are his friends and these are

910
00:49:46,700 --> 00:49:50,640
Speaker 3: the friends that he's embraced and then said publicly everything

911
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:53,239
Speaker 3: that he has done, he has done in what, in

912
00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:56,339
Speaker 3: the best interest of the United States. And I think

913
00:49:56,360 --> 00:50:00,060
Speaker 3: that that's a, you know, that's a fair, I think

914
00:50:00,100 --> 00:50:00,960
Speaker 3: that that's in question.

915
00:50:01,540 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 1: Yes, I think that's right. Matthew Cole, thank you.

916
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:11,709
Speaker 3: Thank you, Molly. And now your moment of fuckery.

917
00:50:11,830 --> 00:50:13,210
Speaker 1: Jesse Cannon.

918
00:50:13,989 --> 00:50:17,710
Speaker 4: Bye, Junk Fast. So there was a private prison on

919
00:50:17,810 --> 00:50:22,150
Speaker 4: sale in Minnesota for $ 75 million. How much do you

920
00:50:22,170 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 4: think ICE paid for it?

921
00:50:24,180 --> 00:50:25,180
Speaker 2: Oh, I know.

922
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:28,219
Speaker 1: I know. It's like every ICE story is like, and

923
00:50:28,260 --> 00:50:30,580
Speaker 1: then they paid six times more than it. Remember the

924
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:34,620
Speaker 1: planes with Christy Gnome, ICE, ICE Barbie? I mean, Molly,

925
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:35,460
Speaker 1: I remember Ronald Reagan.

926
00:50:38,610 --> 00:50:41,660
Speaker 4: Telling us about this hammer that costs $ 75. And I

927
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:44,660
Speaker 4: thought the Republicans were very against this type of stuff.

928
00:50:45,180 --> 00:50:48,680
Speaker 1: It's called waste, fraud, and abuse. And it's coming from

929
00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:53,339
Speaker 1: the admin. So here it is. They paid $ 495 million

930
00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:55,690
Speaker 1: for a private prison that was on sale for $ 75 million,

931
00:50:55,710 --> 00:50:57,650
Speaker 1: which means they wasted $ 400 million plus. And who did

932
00:50:57,690 --> 00:51:09,750
Speaker 1: they pay? Pay it to, I mean, this is like Corsic.

933
00:51:11,710 --> 00:51:14,700
Speaker 1: I don't know. This is so fucking sleazy. And again,

934
00:51:14,719 --> 00:51:19,660
Speaker 1: this is all, like, remember, this is in Minnesota. Minnesota,

935
00:51:20,180 --> 00:51:25,580
Speaker 1: where Trump said that Somalis were doing the fraud. Well,

936
00:51:25,660 --> 00:51:29,779
Speaker 1: it turns out what he meant was Christy, Noam, and

937
00:51:29,940 --> 00:51:34,320
Speaker 1: Corey are doing the fraud. That's it for this episode

938
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 1: of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and

939
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:44,720
Speaker 1: Saturday to hear the best minds in politics make sense

940
00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:49,100
Speaker 1: of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please

941
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:52,240
Speaker 1: send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.

942
00:51:52,660 --> 00:51:53,780
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.