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Speaker 1: dot com. Hello everybody, we are about to record an

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Speaker 1: interview with Joe Kent. He's the former NCTC director the

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Speaker 1: National Counter counter Terrorism Center, resigned in protests over the

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Speaker 1: Iran War. Many of the questions that we pulled were

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Speaker 1: from our premium subscribers, so I just want to say

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Speaker 1: at the top, thank you all very very much. You

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Speaker 1: submitted over five hundred. They were so helpful. I actually

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Speaker 1: paraphrase many of them into many of the ones that

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Speaker 1: I have that are prepared. So with all of that,

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Speaker 1: let's get to it. Joining us now is Joe Kent,

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Speaker 1: the former NCTC director. He resigned in protests over the

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Speaker 1: Iran war from the Trump administration. We have a lot

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Speaker 1: of questions for him, and we thank him very much

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Speaker 1: for his time and his heroism. Joe, thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for joining us.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, well, it's a very interesting time. I did, of course,

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Speaker 1: want to give you at the very beginning, an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to respond, Mac if we can go and put this

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Speaker 1: up here on the screen. Multiple stories now coming out

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Speaker 1: from the Trump administration alleging that you leaked classified information,

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Speaker 1: specifically to multiple media outlets and to Tucker Carlson, and

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Speaker 1: so just at the very beginning, did you ever leak

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Speaker 1: classified information of any kind?

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Speaker 3: Nope.

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Speaker 1: So do you believe that this is political retribution against you?

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Speaker 3: I do if it's even true. I mean these they're

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Speaker 3: saying I'm being investigated, which would be a leak onto itself.

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Speaker 3: So I think this is more of a media campaign

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Speaker 3: than anything else. So I don't even think it's necessarily retribution.

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Speaker 3: They released all this at the same time my interview

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Speaker 3: of Tucker was coming out. I think they're just trying

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Speaker 3: to kind of capture the narrative.

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Speaker 1: Got it, so capturing the narrative obviously, to try to

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Speaker 1: discredit some of the allegations that you've made here in public.

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Speaker 1: Obviously we believe that these are very serious. And to

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Speaker 1: my knowledge, you are the highest president, highest profile presidential

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Speaker 1: appointee in modern history to resign over a war, and

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Speaker 1: the specifically at the beginning of a war. So I

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Speaker 1: do want to give you the opportunity, even though many

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Speaker 1: others may have heard your explanation that you laid out

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Speaker 1: in your resignation letter, why did you decide to do this? So?

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Speaker 3: I decided to resign at this juncture because I thought

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Speaker 3: that I had kind of expended all options for helping

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Speaker 3: us get out of the current state that we're in.

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Speaker 3: So basically, from the time that the lead up to

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Speaker 3: the Twelve Days War happened, Operation Midnight Hammer and then

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Speaker 3: everything since I did the best job that I could

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Speaker 3: to paint an accurate picture of the intelligence and why

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Speaker 3: we had more options with regards to Iran and that situation.

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Speaker 3: Then the war kicked off and I saw the trajectory

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Speaker 3: that we were on and I could no longer be

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Speaker 3: part of that. In good conscience, knowing that this was

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Speaker 3: a war of choice. This is the type of war

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Speaker 3: that I fought in my late wife and so many

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Speaker 3: of my good friends lost their lives in. And I

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Speaker 3: promised myself long ago, if I was ever in a

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Speaker 3: position of responsibility or had a way to make my

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Speaker 3: voice heard, that I would be against something like this.

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Speaker 3: But also what was critical for me was to really

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Speaker 3: explain to the American people, but really to the President,

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Speaker 3: because I couldn't get through to the President anymore from

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Speaker 3: the inside. I needed to do it from the outside.

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Speaker 3: And I truly believe, and really Marco Rubio, President Trump,

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Speaker 3: Speaker of the House, and many other government officials public

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Speaker 3: statements confirm this. I truly believe that the Israelis forced

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Speaker 3: our hand in this. The only thing that was imminent

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Speaker 3: about the operations in Iran was the fact that the

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Speaker 3: Israelis were going to attack the Iranians, setting off a

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Speaker 3: series of events that would get us deeply involved in

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Speaker 3: this war. So there was no imminent threat posed by

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Speaker 3: Iran itself. If anything, the Iranians, since President Trump came

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Speaker 3: back into office, they had showed that they were willing

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Speaker 3: to Number one gets the negotiating tamble number two that

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Speaker 3: at times of conflict they would use a very deliberate

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Speaker 3: escalatory ladder, because they took President Trump very very seriously,

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Speaker 3: and because in my personal opinion, I think the data

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Speaker 3: supports this. They did want to reach a deal, and

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Speaker 3: we can get into all the details there, but that's

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Speaker 3: basically why I felt like at this juncture I needed

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Speaker 3: to resign.

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Speaker 1: Sure, so you opened up that statement saying you no

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Speaker 1: longer felt you could get to President Trump. So who

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Speaker 1: specifically was keeping you away from President Trump or people

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Speaker 1: liked you who had those ideas.

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Speaker 3: Look, I don't want to get into specific people. I

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Speaker 3: don't want this to become a he said, She said,

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Speaker 3: palace intrigue of the Trump administration. I just feel like

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Speaker 3: there was a wall put up around President Trump so

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Speaker 3: that he was not getting a wide variety of options,

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Speaker 3: and so he was kind of existing. And unfortunately this

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Speaker 3: echo chamber where you had highly influential members of the

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Speaker 3: Israeli government that would come to President Trump and an

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Speaker 3: official unofficial capacity, or members of his very inner circle,

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Speaker 3: and they did a very effective job of moving a

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Speaker 3: key red line. President Trump has always said that Iran

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Speaker 3: cannot have a nuclear weapon. And as a matter of fact,

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Speaker 3: the former Supreme Leader since two thousand and four had

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Speaker 3: said the same thing, that Iran will not get a

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Speaker 3: nuclear weapon. So the Israelis knew that. Actually this was

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Speaker 3: very dangerous for the Israeli agenda because the Israelis wanted

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Speaker 3: regime change and they saw that President Trump and the

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Speaker 3: Ayah Tola basically had a place where they could start negotiations.

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Speaker 3: So the Israelis very very effectively took the policy of

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Speaker 3: no enrichment and they'd breathe, they break life into that,

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Speaker 3: and they basically made that into the US policy by

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Speaker 3: having their unofficial folks come in and say, Hey, it's

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Speaker 3: really the enrichment that's the issue, and then they would

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Speaker 3: have that echoed in their pro Israel media apparatus here

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Speaker 3: in the United States, and so that was kind of

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Speaker 3: all the President was hearing. So I wanted to be

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Speaker 3: able to express that to the President, and I felt

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Speaker 3: like I was kind of out of options to do

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Speaker 3: that from the inside, and so having to go this

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Speaker 3: route was the best course of action, right.

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Speaker 1: So I guess, just to make it very clear, you're

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Speaker 1: not going to be specific, but you were obviously kept

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Speaker 1: out of the room by your telling. If that's the

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Speaker 1: case for other people in the administration, do you anticipate

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Speaker 1: any other resignations of your caliber?

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Speaker 3: I'm not sure, honestly. I know there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: folks who who feel the same way I do, that

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Speaker 3: have the same concerns as me, and they may or

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Speaker 3: may not approve of the you know, the method that

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Speaker 3: I'm using right now, because it does, you know, incur

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Speaker 3: a lot of risk. So you know, honestly, I don't know,

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Speaker 3: I could see it going either way.

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Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about that. Then there's a theory and

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Speaker 1: I've seen leveled against you within MAGA. One was Joe

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Speaker 1: to be a truly loyal patriot. You know, you should

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Speaker 1: have stayed in the administration and you should have continued

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Speaker 1: to work at this end. I believe I speak to

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Speaker 1: probably some of the same people of those mind in

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Speaker 1: the administration, and that's their theory is I need to

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Speaker 1: stay in order to try and effectuate what kind of

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Speaker 1: change I have. You clearly felt that the situation was

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Speaker 1: so dire that you had to end up resigning, So

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Speaker 1: talk us through that process and what that interim three

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Speaker 1: week period before your resignation ended up happening. What was

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Speaker 1: going through your mind.

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Speaker 3: So I completely understand the theory that you laid out,

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Speaker 3: and it's just like I'll stay here, I'll stay at

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Speaker 3: my level, and I will continue to make a difference

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Speaker 3: from the inside. I'll soldier on. And quite frankly, I

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Speaker 3: did that for over twenty years and I didn't see

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Speaker 3: a result. And I did it for over a year

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Speaker 3: here in this administration. I think there's some places where

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Speaker 3: we had some very significant victories. However, I felt like

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Speaker 3: I had reached my maximum level of effectiveness, and quite frankly,

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Speaker 3: just because I had pledged to myself so many years

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Speaker 3: ago that I would take action at a time like this,

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Speaker 3: I felt called to do this. But I do think

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Speaker 3: we need to have a multi krong strategy, and part

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Speaker 3: of the strategy is keeping people that are on the inside.

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Speaker 3: And I say strategy, I don't mean I'm conspiring with anybody.

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Speaker 3: I don't want to start a witch hunt within the administration.

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Speaker 3: But I think we need people on the inside who

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Speaker 3: are still going to try to seer the ship. So

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Speaker 3: for people who are frustrated within MAGA and think there

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Speaker 3: should be mass resignations, that wouldn't work any more than

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Speaker 3: everyone's staying in kind of grinding and keeping their nose

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Speaker 3: to the grindstone. I think we need people doing, you know,

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Speaker 3: kind of both. So for me, I felt like, considering

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Speaker 3: the fact that I have soldiers on for so long before,

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Speaker 3: I have tried this before, and honestly, it felt like

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Speaker 3: the easiest thing for me to do was to just

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Speaker 3: like kind of go back to my default mode, which

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Speaker 3: is I'll be a good soldier, I'll salute, I'll move out,

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Speaker 3: I'll try and make a difference. You know, it feels

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Speaker 3: good being the NCTC director. People are very kind to you,

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Speaker 3: and you have a cool office and you have a

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Speaker 3: cool title. It would be the easy thing to do.

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Speaker 3: And whenever you for me anyways, whenever I feel like

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Speaker 3: I'm doing the easy thing, I always try to check myself.

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Speaker 3: And I said, I'm in a unique position right now

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Speaker 3: because of my experiences in my past life in the

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Speaker 3: military and the CIA and even running for office, I

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Speaker 3: feel like I have a pretty thick skin for this

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Speaker 3: set of stuff. So I think the most value add

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Speaker 3: I can have right now is in this role with

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Speaker 3: the Israelis. We're able to get into President Trump's ear

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Speaker 3: using the media. It's time for me to do the same.

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Speaker 3: Got it.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think that's obviously very admirable. So let's talk then.

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Speaker 1: The specific allegation I've seen about this is that you

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Speaker 1: are misrepresenting how this went down, is that you have

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Speaker 1: not provided specific evidence for how the Israelis manipulated President Trump.

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Speaker 1: I think that's pretty clear to your explanation. So you've talked,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think in some vaguer terms about the

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Speaker 1: you know, they've presented shifting red lines, et cetera. But

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Speaker 1: what did they do to get him to accept those

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Speaker 1: red lines? Because ultimately he's the one who asked to agree.

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Speaker 1: So how did that play out?

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Speaker 3: So look, if I were to give very very specific examples,

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Speaker 3: I could put myself in a lot of peril. However,

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Speaker 3: like what's already publicly out there, I think the Secretary

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Speaker 3: of State and the President's and statements about well Israel

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Speaker 3: was going to go so we had to go really

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Speaker 3: tell you pretty much everything you need to know about

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Speaker 3: the off balance relationship that we currently have with the

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Speaker 3: State of the Israel. But it works very simply. The

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Speaker 3: Israeli officials would would come to us, either through intelligence

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Speaker 3: channels or through official engagements with the President with members

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Speaker 3: of his cabinet, their counterparts, and look, these guys are,

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Speaker 3: they're they're good. A lot of them, they're very good

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Speaker 3: at what they do. A lot of them are dual citizens,

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Speaker 3: native English speakers. When you deal with the Israelis, it's

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Speaker 3: different than dealing with any other foreign government really because

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Speaker 3: they sound like us, they look like us. You can

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Speaker 3: get pretty comfortable with them. And they have a very

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Speaker 3: competent intelligence service. They're good at what they do, and

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Speaker 3: so you're kind of like a little bit you could.

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Speaker 3: You can be impressed by the intelligence that they can offer.

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Speaker 3: And so they these officials would come in and they

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Speaker 3: would kind of shop around different ideas, in different concepts

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Speaker 3: that would basically get us to the point where we

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Speaker 3: would need to take action against Iran. And they knew

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Speaker 3: that President Trump had always said no, no nuclear weapon

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Speaker 3: for Iran, and so they took this line of zero enrichment,

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Speaker 3: knowing that the Iranians had this had a red line

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Speaker 3: of their own. And the Iranian red line was very pragmatic.

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Speaker 3: It was that they wanted the ability to enrich uranium.

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Speaker 3: And it's kind of common sense why. It's because they

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Speaker 3: watched Kadathi and Libya say hey, I don't have any

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Speaker 3: more nuclear weapons. I'll give him all up. Look what

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Speaker 3: happened to him. Or if you have bluff where you

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Speaker 3: try to develop nuclear weapons, you end up like Saddam Hussein.

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Speaker 3: And so the ir audience had this ice called the

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Speaker 3: Goldilocks solution where they said, you know, we don't have

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Speaker 3: nuclear weapons, but we could have them if we want them.

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Speaker 3: And so that was their red line. So the Israelis

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Speaker 3: came in and they took this talkie point and to

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Speaker 3: my knowledge and people can fact check me on this,

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Speaker 3: to my knowledge, you know, the first Trump official who said,

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Speaker 3: you know, no enrichment for Iran it was Mike Bompeo

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Speaker 3: in the first Trump administration. And I haven't seen anyone

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Speaker 3: else come in and say like, this is the US policy. However,

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Speaker 3: it was repeated enough in official channels that they can't

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Speaker 3: have enrichment, and enrichment equals like like Lindsay Graham would

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Speaker 3: say ten nuclear bombs in ten days or something just

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Speaker 3: absolutely absurd. If you got a nuclear expert in the room,

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Speaker 3: they would say, no, that's not how any of this

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Speaker 3: works at all. Plus, the Ayatola and his government had

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Speaker 3: enforced they're no nuclear weapons stands since two thousand and four,

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Speaker 3: and so we had no intelligence that reflected that enrichment

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Speaker 3: equaled a nuclear bomb. It was pretty clear what their

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Speaker 3: strategy was. So they came in with their officials and

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Speaker 3: they would say, like, no enrichment because in richment equals

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Speaker 3: a bomb. They would kind of just repeat it, but

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Speaker 3: then they would do a good job of coordinating that

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Speaker 3: with their surrogates in the pro Israeli media here in

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Speaker 3: the US Marplevin, Sean Hannity Foundation for the Defensive Democracies.

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Speaker 3: They'd have it on Fox News, they'd have it in

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Speaker 3: the Wall Street Journal in New York Post, et cetera.

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Speaker 3: And the next thing you know, they're hearing it enough

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Speaker 3: that they kind of breathed reality into it, and then

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Speaker 3: we're having a debate over no enrichment and we basically

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Speaker 3: reach an impasse. I think prior to the Twelve Day War. Again,

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Speaker 3: this is just this is just my opinion. I believe

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Speaker 3: that Steve Wikoff was on the cusp of getting a deal. Now,

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Speaker 3: it wouldn't have been the Iranians just giving up everything

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Speaker 3: in terms of enrichment, but they were talking about Richmond

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Speaker 3: and what levels and how would it be monitored, and

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Speaker 3: we're making a lot of progress. And again, every time

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Speaker 3: we'd get close to a place where there's progress being made,

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Speaker 3: the Israelis would come in with a bunch of crazy intelligence,

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Speaker 3: usually just to see which would stick. You know, they're

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Speaker 3: developing blistic missiles that I mean, you know, pointed directly

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Speaker 3: out America that can reach America, things like this, and

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Speaker 3: they would they would try and generate enough hype to

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Speaker 3: take away the president's decision making space.

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Speaker 1: So something I've noticed here is about Wikoff. I don't

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Speaker 1: know what to make of Wickcoff. I'm hoping that you

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Speaker 1: can maybe shed some light on this. I was very

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Speaker 1: optimistic about Sea Wikoff in the early days. Clearly him

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Speaker 1: and President Trump were willing to exert a lot of

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Speaker 1: influence on the Israeli government to attain a ceasefire. But

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Speaker 1: then it went away. Then we ended up with a

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Speaker 1: twelve day war. You said you were optimistic about those negotiations. However,

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Speaker 1: a member of the British government has basically said he

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Speaker 1: thought that Wikoff and Jared Kushner were effectively acting like

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Speaker 1: Israeli assets in their negotiations. So do you think that

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Speaker 1: that's true. Are they Israeli assets. Are they working on

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Speaker 1: our behalf? Is there some communication being lost in the

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Speaker 1: flow here? What's your actual assessment as somebody who saw

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Speaker 1: this a little bit more on the inside.

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Speaker 3: To my knowledge, both Seebricoff and Jared Kushner were doing

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Speaker 3: their best to get a deal. I mean, that's all

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Speaker 3: I know. I wasn't in the negotiations, so I don't

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Speaker 3: want to, you know, overinflate like what my access to

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Speaker 3: negotiations were. I spent a good deal of time with

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Speaker 3: Jared Kushner in the previous Trump administration, and I spent

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Speaker 3: a good deal of time with Steve Wikoff in this administration.

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Speaker 3: And I think that Steve Wikoff was working diligently from

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Speaker 3: the time that even before President Trump was inaugurated onwards

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Speaker 3: to develop the relationships necessary to get us a deal.

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Speaker 3: And like I said before, I truly believe that there

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Speaker 3: was a deal that was very, very that was within

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Speaker 3: our sites, within reach prior to the Twelve Day War.

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Speaker 3: And the fact that the negotiations picked up after the

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Speaker 3: Twelve Day War it shows you where the Iranians headspace was.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we did Midnight Hammer, and you know, the

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Speaker 3: Iranians launched back an equal number of missiles at you know,

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Speaker 3: the far end of a base in Katar they knew

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Speaker 3: was empty, and within short order, I mean, they were

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Speaker 3: right back at the negotiating too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's talk about this imminent threat. So that's

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Speaker 1: another thing I've seen leveled against you. Imminent threat. Only

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Speaker 1: the president Mac. We could put Director Gabbard's statement up

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Speaker 1: there on the screen. She said that the ODE and

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Speaker 1: I and your I guess the officer you used to

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Speaker 1: work for. Your job was really just to assess the intelligence.

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Speaker 1: The only person who can determine what is and not

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Speaker 1: an imminent threat is the president. Do you believe that statement?

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Speaker 1: Do you think? Do you think that statement? Because clearly

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Speaker 1: you're saying that there was no imminent threat, and I'm

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Speaker 1: assuming you had access to the same level of intelligence.

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Speaker 3: I mean, this is one of the reasons why I

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Speaker 3: had to resign. I think this is I believe the

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Speaker 3: d and I is speaking the truth. She's at the

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Speaker 3: end of the day, the president was elected by the

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Speaker 3: American people. So if the president was to say, like,

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Speaker 3: my tolerance for eminent is anybody coining a weapon generally

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Speaker 3: in our direction? Well, okay, okay, you're the boss, you're

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Speaker 3: the commander in chief. I don't agree with that, and

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Speaker 3: I had to. I had to resign because basically, if

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Speaker 3: that's the bar that we're going to have, then we're

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Speaker 3: going to need to start a lot more warriors for

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Speaker 3: a lot more countries. I think when you assess intelligen

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Speaker 3: and sret's intent versus capability, I think that's absolutely key.

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Speaker 3: There's a lot of people who intend to do his harm,

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Speaker 3: who were just some guy yelling on the internet and

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Speaker 3: they have no capability. And then there's other actors that

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Speaker 3: have the capability to do his harm and they don't

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Speaker 3: have the intent. Again, we had so much data even

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Speaker 3: you know, you know, over twenty years of conflict with

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Speaker 3: the Irions, but especially under President Trump and the post

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Speaker 3: Costum SOULMANI Strike era of seeing what the Iranians esplanatory

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Speaker 3: ladder was, but especially since the Twelve Day War. I mean,

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Speaker 3: so at this junction, when we had negotiators back to

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Speaker 3: the negotiating table, it was pretty clear that the Iridions

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Speaker 3: weren't going to do a preemptive strike on us, that

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Speaker 3: they weren't going to strike unless they were you know,

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Speaker 3: stricken first by the Israelis and the Israeli suit of this,

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Speaker 3: which is why they took the action that they did.

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Speaker 1: Right, That's okay, let's talk about Trump now. So I mean,

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Speaker 1: and I'm saying this from a very visceral feeling, I

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Speaker 1: truly understand what you're trying to do. You're trying to

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Speaker 1: influence President Trump. You did resign in protest because you

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Speaker 1: ultimately felt you came answer, but per your reasoning, it's

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Speaker 1: to try and influence Trump. Much of the meta narrative

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Speaker 1: here is about how the Israelis manipulated Trump. But isn't

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Speaker 1: Trump responsible? Like he's the commander in chief. He chose

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Speaker 1: to believe it. He could have called you if he

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Speaker 1: wanted to. He could have called Gabbart, he could have

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Speaker 1: listened to any of these people. He ultimately chose not

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Speaker 1: to do. You feel like you're stripping a little bit

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Speaker 1: of agency away from the President by I wouldn't say

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Speaker 1: laying all the blame on the Israelies, but a lot

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Speaker 1: of the blame on the Israelis.

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Speaker 3: I think, well, plenty of time for that later on.

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Speaker 3: I think right now we're on a crisis, and what

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Speaker 3: I want the president to know is that right now,

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Speaker 3: I mean, probably for this you know, hopefully two weeks,

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Speaker 3: but maybe even less time. He has time to turn

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Speaker 3: this thing around. So that's the most important thing. I mean,

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Speaker 3: that's the most important message I want to ge out.

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Speaker 3: At the end of the day, he has the commander

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Speaker 3: in chief and he understands that, and that's why I

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Speaker 3: think for him to truly capture all of his tower

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Speaker 3: back and for him to actually governing based on the

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Speaker 3: mandate that seventy seven million people gave him, I think

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Speaker 3: if he reflects right now on the way that this

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Speaker 3: whole debathel happened and we got into the state that

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Speaker 3: we're in right now, with the straits of worn moves

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Speaker 3: in peril and the price of energy and no end

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Speaker 3: in sight, I think the main focus has to be

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Speaker 3: on getting him to change course. So I guess we'll

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Speaker 3: I guess we'll have this conversation again later to say,

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Speaker 3: you know who deserve blame later on, But right now

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Speaker 3: my focus is on hopefully letting getting him the space

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Speaker 3: to change his mind.

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Speaker 1: I see the tactical of approach that you're trying to

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Speaker 1: make here with true and again I really do respect it.

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Speaker 1: It is just that I guess, you know, what we're

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Speaker 1: in different positions here, because my relative confidence for that

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Speaker 1: happening is basically zero. What's your confidence on that.

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Speaker 3: I have hope, and I hope and I pray. If anybody,

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Speaker 3: if any leader can change his mind and change it

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Speaker 3: decisively and rapidly, it's President Trump and then sell it

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Speaker 3: to the American people. Uh, there's a lot of red lines.

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Speaker 3: I know you and Tucker discussed them, that we need

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Speaker 3: a total surrender. There's been there has been a lot

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Speaker 3: of bellicoast rhetoric that that gives me concern because total

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Speaker 3: surrender it means only like one of the two things,

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Speaker 3: like we're going to go in and ground invade for

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Speaker 3: the next I don't know however long it takes to

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Speaker 3: conquer Iran. I don't want to find out, or we're

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Speaker 3: going to use something more drastic like any weapon or

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Speaker 3: allowed the Israelis to do. So. However, if anyone can

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Speaker 3: turn that around, it is President Trump. Because he is decisive.

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Speaker 3: People take him seriously. The Iranians will take him seriously.

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Speaker 3: In the Israelis will take him seriously. So look, I

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Speaker 3: still have a lot of hope. I think it's possible.

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Speaker 1: Joe, what's your assessment of the use of a nuclear weapon.

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Speaker 1: Do you believe that it's a possibility by the United

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Speaker 1: States or by Israel.

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Speaker 3: By the United States, I would say it's relatively low. However,

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Speaker 3: the Israelis are the wild card. If you would have

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Speaker 3: asked me before they shot cruise missiles or they shot

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Speaker 3: ballistic missiles at Qatar, when we had active negotiations going on,

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Speaker 3: I would have said, there's no way they would do that.

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Speaker 3: But they did. If you would have told me a

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Speaker 3: year ago that the Israelis were just going to attack

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Speaker 3: Iran to get us entrenched in the conflict, I'd be like, now,

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Speaker 3: I don't think that they would do that. The Israelis

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Speaker 3: view the threat from Ron as existential. They also believe

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Speaker 3: that this is a very very limited time that they

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Speaker 3: have to affect the result they want, which is regime change,

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Speaker 3: and not regime change in the way that Americans think

434
00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 3: about it. Americans think about regime change in the way

435
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:18,480
Speaker 3: we go in and we take out the we take

436
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:20,160
Speaker 3: out the leader, we put in a new guy or whatever,

437
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,040
Speaker 3: and then we're kind of dealt with it. The Israelis

438
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:25,480
Speaker 3: don't really care what happens to Iran. They just want

439
00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:30,640
Speaker 3: the Iahtola and the IRGC degraded or just completely taken out,

440
00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,320
Speaker 3: and if chaos ensues from their chaos and the straits

441
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:37,320
Speaker 3: or moves, you know, the country fracturing into a bunch

442
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:40,480
Speaker 3: of different warning factions, a migration crisis into Europe, they

443
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:42,880
Speaker 3: don't really care because in their minds they've taken away

444
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,679
Speaker 3: the threat and from the Israeli perspective, I understand that,

445
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 3: but that's where I have to be clear eyed as

446
00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:49,880
Speaker 3: Americans and say, us and our partners, who we may

447
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,800
Speaker 3: like in some regards, have very very different strategic goals here,

448
00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:56,000
Speaker 3: and we have to pursue our interests.

449
00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:58,600
Speaker 1: So you are worried about it in Israeli nuclear use,

450
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,800
Speaker 1: I certainly am, absolutely, ok Yeah, Okay, Well then let's

451
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,120
Speaker 1: talk then a little bit about you know, this escalation.

452
00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,360
Speaker 1: This is one of the reasons here that you decided

453
00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:10,400
Speaker 1: to resign. What I'm curious is in this escalation there

454
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,280
Speaker 1: was a lot of speculation Joe Kent's resignation means a

455
00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:15,760
Speaker 1: ground invasion is coming? Can you clear that up? I mean,

456
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:17,639
Speaker 1: do you think a ground invasion is coming? What's your

457
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:18,400
Speaker 1: personal assessment?

458
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,880
Speaker 3: I look, I don't know any secret but I don't

459
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:24,439
Speaker 3: know any military plans I couldn't give them up even

460
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,399
Speaker 3: if I did, but the President has said all options

461
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,800
Speaker 3: are on the table. And one thing I do know

462
00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:32,160
Speaker 3: from being in combat for most of my adult life

463
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 3: is that things can change very very quickly, and there's

464
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,720
Speaker 3: decisions you think that you're gonna have time to make,

465
00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:41,679
Speaker 3: but you don't necessarily have that time. If you have

466
00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:46,280
Speaker 3: capabilities deployed, they tend to be used. I mean, if

467
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 3: military commanders feel that their troops are in danger, or

468
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,280
Speaker 3: if they've been given a military objective of hey, we

469
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:53,879
Speaker 3: need to take out all the ballistics, we need to

470
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:55,439
Speaker 3: take out the Iranian Navy, we need to take out

471
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,400
Speaker 3: the IRGC, and they have those resources on hand, they'll

472
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,800
Speaker 3: deploy them. Look, I respect everybody that's at Syncom right now.

473
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:04,640
Speaker 3: I spend most of my life in the syncom aor

474
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:08,280
Speaker 3: but Syncom is a very big war machine, and that's

475
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:11,560
Speaker 3: a good thing if you can actually rein them in. However,

476
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,240
Speaker 3: what I've learned in twenty plus years of seeing this

477
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,680
Speaker 3: play out is that if you give Syncom vague guidance

478
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,600
Speaker 3: or even kind of like relatively specific guidance, like they're

479
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:23,400
Speaker 3: going to run until you yank them back in, it's

480
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,600
Speaker 3: what they do. You've got to be able to really

481
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,760
Speaker 3: tame that lethal machine. And that's what makes me nervous

482
00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:33,240
Speaker 3: right now where this could happen really quickly. So my

483
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,439
Speaker 3: assessment this is based on several sources, people who I've

484
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 3: spoken to. What I'm told is that I see a

485
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 3: lot of Pentagon leaders. They've come out anonymously and they're leaking.

486
00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,560
Speaker 3: They're like, no, we warned Trump about the straits of

487
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:48,240
Speaker 3: horror moves. From what I know, that's not one hundred

488
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:51,879
Speaker 3: percent true. Again, I am not absolving Trump of any responsibility.

489
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 3: They certainly told him that it was going to be

490
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:58,560
Speaker 3: a potential issue, but they sold a much more optimistic

491
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,840
Speaker 3: vision at the big This is not just the Israelis,

492
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,360
Speaker 3: this is also our own chairman of the Joint Chiefs

493
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,919
Speaker 3: of Staff I'm speaking about specifically. And the narrative again

494
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,280
Speaker 3: that I've been told is that the people who did

495
00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:13,639
Speaker 3: share that view were excized from their command, which you

496
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 3: could see. It's public knowledge, it's been reported out there.

497
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 3: I'm curious for what you heard about the way that

498
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 3: that went down many of those critical meetings in the

499
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:26,000
Speaker 3: situation room. Yeah, you know, I think the imagery that's

500
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,160
Speaker 3: been publicly released is very telling where you had one

501
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:31,400
Speaker 3: small group that was down mar A Lago that night,

502
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:33,680
Speaker 3: and then you had the rest up of the situation

503
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 3: room at the time. Look in the lead up to

504
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 3: the Twelve Day War, we were having very robust debates

505
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 3: that were part of the National Security Council process. The

506
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:47,240
Speaker 3: principal small group, we'd have the Deputies Committee meetings, we'd

507
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 3: have very robust debates, will fall into eighteen intelligence agencies

508
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:56,200
Speaker 3: with the Joint Chief's Staff, et cetera. And that played

509
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 3: out over the course of about a month and the

510
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 3: lead up to the Twelve Day War. And to include

511
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:03,680
Speaker 3: that ahead of Midnight Hammer, where a lot of us said, okay, fine,

512
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,720
Speaker 3: if you bomb these sites, that's all well and good.

513
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:08,720
Speaker 3: We take out a RAN's ability to enrich that meets

514
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:11,800
Speaker 3: our strategic objective. Problem is the Israelations or come right

515
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:13,720
Speaker 3: back to us in you know, a couple of months

516
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,920
Speaker 3: and demand more because their their goals regime change. Like,

517
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 3: they're not beating around the bush about this. And so

518
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:23,800
Speaker 3: that was known and so from from my optic in

519
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:26,919
Speaker 3: the lead up to this last iteration, that process didn't

520
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:28,919
Speaker 3: play out. And people can say, oh, Kent doesn't know,

521
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 3: because it's just he wasn't invited. But I can tell

522
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 3: you the robust debate with the Deputies Committee's National Security

523
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:36,439
Speaker 3: Council that that just that simply wasn't happening.

524
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 1: So it's a non nerd speak. I think this is important.

525
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:44,240
Speaker 1: What you just laid out is a normal process the

526
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:48,920
Speaker 1: Deputies Committee, Principles Committee, NSC, All options and views are

527
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:51,440
Speaker 1: presented to the president. Even the Iraq War, the most

528
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 1: disastrous thing in the world in or at least in

529
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: my lifetime, that played out that way. That's how it did.

530
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:58,440
Speaker 1: You can go and you can read about it. What

531
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: you are talking about is effective a bespoke process which

532
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 1: played out with some advisors down in mar Alago others

533
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,679
Speaker 1: in the situation room. I guess you are confirming by

534
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:09,439
Speaker 1: the way the White House told us that there was

535
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:11,800
Speaker 1: nothing to be seen about that, But from your telling,

536
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,639
Speaker 1: obviously there was something that we could gleam a little

537
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 1: bit from that takeaway. So I do think it's very

538
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:19,920
Speaker 1: important to say then that if some bespoke process played out,

539
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,520
Speaker 1: we have to really investigate that bespoke process and the

540
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 1: information that was getting to Trump then and also now.

541
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:30,879
Speaker 1: And so again I respect your want to not play

542
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:36,040
Speaker 1: the what was it the palace intrigue story, but I

543
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 1: will say for people like me, it is deeply frustrating

544
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 1: to watch people who told us to our face, privately

545
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:46,720
Speaker 1: and publicly, we're not going to do this, and then

546
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: it happened. And what we've seen publicly reported is that

547
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,840
Speaker 1: when you took your concerns to the Vice President and

548
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:56,280
Speaker 1: to the DNI, that they told you not to make

549
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 1: a big thing about it. I wonder if you can

550
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: comment about your frustration, first of all, if you can

551
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:04,679
Speaker 1: tell us whether that report is true or not, but

552
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:08,359
Speaker 1: really just to tell us what that tension is like

553
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:12,400
Speaker 1: for the people who ostensibly did share those views and

554
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: what they're doing right now in the way that they're

555
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,400
Speaker 1: even voicing any concern to Donald Trump.

556
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 3: In terms of the process, it was. It was just

557
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,239
Speaker 3: frustrating to see the stark night and day difference. I was.

558
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:27,880
Speaker 3: I got to a place where I was okay with

559
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,240
Speaker 3: with Midnight Hammer because we had such a robust debate,

560
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,399
Speaker 3: and I've heard criticisms of me where they say, hey,

561
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:35,360
Speaker 3: if you if you don't like what the president's doing

562
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 3: as one of his appointees, then go ahead and voice

563
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 3: your opinion behind closed doors, offer other options when when

564
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:42,879
Speaker 3: he smacks the table, you sleut and move out. Okay.

565
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 3: That was That was where I was at with the

566
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:46,200
Speaker 3: Twelve Day Wore and with Midnight Hammer, because our voices

567
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 3: were heard. It was a robust debate, and at the

568
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,399
Speaker 3: end of the day, Hey, you know, we lose whatever,

569
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,359
Speaker 3: that's fine, live the fight another day. This last iteration,

570
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 3: like I said that, that didn't play out nears They

571
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 3: wanted to just kick me out. You know, I've heard

572
00:26:58,240 --> 00:26:59,919
Speaker 3: people say, well, they kick it out because you know

573
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 3: whatever he talked to Tucker Carlson or something. Okay, that's fine.

574
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,240
Speaker 3: But then there still was plenty of other deputies they

575
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 3: could have had in that meeting, actually a pretty robust

576
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 3: staff that would offer a wide variety of options. And

577
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,159
Speaker 3: I just didn't see that play out, and there was

578
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,919
Speaker 3: there is frustration with that internally, and you know, like

579
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 3: we talked about before, there's some guys who say, Okay,

580
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 3: I'm gonna stay here. I'm going to say, you know,

581
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 3: keep my eyes on target. And I think there's others

582
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:27,400
Speaker 3: that may be considering leaving. I. You know, obviously I

583
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,360
Speaker 3: report to the it's CTC directors come an odd job.

584
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 3: You're a presidential appointee, President's chief counter terrorism advisor, so

585
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 3: I technically report to the President, but then like for

586
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:40,600
Speaker 3: administrative functions, I'm also report to the d and I,

587
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 3: but I'm also her counter terrorism advisor. And just you know,

588
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 3: to be obviously, I mean most people know friends with

589
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 3: with Tulsi prior to being in these positions. I served

590
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,359
Speaker 3: as her chief of staff before I was confirmed, around

591
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 3: the beach head team and the landing team for her

592
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 3: before she was confirmed, So we have a good relationship.

593
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 3: I brought my frustrations to her over and over again,

594
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,160
Speaker 3: and then same thing. The Vice President has always been,

595
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:07,479
Speaker 3: i'd say, giving me probably more time than you should,

596
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 3: very very generous. He's had a lot of people that

597
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 3: want to get in his ear, and he would always

598
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 3: give me the time of day whenever I said I

599
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,679
Speaker 3: had a concern. So I'm deeply appreciative of that. And

600
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 3: so you know she was hearing me out. When it

601
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:18,720
Speaker 3: came time for me to resign, I wanted to do

602
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:20,639
Speaker 3: it the proper way. I said, hey, I'm happy to

603
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,600
Speaker 3: take my letter into the president and to resign to

604
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 3: him if that's proper. I got to speak with the

605
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,159
Speaker 3: Vice President one on one the DN I joined us,

606
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:32,160
Speaker 3: and then later I got a phone call from the President.

607
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:34,440
Speaker 3: But that was kind of the way I went down.

608
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: So then, how did you make of it when the

609
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: President mac, I think we have this, He said he

610
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,640
Speaker 1: always thought you were weak on security. I mean, how

611
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: does that feel personally? I assume you knew it was

612
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: coming of some kind, but genuinely, like as a person

613
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: who served your country, who served multiple combat tours, who

614
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 1: lost your wife in combat, I mean, how does that feel?

615
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 1: Does it make you question, you know, how this all

616
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 1: went down the last year, probably two years of your

617
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 1: life that you dedicated to serving him, to helping him

618
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: get elected.

619
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 3: No, I mean, all things considered, I wrote a pretty

620
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 3: point letter, and for him to say that, you know

621
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 3: week on security, I've seen the President be much harder

622
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 3: on peaking before. So like, look, I kind of knew

623
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 3: it was coming. People got to say what they got

624
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 3: to say. Yeah. So at the end of the day,

625
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 3: I before I left, I had a really good phone

626
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 3: call with the President. He called me, and I believe

627
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 3: that we parted on good terms.

628
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean I think that's admirable. I do think

629
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting I've been talking, you know, about

630
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:33,480
Speaker 1: your situation with a lot of people. You're one of

631
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 1: the only whistleblowers I've ever seen. You don't have to

632
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 1: call yourself that I'm saying. I'm elevating to somebody who's resigned.

633
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: You're not whistleblowing or leaking anything. I just want to

634
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: be very clear. But somebody of that caliber who is

635
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 1: coming out resigning in protests, who still seems to have

636
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: some confidence in leadership, and I mean, we've talked about

637
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: how you're scoring that circle, and again I appreciate it

638
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,479
Speaker 1: because you're trying to make a tactical point about the

639
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 1: problems that we have. At what point, though, do you

640
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: think that other people need to follow your lead? Is

641
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: it a ground invasion, is it a you know, a consideration.

642
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: Is it a feeling of not having your voice heard?

643
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,360
Speaker 1: Like a lot of people are going to listen to

644
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,240
Speaker 1: you right now for guidance. I know that for a fact,

645
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: we're working in the United States government. What's your advice

646
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 1: to them for the people who share a review.

647
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 3: I think for my former colleagues, once they reach a

648
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 3: point where they think that their their advice and their

649
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 3: counsel is not being heard, they need to consider doing

650
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 3: what I did, and the calculus is going to be

651
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 3: different for everybody. I understand. There's even like, hey, can

652
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 3: I tay my mortgage next week? There's there's there's those

653
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 3: types of considerations as well. However, I would just, you know,

654
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 3: really implore my former colleagues to just think about where

655
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 3: we were at this time in two thousand and three

656
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 3: in the Iraq War. How many lives could have been

657
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,959
Speaker 3: saved had more government officials said no, I'm not going

658
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 3: to do this. And honestly, those guys kind of had

659
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:52,560
Speaker 3: an excuse. Nine eleven had just happened. We didn't have

660
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,240
Speaker 3: this access to media, we didn't have this access to information.

661
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 3: I don't think our generation has an excuse. If you've

662
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 3: fought in the global warrantear you don't next to you

663
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 3: is we've seen this before. So I do think they

664
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 3: need to reflect. If they're fighting in place or fighting

665
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 3: the inside, I completely respect that. However, if they reach

666
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 3: a point where the options that they're offering aren't being

667
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 3: heard at all, and they're not even allowed in the room,

668
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 3: they're not even allowed at the chain of command, the

669
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 3: reports aren't even being read, they've got to reflect internally

670
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 3: and think about how this is going to impact future

671
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,160
Speaker 3: generations or impact the men and women that are going

672
00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:30,600
Speaker 3: to have to go fight and die overseas.

673
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,720
Speaker 1: I want to just double click on that, what if

674
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: Cole and pal had told the truth? And can you

675
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: imagine the world? Can you imagine what that world the

676
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 1: prestige of someone like that? And I implore anyone listening

677
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: to this to think about your comments and your background,

678
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 1: of your you know, honestly, I think you're almost faithful,

679
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: perhaps to a fault, to the administration, which I don't

680
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: think has treated you particularly well. But to look at

681
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: somebody like you who has the courage and to think

682
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: and reflect about what that could have had some sort

683
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 1: of impact. Maybe we'll get there at the end, maybe possible,

684
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 1: but you probably want to be doing something about it,

685
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: unlike Colin Powell who went along and lied to the

686
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: American people. Moving on here a little bit with Iran,

687
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 1: A lot of our audience we asked them for questions

688
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 1: because you knew we were coming on. A lot of

689
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 1: them actually want to hear some of your tactical breakdown.

690
00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 1: Why would because I mean, one of the presumptions in

691
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 1: your resignation is that more military escalation with Iran is bad,

692
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: is a nightmare. Why don't you lay out that case

693
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: beyond just loss of American life? American presidence can stomach

694
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: that if it's for a great greater objective. Clearly you disagree.

695
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: Why would more escalation or any sort of ground invasion,

696
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 1: even a limited one like carg Island, Why would that

697
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 1: cross a line for you? Why do you think it's

698
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: a bad idea?

699
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 3: Well, let's just start off for he Well, actually, let's

700
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,240
Speaker 3: start with probably the most important thing. The most important

701
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 3: thing if you're going to commit troops to a fight

702
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,719
Speaker 3: is you have to stay upfront what your strategic objective is.

703
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 3: Why are we doing this? This is all said and done,

704
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:04,040
Speaker 3: this will look like what and that has not been

705
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 3: clearly fleshed out, That has not been clearly articulated. We've

706
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 3: said very vague things like well that Ran' is not

707
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 3: gonna have any deo webpon. We're going to take away

708
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 3: their ballistic missiles, We're going to take away their navy

709
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 3: that those are those are tactical things, taking away you know,

710
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,800
Speaker 3: equipment essentially capabilities. Those are tactical capabilities. I know some

711
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 3: of them technically for the walks out there have strategic

712
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 3: strategic impact, but that's not a true instate. We actually

713
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 3: have to have a true in state. And if we're

714
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 3: going to go with the whole regime change thing, we've

715
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 3: got enough data for the last twenty years that anytime

716
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 3: we try it it ends up screwing up the region

717
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 3: even more. So, I think number one that's homework hasn't

718
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,280
Speaker 3: been done as far as like putting people on Caring Island.

719
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think you need to be a

720
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,760
Speaker 3: tactician to say if you commit troops to that, they're

721
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 3: essentially going to be used as bait, because I ran,

722
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 3: regardless of how degraded we think some of their capabilities are,

723
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 3: they can pin down that island with a good deal

724
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:57,440
Speaker 3: of ballistic missile, a good deal of drone fire. They

725
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 3: could essentially cut off the straits than any ship that

726
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:02,080
Speaker 3: goes to reinforce them. In the airplane that goes to

727
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:04,280
Speaker 3: reinforce them, it's just a matter of time before they

728
00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:06,640
Speaker 3: can pick them off as well. So I think that

729
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 3: that would tactically be a massive blunder and we would

730
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 3: lose lives. And if we mose lives, then we're stuck

731
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 3: in the cycle of well, we lost lives, we have

732
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 3: to double down and avenge them, and we have to

733
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 3: commit more. Would taking the island didn't work, so now

734
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 3: we just got to take all the beach heads and

735
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 3: we'll secure the straits of horror moves by having soldiers

736
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 3: and marines, you know, like on the shore and for

737
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,840
Speaker 3: how long? For what end? Once again, So this is

738
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,480
Speaker 3: where I think the fight there is just it could

739
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:34,799
Speaker 3: just end up being a massive quagmire. And look at it.

740
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,319
Speaker 3: And if our goal is regime change, the last thing

741
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 3: that we should have done was killed the last Ayetola

742
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,200
Speaker 3: who was putting a lid on the development of a

743
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 3: nuclear weapon. And look, there's no formula that I think

744
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 3: a lot of folks would have you believe. And this

745
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 3: is kind of the Israeli theory of the case. If

746
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:50,759
Speaker 3: you kill enough of these guys, you're eventually going to

747
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 3: get to the moderates. That's not the way this works.

748
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:55,839
Speaker 3: If you kill these guys, you're going to get more

749
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,680
Speaker 3: and more radical people. There's always been attention in Iran

750
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 3: between you know, hardliner and the clergy and some of

751
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 3: the more moderates. But then the IRGC in particular and

752
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:06,560
Speaker 3: the IRGC these are these are the soldiers of cost

753
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:09,439
Speaker 3: them Solmani, and Solmani was like literally a very very

754
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:13,080
Speaker 3: hardcore competent. In general, the IRGC's leadership, these guys cut

755
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:15,359
Speaker 3: their teeth. They grew up fighting in the Iraq Iran War.

756
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,359
Speaker 3: They they grew up fighting us in Iraq. They grew

757
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 3: up fighting with Lebanese HESBLA against the Israelis, and then

758
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 3: the most of them fought heavily against Isis in Iraq

759
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,600
Speaker 3: and Syria. These are battle hardened guys and they've been

760
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 3: screaming essentially at the clergy and a lot of a

761
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of the political leadership, like the

762
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:32,960
Speaker 3: guy who the Israeli has just killed Lary and Johnny

763
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 3: and some of the other ones are a Rachi that hey,

764
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 3: you're going too soft on the Americans, like let's go,

765
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:40,319
Speaker 3: let's let's throw down, let's use our proxies, let's get

766
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,239
Speaker 3: deeper and deeper and deeper engaged in this. And so

767
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 3: I think a major problem in the major quagmire we

768
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 3: get have is that if we continue this cycle of

769
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 3: just killing off their leaders, the whole country of their

770
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:53,400
Speaker 3: fragments into absolute chaos, which is going to have the

771
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:57,720
Speaker 3: Libya effect on steroids or what We're going to continue

772
00:35:57,719 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 3: to get more and more hardline folks, and that's going

773
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:01,080
Speaker 3: to keep like the effect that's going to have on

774
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,920
Speaker 3: the straits of corn moves, that's going to impact global

775
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 3: energy way more than it already even has in terms

776
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 3: of not just fuel production, not just natural gas, but

777
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:11,640
Speaker 3: also what's going to happen with fertilizers in terms of

778
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 3: being able to grow crops. So these are very very

779
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 3: big issues, and again I don't think we did our

780
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:18,560
Speaker 3: homework on in terms of what's our strategic objective.

781
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:20,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to turn a little bit to some

782
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: comments you made with Tucker Carlson. You made some very

783
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: ominous comments about the Butler assassination attempt and about Charlie

784
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 1: Kirk's assassination, And I want to be super clear, like

785
00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: do you think that there was foreign involvement in the

786
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:38,440
Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk assassination.

787
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 3: The only thing that I will say for certain is

788
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 3: that we did not get an opportunity to fully investigate

789
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,800
Speaker 3: the potential for foreign links. I'm not saying foreign governments,

790
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:51,239
Speaker 3: but I'm saying foreign links. That was n ctc's role.

791
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 3: And I think just even a casual observer of the

792
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 3: Charlie kirk case will say, hey, like there was I know,

793
00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:58,920
Speaker 3: we got the guy that has his fingerprints on the gun.

794
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 3: So it sounds like it's a slam done case. But

795
00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 3: most people they know that there was folks posting online

796
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,239
Speaker 3: ahead of time that like Charlie Kirkskin diet you on

797
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:09,400
Speaker 3: this specific date, and so it seems that the investigation

798
00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:11,839
Speaker 3: is complete. What I can tell you from from our

799
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:14,799
Speaker 3: vantage point, from what nctc's function was supposed to be

800
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,840
Speaker 3: was investigating foreign links, and without getting into towny details,

801
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 3: I can just say we didn't get the opportunity to

802
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 3: fully run down every lead with foreign links. I'm not

803
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 3: implicating any government, I'm not implicating any people. I'm just

804
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 3: saying we were stopped from finishing our.

805
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 1: Job, okay, and then tying that in back to the

806
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 1: Iran question, clearly, I mean, look, I do, frankly think

807
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of conspiracy stuff out there. However, you,

808
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 1: as you testified to in your Tucker interview, Charlie was

809
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:46,319
Speaker 1: a very vocal voice behind the scenes against the war

810
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 1: with Iran. And what I'm trying to square is why,

811
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:57,959
Speaker 1: why exactly that this assassination has this assassination has become

812
00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 1: almost like fan fiction, you know, in really discussing and

813
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,279
Speaker 1: grotesque way. In my opinion, However, when somebody is so

814
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 1: credible like you who was in charge of potential exploring

815
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 1: foreign or foreign links, I have to take that very

816
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:15,040
Speaker 1: very seriously. So do you remain like committed to this,

817
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:18,800
Speaker 1: I guess committed to an anger or a frustration that

818
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,759
Speaker 1: you weren't allowed to do so. And is do you

819
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 1: think that that had a potential impact on the current

820
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: situation that we're in.

821
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 3: Look, Charlie was one of the most vocal advocates that

822
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:32,320
Speaker 3: had access to the president from the outside against going

823
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,880
Speaker 3: to war with Iran, and at some point we have

824
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:38,719
Speaker 3: to look at like the bigger picture. So you've given

825
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 3: me credit for being very gracious to President Trump, and

826
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:43,400
Speaker 3: I am. I think President Trump has a lot of

827
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 3: agency and I think he can turn this around. We

828
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 3: got in this topic on Tucker's program because he said, like,

829
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 3: we know Trump is a smart guy, why didn't he

830
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 3: let this happen? And I said, there's two schools of thought.

831
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 3: One is the most likely, which is what I outlined

832
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 3: basically in my letter and what we've been talking about

833
00:38:57,600 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 3: up to this point. The second is, if you just

834
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,439
Speaker 3: take a look at the totality of things that could

835
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 3: influence President Trump's decision making, you have the assassination attempt

836
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 3: in Butler. That in theory, the assassination attempt in Butler

837
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,960
Speaker 3: is not linked, according to the official narrative to what

838
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,239
Speaker 3: took place of us a merchant who was hired by

839
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:18,720
Speaker 3: the Iranians to come to America hire a sniper arrested

840
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 3: two days prior to Butler. That case is shut. We're

841
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 3: not allowed to ask any questions or see if there's

842
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:25,759
Speaker 3: any linkage between him and Crooks. We were told that

843
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 3: Crooks was just a lone gunman, no online presence. We

844
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,640
Speaker 3: attempted to look into that too, and essentially we're blocked

845
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:36,720
Speaker 3: by the FBI, and damn On disputes that. However, Tucker

846
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 3: Carlson himself, his uninvestigative reporters dug up the fact that

847
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 3: Thomas Crooks did indeed have an online persona, And so

848
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:43,799
Speaker 3: all I'm saying is like, we need to run that

849
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 3: down because those are potential foreign links as well. As

850
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:48,200
Speaker 3: a matter of fact, Tucker's investigative journalists found some of those.

851
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:51,919
Speaker 3: So Trump's life was threatened a few different times before

852
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:53,960
Speaker 3: he even took office in a very real way, obviously

853
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:55,800
Speaker 3: the most real way in Butler, and there's lots of

854
00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 3: unanswered questions there. And then there's multiple breaches of President

855
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:01,719
Speaker 3: Trump's you know, secure perimeter. And then we have what

856
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,359
Speaker 3: happened with Charlie. And Charlie was vocal against the Twelve

857
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:06,720
Speaker 3: Day War. He was vocal against Midnight Hammer. He eventually

858
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 3: got on board because he supported the president, but in

859
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:11,799
Speaker 3: the lead up to Midnight Hammer, Charlie was in the

860
00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 3: Oval office and Brett Weinstein's confirmed this with tech text messages.

861
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 3: Others have as well. People can say that, you know,

862
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 3: Charlie and I didn't talk, but like like I said

863
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 3: on top of d the last time I saw him,

864
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:22,800
Speaker 3: and I can't pretend to be close with Charlie. I

865
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,319
Speaker 3: didn't even any test basses is from. But he saw

866
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:26,839
Speaker 3: me in the hallway and we spoke a lot. During

867
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:28,839
Speaker 3: the transition. He said, stop us from getting a war

868
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,240
Speaker 3: if Iran, and he was there to lobby the president

869
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 3: for that. And then after Midnight Hammer, a lot of

870
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,120
Speaker 3: us in the more restrained camp said the Israeli is

871
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:39,360
Speaker 3: going to come back to us and ask us to

872
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 3: do this again, and Charlie was aware of that as well.

873
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 3: Then Charlie is killed in September again, same thing. Are

874
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 3: there links? Is there more? Leads to rundown? All of

875
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 3: that is stopped, and here we are with a nice,

876
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 3: nice clean narrative that we're really kind of yelled at

877
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 3: for questioning, which I don't fully understand. And so if

878
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 3: you take all those things, you know in totality, and

879
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 3: I think one of President Trump's strong suits is he

880
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:06,319
Speaker 3: can take in large sets of information and he can

881
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 3: come up with what the leverage points are, what the

882
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:10,879
Speaker 3: vulnerabilities are, and what his interest is. And so whether

883
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:13,839
Speaker 3: or not there is some grand conspiracy or not, there

884
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,239
Speaker 3: is a potential that he views all of that as

885
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:20,120
Speaker 3: a deciding factor. Again, that's not my number one theory

886
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:21,640
Speaker 3: of the case. But for some people who are saying,

887
00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 3: like President Trump is too stupid, are too smart to

888
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:26,439
Speaker 3: fall for all of this, And I don't think he's

889
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 3: I don't think he necessarily fell for it. I just

890
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 3: think with the ecosystem that was created, I think he

891
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 3: was heavily influenced. The alternative course of action is that

892
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:39,200
Speaker 3: he is under some degree of coercion, and so that's

893
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:40,799
Speaker 3: what Tucker and I were discussing there.

894
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:43,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean that's why I brought it up.

895
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 1: I mean, this is shocking stuff. And to have somebody

896
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,080
Speaker 1: of your caliber, with the highest security clearance, who served

897
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: in the Unitedias government, who served at the pleasure of

898
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 1: the president, bring it up, I mean it really troubles me.

899
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 1: I talked about it in our show yesterday. I genuinely

900
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:57,279
Speaker 1: dismissed a lot of this as kukery. But to hear

901
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 1: you talk about that makes me really question whether some

902
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:06,040
Speaker 1: of my initial dismissing, specifically around Charlie Kirk was wrong

903
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 1: or not. And so, and you continue to believe that

904
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:12,719
Speaker 1: there was at a blocking of your investigation, and that

905
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 1: whether I guess some plot or not, that it created

906
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,799
Speaker 1: a potential impression in Trump's mind. I do want to

907
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 1: make sure though, on this Butler assassination, this Iranian alleged

908
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:27,719
Speaker 1: assassination attempt, Mack. We have that screenshot. Trump said, I

909
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:32,080
Speaker 1: believe I got the Ayatola before he got me. So

910
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:36,400
Speaker 1: does your impression here then he says they tried me twice.

911
00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:39,840
Speaker 1: Is your impression that this was an actual Iranian plot?

912
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:43,400
Speaker 1: Isn't an Israeli plot, because if it only if it

913
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 1: was an Israeli plot, would it makes sense to try

914
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 1: and box him into some sort of attack on Iran.

915
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:51,239
Speaker 1: What's your assessment here of the actual plot itself that

916
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: was supposed or may have been tied to Butler.

917
00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:58,400
Speaker 3: So after Seank killed cost Solmoni, the Iranians were rather vocal.

918
00:42:58,440 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 3: I mean, you can find most of this. I mean,

919
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:01,960
Speaker 3: they had a lot of the publicly that they were

920
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:04,440
Speaker 3: going to avenge cost some some money by targeting President

921
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:07,400
Speaker 3: shomp So that's known. The only person that we know

922
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,399
Speaker 3: of that that actually was deployed to America to work

923
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:12,720
Speaker 3: on this is Austin Mershon. And we know the Iranians

924
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:15,719
Speaker 3: sent him over here. We we gain knowledge or do

925
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:16,359
Speaker 3: we see?

926
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:18,279
Speaker 1: See That's why I thing, do we know that for sure?

927
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 1: Like that? That's what I'm asking you is that was

928
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:23,280
Speaker 1: he was he actually sent by the government of Iran?

929
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,920
Speaker 1: Your assessment to my to my knowledge he was, to

930
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:32,280
Speaker 1: my knowledge he was. Now again like intent versus capability

931
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,680
Speaker 1: with your onions they have with the capabilities, and so

932
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:38,359
Speaker 1: I think the Ranians are pretty competent when they want

933
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:38,520
Speaker 1: to be.

934
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 3: This seemed pretty half asked to me, it's they were,

935
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:44,759
Speaker 3: because these guys are serious, they know what it takes.

936
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 3: I mean, come on costing some money. You know the

937
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:50,759
Speaker 3: people that he trained, hesbla like. When they're serious, they

938
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 3: deploy serious people. I mean, you can look at the

939
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 3: trial that's now been covered in Marshaw. He's he's not

940
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 3: a serious guy, could be dangerous. You have to take

941
00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:59,720
Speaker 3: it seriously because you know, unseerious people can can commit

942
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,239
Speaker 3: violent and so sure, I'm not downplaying the risk. I'm

943
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:03,799
Speaker 3: just saying, didn't see to be that serious to me.

944
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:06,839
Speaker 3: But to my knowledge, the Iranians did deploy they recruited him,

945
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,000
Speaker 3: they deployed him. He came here to the US. We

946
00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:12,480
Speaker 3: had prior knowledge of that through intelligence means, and so

947
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:14,960
Speaker 3: when he came to America, he was basically in the

948
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 3: pocket unbeknownst to him of the FBI. The FBI then

949
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:21,480
Speaker 3: leveraged a confidential human source at him. So there was

950
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 3: never actually any according to what we've learned from the trial,

951
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:28,759
Speaker 3: not a direct threat to the president. So that's as

952
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:32,360
Speaker 3: serious as that was. Now there wasn't, in my opinion,

953
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,120
Speaker 3: enough due Dillan is done to see if there was

954
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:36,719
Speaker 3: anyone else that merchant was speaking with that could be

955
00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:39,840
Speaker 3: tied to Butler, because Butler got wrapped up just so quickly,

956
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:41,839
Speaker 3: and all the requests that we made and once we

957
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 3: came in to the FBI and to the DOJ to

958
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 3: investigate leads that could confirm or deny whether or not

959
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 3: there was any linkage between anyone that Mershant and in

960
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 3: particular or the human source they used and Butler, Crooks

961
00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:57,799
Speaker 3: or anyone in Butler. Those were all denied that that

962
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 3: wasn't looked into. And it's been public reported that the

963
00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:04,719
Speaker 3: DHS Inspector General he's also been blocked from investigating a

964
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:07,760
Speaker 3: lot of the DHS activities that day on the ground

965
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:08,280
Speaker 3: in Butler.

966
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:12,120
Speaker 1: So ask you just final thought on this about the FBI.

967
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 1: You know many of us have read over the years.

968
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 1: I will tell you what maybe a lot more libertarian

969
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,719
Speaker 1: during the global War on Terror was reading the indictments

970
00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: of a lot of these terrorists where I'm like, is

971
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:26,160
Speaker 1: this a terrorist or is this entrapment? And so what

972
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,480
Speaker 1: is your assessment of the FBI haven't been blocked or

973
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:34,480
Speaker 1: seen blocking to investigations like do you trust these individuals

974
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:40,839
Speaker 1: to really carry out their duties? Cash Betel specifically look

975
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: I don't want to ruin any ongoing investigations. Again, the

976
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:45,560
Speaker 1: Palace intrigue, I really don't want to make a part of.

977
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:47,759
Speaker 1: But what I think is important is for us as

978
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,839
Speaker 1: Americans to exercise like our god given constitutional rights.

979
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:53,279
Speaker 3: This is a beautiful country. I took a note of the

980
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 3: support and deind the constitution fought for it. You have

981
00:45:56,239 --> 00:45:59,359
Speaker 3: the right to question anyone in the US government, and

982
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:01,479
Speaker 3: you should just look at the data from the last

983
00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:05,560
Speaker 3: twenty plus years. Question every single aspect of the government,

984
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:08,839
Speaker 3: regardless of who is in power. Okay, all right.

985
00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:10,920
Speaker 1: I do want to also ask you about Jeffrey Epstein.

986
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:14,239
Speaker 1: So you had I'm sure you probably have been reading

987
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 1: the news. You were inside the administration. Also at this time,

988
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:19,680
Speaker 1: you did have a very high level security clearance. Do

989
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:23,000
Speaker 1: you think that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset?

990
00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:26,160
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do, that's my opinion. I'm the n CTC.

991
00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:28,759
Speaker 3: We never touched an into the Epstein stuff. That was

992
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:31,439
Speaker 3: all under DOJ Lock and Key. So I don't really

993
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 3: have any inside or knowledge beyond what I've read personally,

994
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,239
Speaker 3: the same stuff you've read on the internet. But yeah,

995
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 3: to some degree, Now, was he you know, a freebooter,

996
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:41,439
Speaker 3: a privateer who occasionally would do contract work with different

997
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:44,800
Speaker 3: intelligence agencies. That's just my opinion. That's kind of the

998
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:47,719
Speaker 3: realm that he was in. But there's obviously something much

999
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:51,960
Speaker 3: darker there. There's there's something else that that sneaks to

1000
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:54,399
Speaker 3: just the power dynamics in our world. I think that's

1001
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:56,800
Speaker 3: that's in those files. And you know, I think we

1002
00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:00,560
Speaker 3: should again, we should continue to question everything about those files,

1003
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:03,040
Speaker 3: and we should demand that our government actually gives us transparency.

1004
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 1: I agree. Well, considering that you know, our colleagues over

1005
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:09,040
Speaker 1: at drop Side News they commission to poll a lot

1006
00:47:09,080 --> 00:47:11,400
Speaker 1: of Americans believe that the war in Iran was to

1007
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:14,439
Speaker 1: distract from the Epstein files. Do you think there's any

1008
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:15,560
Speaker 1: credence to that idea?

1009
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:20,759
Speaker 3: That's an interesting theory, and I actually but I would

1010
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 3: say I would disagree it just in the sense that

1011
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:25,799
Speaker 3: the drum be for the war with Iran has been

1012
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:27,719
Speaker 3: going on, I think longer than most people knew what

1013
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,480
Speaker 3: Epstein who Epstein was so, but I think it was

1014
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:33,839
Speaker 3: probably a welcome distraction considering how much it was in

1015
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:35,759
Speaker 3: the news, because again, if you want people to rally

1016
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 3: around the flag start a new war, that's kind of

1017
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:40,600
Speaker 3: like politics one on one tragically, So I think that factor,

1018
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,840
Speaker 3: but I don't think it was specifically for Epstein. Had

1019
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,920
Speaker 3: the Epstein files never existed, there'd still be, unfortunately, a

1020
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:50,560
Speaker 3: neo conservative Israelian lobby for a war with around.

1021
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, sticking I think a little bit with

1022
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:56,160
Speaker 1: the Epstein question, that's another one. And look, I'm not

1023
00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:58,239
Speaker 1: saying I believe this, but I have seen a lot

1024
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:00,919
Speaker 1: of people who do they think you know, you talked

1025
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:04,160
Speaker 1: there about Trump potentially being influenced by a threat to

1026
00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:07,840
Speaker 1: his safety. Another theory is about Epstein. His conductor on

1027
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 1: Epstein has been bizarre. If we're being honest, I can

1028
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:12,239
Speaker 1: say that. You don't have to say it. Do you

1029
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:13,480
Speaker 1: think there's any credence to that?

1030
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:16,480
Speaker 3: I think if Trump was in the Epstein file as

1031
00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:18,239
Speaker 3: they would have used it to take him out long

1032
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:20,960
Speaker 3: before heaving of the nomination back in twenty sixteen. I

1033
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:23,200
Speaker 3: just think that's even even if you don't like Trump,

1034
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,000
Speaker 3: I think that's just kind of obvious. But again I

1035
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 3: go back to we go back to you. This is

1036
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 3: a This appears to be a very powerful network, and

1037
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:35,040
Speaker 3: so for people who've been anywhere near it, are they

1038
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 3: intimidated by it. That's the potential.

1039
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:40,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, and sticking with that, you know, giving your assessment

1040
00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:42,399
Speaker 1: now you've worked at the highest levels of the United

1041
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,719
Speaker 1: States intelligence community. You said you do think Epstein's an

1042
00:48:45,719 --> 00:48:50,760
Speaker 1: intelligence asset, not specifically for any one country. So given

1043
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:54,120
Speaker 1: your experience within that, I would just want to be

1044
00:48:54,239 --> 00:48:56,160
Speaker 1: very very clear, it would not be out of the

1045
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 1: question to have powerful networks like this which are linked

1046
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:03,520
Speaker 1: to United States intelligence, Israeli intelligence, Russian intelligence, Yes or.

1047
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 3: No, of course, Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think

1048
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:11,319
Speaker 3: most Western governments would use several layers of cutouts and

1049
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:13,280
Speaker 3: all the people who could be called the testified probably

1050
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:15,560
Speaker 3: actually wouldn't know anything and it wouldn't and there'd be

1051
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:19,080
Speaker 3: very limited files about it. It's just my professional opinion, Okay.

1052
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:21,920
Speaker 1: See, and again I think this is very important. It's

1053
00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: been dismissed as a conspiracy theory. I think your opinion

1054
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 1: on this matter, considering your expertise here, is really you know, vital,

1055
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:31,759
Speaker 1: because you've actually seen some of this up close, and

1056
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 1: so you know, I think people who have been dismissing

1057
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:36,839
Speaker 1: this for quite a long time should really really take

1058
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 1: that to heart. Whenever we're talking about the Epstein story, which,

1059
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:41,279
Speaker 1: of course the mainstream media if they do want to

1060
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:44,560
Speaker 1: talk about is intelligence connections, it's to Russia, never to

1061
00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 1: anybody else. Last question here on Epstein and intelligence. Do

1062
00:49:50,239 --> 00:49:54,400
Speaker 1: you think Israeli spy operations continue on US soil?

1063
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 3: Of course, yeah, absolutely, I mean, I mean, I think

1064
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:01,400
Speaker 3: the Israelis trying a good deal Vespiana against US. I

1065
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:04,680
Speaker 3: think most of it, they don't have to necessarily spy

1066
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:06,560
Speaker 3: in a traditional sense. I think they've done a very

1067
00:50:06,600 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 3: good job of moving a lot of money around Washington,

1068
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 3: DC via influence campaigns. And again, look, man, the Israelis

1069
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:13,759
Speaker 3: are good. I mean, they have so many that are

1070
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:16,320
Speaker 3: dual citizens. I think there's people that work on their

1071
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:18,719
Speaker 3: behalf who don't even think they're really working on these behalf.

1072
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:22,160
Speaker 3: They just think they're doing the right thing. So I

1073
00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:25,560
Speaker 3: think the subtle influence and some of the I think

1074
00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:28,120
Speaker 3: folks who are just sympathetic and they've been told for

1075
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:30,399
Speaker 3: years that we kind of have the same objectives over

1076
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:32,520
Speaker 3: and over again carry a lot of water for them.

1077
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 3: But of course it feels very very aggressive and very

1078
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:39,800
Speaker 3: competent intelligence service, and the Israelis pursue their national interest

1079
00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:43,160
Speaker 3: with a rigor that's actually pretty admirable, And I wish

1080
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:46,120
Speaker 3: we could pursue our national interest for the same rigor

1081
00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:47,200
Speaker 3: they do theirs.

1082
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:51,799
Speaker 1: Right as much as I criticize them, if we just

1083
00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:54,560
Speaker 1: had that same spirit around our own interest, it would

1084
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:58,600
Speaker 1: be amazing. What as a veteran, as a member of

1085
00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:02,440
Speaker 1: the used intelligence community, what did you think when the

1086
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:07,160
Speaker 1: US ambassador Mike Huckabee invited convicted spy Jonathan Pollard into

1087
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.

1088
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:14,239
Speaker 3: It's despicable. It's despicable. And look, I think there also

1089
00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:15,880
Speaker 3: is a good chance that Tucker Carlson and I will

1090
00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:19,200
Speaker 3: get looked at by the FBI with more scrutiny than

1091
00:51:19,239 --> 00:51:23,200
Speaker 3: Mike Huckabee will for that. Now, look, I don't know

1092
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:24,759
Speaker 3: if I can he clide that. I don't know what

1093
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:28,360
Speaker 3: the gain was there, But you know, Pollard was a

1094
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 3: spy against the United States of America, and whatever a

1095
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:32,560
Speaker 3: deal was cut and he got in that he ended

1096
00:51:32,600 --> 00:51:35,480
Speaker 3: up going back to Israel. But in my opinion, as

1097
00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:38,640
Speaker 3: an intelligence officer and a veteran, as an American, there's

1098
00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:42,640
Speaker 3: no reason why our ambassador, are the presidents representative in Israel,

1099
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:44,280
Speaker 3: should be meeting with him.

1100
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:46,440
Speaker 1: What do you think of so first of all, I

1101
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:49,239
Speaker 1: mean again, I'm trying to tap dance here, But for me,

1102
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 1: how do you do that and not get fired? I

1103
00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:53,960
Speaker 1: just don't get it. How do you do that not

1104
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,799
Speaker 1: get fired? To get defended by the White House, by

1105
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:00,879
Speaker 1: the President his most recent interview with Tucker Carlson. I mean,

1106
00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:04,239
Speaker 1: I'm curious for your view. I mean it maybe it

1107
00:52:04,320 --> 00:52:08,799
Speaker 1: is genuine considering his religious beliefs. How do you view

1108
00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:13,360
Speaker 1: that type of religiosity when it's paired with our actual

1109
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,960
Speaker 1: United States government, our national interests, and what what did

1110
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 1: it look like on the inside, Like are there more

1111
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:21,920
Speaker 1: Mike Huckabees than we know about who are working inside

1112
00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:22,719
Speaker 1: of this administration?

1113
00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:25,799
Speaker 3: I think with Mike Hugaby it's genuine. I don't think

1114
00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:27,960
Speaker 3: he thinks she's being disloyal to America. I think he

1115
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:30,560
Speaker 3: has a very strong I don't know if I actually

1116
00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:33,680
Speaker 3: have the right I looks like he's the right religious doctorate.

1117
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 3: I think he's a Christian, Zionised Christian Evangelical and not

1118
00:52:38,239 --> 00:52:40,719
Speaker 3: all evangelical and Evangelical church and it's not like that. So,

1119
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:43,319
Speaker 3: but I think he strongly believes he is doing the

1120
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:45,760
Speaker 3: right thing, which to me means like he probably shouldn't

1121
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:47,760
Speaker 3: be the ambassadort Israel, Like he'd probably be the ambassador

1122
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:50,840
Speaker 3: kind of like anywhere else, but maybe not Israel. So

1123
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:53,880
Speaker 3: that's a major issue. But look, the fact that no

1124
00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:57,759
Speaker 3: one removed him, that does speak to the power that

1125
00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,680
Speaker 3: the Israeli lobby has on our govern And the fact

1126
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:02,879
Speaker 3: that you have to resign from the government and come

1127
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:05,799
Speaker 3: out like I am and say this. You really can't

1128
00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:08,720
Speaker 3: say it from within the government and be taken seriously

1129
00:53:08,800 --> 00:53:11,560
Speaker 3: or even listen to. That just shows you how powerful

1130
00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:14,879
Speaker 3: these guys are. And it's not like they're around every

1131
00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:17,960
Speaker 3: corner threatening people, are paying people off, but there is

1132
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:20,359
Speaker 3: enough of a power dynamic there. I mean, we had

1133
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 3: Adelson was at the dinner last night at the White

1134
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:25,360
Speaker 3: House and she gave over one hundred million dollars to

1135
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:28,160
Speaker 3: the president. Like, look, people are powerful. That's just the

1136
00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:31,120
Speaker 3: why politics is. At the end of the day. Again,

1137
00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:33,560
Speaker 3: just like our relationship with Israel in the battlefield, I

1138
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:35,359
Speaker 3: think we have to look at what our relationship is

1139
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:37,399
Speaker 3: with Israel here in Washington, d c. And in terms

1140
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:39,600
Speaker 3: of foreign lobbying and say is that good for the country.

1141
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:41,279
Speaker 3: And I don't think it's healthy for us to have

1142
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:42,760
Speaker 3: that relationship with any country.

1143
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:47,160
Speaker 1: I completely agree, Joe. Last couple questions here, there was

1144
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:51,240
Speaker 1: some speculation that you had resigned to make a splash

1145
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 1: so you could run for office in the future.

1146
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:54,359
Speaker 3: Is that your plan?

1147
00:53:54,480 --> 00:53:55,239
Speaker 1: What are you looking at?

1148
00:53:56,560 --> 00:53:59,400
Speaker 3: I ran for Congress twice and I'm not in Congress,

1149
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 3: So if that's my plan, to be pretty wild. No,

1150
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:05,120
Speaker 3: I have no desire to run for office ever. Again.

1151
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 3: I hope to serve in the government, to serve our

1152
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:11,640
Speaker 3: country in some capacity once again. If it doesn't end

1153
00:54:11,719 --> 00:54:14,400
Speaker 3: up working out, that's fine too. I got to fulfill

1154
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 3: my childhood dream of being a green brain getting to

1155
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:19,160
Speaker 3: go to war for my country. So right now, serving

1156
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:23,360
Speaker 3: in this capacity is what I'm focused on. Again. Like,

1157
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 3: I have no desire to run for office. I know

1158
00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:27,919
Speaker 3: because I got a lot of views and stuff on Twitter,

1159
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:29,719
Speaker 3: people like, oh, you're gonna run in twenty twenty eight.

1160
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:31,480
Speaker 3: I know the nuts and bolts are having to run

1161
00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:33,640
Speaker 3: for just Congress, so like, I can't really even wrap

1162
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:36,160
Speaker 3: my heads and around for what having to do that

1163
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:39,160
Speaker 3: at the presidential level would be. So No, my goal

1164
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:42,000
Speaker 3: is It's really clear, it's to hopefully get through to

1165
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:44,960
Speaker 3: the president either myself or to have enough public pressure

1166
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:46,719
Speaker 3: that we change course here in the next couple of

1167
00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 3: weeks and we walk back from the ABYSS.

1168
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:51,640
Speaker 1: Last question for issue very near and dear to my heart,

1169
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:55,120
Speaker 1: did you ever see any evidence of extraterrestrial life while

1170
00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:55,800
Speaker 1: you were in government?

1171
00:54:57,040 --> 00:54:59,400
Speaker 3: I did not know. I was most mostly in the

1172
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:01,520
Speaker 3: Middle East. I did, and I've got some friends who

1173
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:05,839
Speaker 3: who were pretty involved in looking for for those those

1174
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 3: types of things. Okay, yeah, no, I heard a good

1175
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:13,319
Speaker 3: deal the i think it's called the Skywatcher project. There,

1176
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:16,239
Speaker 3: there's a there's a good deal online. I know one

1177
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:18,000
Speaker 3: of the guys who was involved in that, not in

1178
00:55:18,120 --> 00:55:20,279
Speaker 3: like the esp stuff, but in actually being able to

1179
00:55:20,280 --> 00:55:25,600
Speaker 3: signal them through through signals. Very credible guy, and so

1180
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:27,640
Speaker 3: what he found, what he's talked about, I think is

1181
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:29,759
Speaker 3: worth taking a look at. But I was never I

1182
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:31,360
Speaker 3: was I was account I was a terrorism guy, and

1183
00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:34,320
Speaker 3: so I didn't run across any any aliens and terrorism.

1184
00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:36,680
Speaker 1: Well, you never know. There are orbs. There are a

1185
00:55:36,719 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 1: lot of orbs that appeared in battlefields and Syrian Mosel.

1186
00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:42,080
Speaker 3: I've seen the footage. One hundred percent.

1187
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:46,359
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, fair enough. Last question, then, where can

1188
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: people support you, what's your plan? Where can people support you? Uh,

1189
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:50,359
Speaker 1: if they want to?

1190
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:53,720
Speaker 3: I think my ex account is probably the best place

1191
00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:55,719
Speaker 3: to do it. All these different podcasts and stuff I'm

1192
00:55:55,800 --> 00:55:57,919
Speaker 3: gonna be doing, they'll be clips and stuff on there,

1193
00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:00,439
Speaker 3: but that's the only support. And I would I would say,

1194
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 3: if you share my views, call your senator, call your representative.

1195
00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:06,560
Speaker 3: There's primaries and there's elections happening in twenty twenty six,

1196
00:56:06,719 --> 00:56:09,560
Speaker 3: and tell them that you don't support this war. Because unfortunately,

1197
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:11,759
Speaker 3: some of the most active polling that's going on right now,

1198
00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:13,920
Speaker 3: it's getting put up on Fox, Neames, on ABC and

1199
00:56:13,960 --> 00:56:16,680
Speaker 3: mainstream media, and for lack of better terms, I think

1200
00:56:16,719 --> 00:56:18,719
Speaker 3: that either those polls are fake or they're pulling just

1201
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:20,440
Speaker 3: a bunch of baby boomers. And the people that are

1202
00:56:20,440 --> 00:56:23,760
Speaker 3: tuning into media like this who actually got President Trump

1203
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:26,400
Speaker 3: into office, I don't think they're reflected in that polling.

1204
00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:28,720
Speaker 3: So we've got to make our voices heard on social

1205
00:56:28,719 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 3: media and by contacting your representatives.

1206
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:33,319
Speaker 1: All right, well, Joe, thank you very very much for

1207
00:56:33,360 --> 00:56:36,560
Speaker 1: your time again. Yeah, where we got you out on

1208
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:39,040
Speaker 1: the time that we needed to thank you again for

1209
00:56:39,239 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 1: the heroism in your action. I have almost never seen

1210
00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:45,719
Speaker 1: it in my life, and I think it's commendable. This

1211
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:48,200
Speaker 1: fact that you don't have any plans to run again

1212
00:56:48,280 --> 00:56:51,279
Speaker 1: for office speaks also volumes to the mission that you're

1213
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:53,480
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish here, and I hope that we can

1214
00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:55,560
Speaker 1: speak again sometime under better circumstances.

1215
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:57,759
Speaker 3: Absolutely, thank you so much, really appreciate having me