Speaker 1: Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here,
Speaker 1: and we here at breaking points, are already thinking of
Speaker 1: ways we can up our game for this critical election.
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Speaker 2: the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that,
Speaker 2: let's get to the show.
Speaker 4: Let's move on to Bill Burr who was on Club
Speaker 4: Random with Bill Maher and they obviously why not, got
Speaker 4: into a conversation about the pro Palestinian demonstrations on campuses
Speaker 4: around the country. Lest you think we weren't watching Aaron
Speaker 4: Rodgers on Joe Rogan or on Tucker Carlson's show yesterday,
Speaker 4: he did weigh in on the Cuba policy of Alan
Speaker 4: Dulles inaccurately. By the way, this was a historic first,
Speaker 4: I think the first former Green Bay Packers quarterback to
Speaker 4: go after Alan Dulles.
Speaker 5: Triumph for him.
Speaker 4: So the podcast universe is thriving and Bill Burr is
Speaker 4: is a part of that wonderful ecosystem and Bill Maher
Speaker 4: this went pretty viral.
Speaker 5: I think got kind of owned by Bill Burr. Here,
Speaker 5: let's take a watch.
Speaker 6: You don't realize that college campus is erupted with the
Speaker 6: kids demonstrating for hamas they are in with the terrorists
Speaker 6: they were for the Palestinians. Well, it's sort of the
Speaker 6: same cause.
Speaker 3: Why are you.
Speaker 6: I'm on the side of the kids. Yeah, that's easy
Speaker 6: to say. You know, no one wants to see kids dead. Uh,
Speaker 6: this is a war. Is very brave of you to
Speaker 6: say this is a this is a ward. No, I'm
Speaker 6: the one who's actually brave on this.
Speaker 7: It's at yourself on the bed. Easy to say I'm
Speaker 7: for the kids. Who's not for the kids? It comes
Speaker 7: down to real hard nosed decisions like a country. I'm
Speaker 7: talking like your general country got attacked. Israel got attacked.
Speaker 8: I'm not saying that they didn't have a right to
Speaker 8: go back. I'm just sitting there going like, how do
Speaker 8: I look at the.
Speaker 6: Well, the only country in the world that they get
Speaker 6: attacked and then as soon as they counterattack, it's like, well,
Speaker 6: we got to stop this ship.
Speaker 3: Now, don't attack them.
Speaker 6: Is a very simple solution to all this problem in
Speaker 6: the Middle East.
Speaker 3: Stop attacking Israel. Hey, you stop attacking Israel, which I do.
Speaker 6: I actually think that's fantastic anyway, all right, we don't
Speaker 6: need to get that.
Speaker 3: Let let's go to Russia and the Ukraine. How do
Speaker 3: you solve that one?
Speaker 1: Bill?
Speaker 3: Let me hear your hard.
Speaker 8: Knows decision about that. Well, let me ask you a question,
Speaker 8: how is war still legal? All the shit that's been
Speaker 8: canceled legal? Why is that still fucking legal?
Speaker 3: Would you like a real answer to that?
Speaker 6: Because for something to be illegal, you have to have
Speaker 6: the capacity to enforce it, and you can't enforce against
Speaker 6: war or else you have to go to war with
Speaker 6: the country that's going to war, and we don't want
Speaker 6: to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. What would
Speaker 6: be the sense of making it illegal that's really going
Speaker 6: to stop putin? No, to stop people from going to war,
Speaker 6: you have to also put down and talk it out.
Speaker 8: Why can't putent do a podcast with the head guy
Speaker 8: like you just solve the Middle East on a podcast.
Speaker 8: Why can't they solve what they're doing on a podcast?
Speaker 8: Makes why this is not yours? Makes makes some hard
Speaker 8: nice just not your thing?
Speaker 5: It's what you need?
Speaker 3: It is it isn't.
Speaker 8: You're like that guy that has a fantasy football team
Speaker 8: and thinks he's a fucking GM. No, that's exactly what
Speaker 8: it is, Like, why am I fucking listening to you?
Speaker 3: Like like you've done something? What have you done in Washington? Nothing?
Speaker 3: That is a great point, Bill Martin, this thing that's
Speaker 3: your thing, just getting high like mouthing off.
Speaker 4: I was just saying, yes, which is really your thing.
Speaker 3: But it would be like me saying that I'm some
Speaker 3: expert on this. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 4: I mean you you regularly have covered that, You've been there,
Speaker 4: You've interviewed people.
Speaker 5: It qualifies.
Speaker 4: But I feel like Bill mahert here really has celebrity
Speaker 4: syndrome where he doesn't realize how poorly he's coming across
Speaker 4: when he's sort of like in this very patronizing way
Speaker 4: like verbally patting Bill Burr on the head and saying,
Speaker 4: this is I got this, don't worry about it.
Speaker 5: My thing.
Speaker 4: Your opinion counts as less because I'm.
Speaker 5: A talk show host.
Speaker 3: There was an interesting window into his mind in Bill
Speaker 3: Maher's mind for a moment there where Bill Burr says,
Speaker 3: I'm with the kids. Bill Maher had just said the
Speaker 3: kids are supporting Hamas or whatever, and they're protesting. He
Speaker 3: was Bill Burr was referring to the college kids. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because Biller had just said the kids, right, Bill Maher's mind,
Speaker 3: in his mind, he thinks he's saying that I'm with
Speaker 3: the kids who are being slaughtered by Israel.
Speaker 5: That's what I Yeah, that's how I interpreted to.
Speaker 3: Bill Maher's mind went to the kids being slaughtered and
Speaker 3: then said I'm the courageous one because I'm okay with
Speaker 3: the kids being slaughtered because I understand in a hard
Speaker 3: headed world that there is no other choice than slaughtering
Speaker 3: all these kids. Was fascinating, and it was really high. Well, yeah, clearly,
Speaker 3: but that's a window into like I mean, he's high
Speaker 3: most of the time, So that's that. It's like a
Speaker 3: philosophical question about which Bill maher mind exists. And I
Speaker 3: would say, if you're high more than half the time,
Speaker 3: then it's the it's the high one.
Speaker 4: I also found that interesting because he was they were
Speaker 4: in a conversation directly about the kids on college campuses.
Speaker 4: They had both used the word kids in relation to
Speaker 4: the kids on college campuses, and as soon as Bill
Speaker 4: Burr said that, Bill mahert like the switch flipped and
Speaker 4: he jumped on Bill Burr from oh you you say
Speaker 4: you're with the Palestinian children. But Bill Burr then going
Speaker 4: back and just driving the knife further with that last
Speaker 4: comment about what have you done in Washington?
Speaker 3: Yeah, why am I listening to you? It is a
Speaker 3: very good question, Like why on earth? I mean, because
Speaker 3: it's funny, I guess to watch these two people hopefully,
Speaker 3: but yeah, like him pretending like he has him saying
Speaker 3: like this is my thing and it's not yours. Get
Speaker 3: out of here.
Speaker 4: I actually think one of the great one of the
Speaker 4: great benefits of the podcast ecosystem, especially in comedy, has
Speaker 4: been the ascension of like the everyman take on politics.
Speaker 4: That's like amplified more than it had been.
Speaker 3: In the way Aaron Rodgers and Joe Rogan yesterday.
Speaker 4: Great Tucker Carlson, but Aaron Rodgers is like a great
Speaker 4: everyman example. And he even kind of talked about that one.
Speaker 4: But it's I mean, like again, part of the problem
Speaker 4: with media is the excessive gatekeeping. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 4: you know, comedians spatting off about politics or you know,
Speaker 4: celebrities spouting off about politics. It doesn't mean that it's
Speaker 4: always right, but sometimes those casual conversations are actually pretty
Speaker 4: interesting because you get Bill Maher then to like almost
Speaker 4: literally like you could see he wanted to lean over.
Speaker 4: I think he did even lean over and like touch him,
Speaker 4: like pat him on the head and be like it's okay, Bill,
Speaker 4: don't worry.
Speaker 3: I got this and so. And nobody's actually in their
Speaker 3: heart against gatekeeping. They just want to let different people
Speaker 3: through the gate. Like I want to let Bill burthrough
Speaker 3: and tell Bill Maher, sorry, your card's been deactivated. You
Speaker 3: can't come through this gate.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I say, I'll let Aaron Rodgers to the
Speaker 4: gate if he wants to talk about Alan Dlles.
Speaker 5: There you go, I'm on through.
Speaker 4: Let's do it. We'll have that conversation. But anyway, it's
Speaker 4: occasionally very fun.
Speaker 5: It is all right.
Speaker 4: Well, we're moving on now to an incredible interview that
Speaker 4: you set up. I am excited to talk to Monica Johnston.
Speaker 3: Yeah, stick around. Monica is a Canadian nurse who now
Speaker 3: lives in Oregon. She's in a hospital in Conunis called
Speaker 3: the European Hospital right now. She was supposed to leave
Speaker 3: on Monday, but because Israel has basically locked the doors,
Speaker 3: nobody's getting in and out. She and her mission are
Speaker 3: still trapped there. She's going to tell us what it's
Speaker 3: like in the European Hospital. Stick around for that. We
Speaker 3: are joined now from the European Hospital in conmunist Gaza
Speaker 3: by Monica Johnston Johnson from Canada currently lives in Oregon,
Speaker 3: but is in Conunis at the moment. Monica, thank you
Speaker 3: so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me so.
Speaker 3: We reported earlier this week about the situation for you
Speaker 3: and the others who are on the medical mission to
Speaker 3: Conunis is Israel. By taking over the Rafa border and
Speaker 3: closing it completely, no supplies have been able to get
Speaker 3: in and out, but also no people have been able
Speaker 3: to get in and out. I understand your mission was
Speaker 3: supposed to leave this week has not been able to.
Speaker 3: Yesterday when we spoke, you said the un was going
Speaker 3: to do a trial run where they were going to
Speaker 3: send staff members on that run and if they were
Speaker 3: able to survive the trip from the hospital to Rafa
Speaker 3: not be killed by the IDF, that then the next
Speaker 3: day medical staff would be able to start leaving. What
Speaker 3: is the circumstances with that plan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right, how you said that.
Speaker 9: So the UN did make their trial run on Monday,
Speaker 9: and we were supposed to start trial runs with our
Speaker 9: teams yesterday. We got notified that the UN's convoy was successful,
Speaker 9: but then ours would not be able to take place yesterday.
Speaker 9: So as of now we still have not heard when
Speaker 9: we will start those trial runs.
Speaker 3: And you would also told me that they were going
Speaker 3: to do about two at a time, which is nowhere
Speaker 3: near the entire team, but that you guys were insisting
Speaker 3: that you know, to be allowed in. So can you
Speaker 3: describe why that is? And how do these how do
Speaker 3: these missions work like? And why is it so important
Speaker 3: that new humanitarian aid workers be able to come in
Speaker 3: to replace you?
Speaker 9: Absolutely, I really don't understand the reasoning. I know there's
Speaker 9: multiple mission teams here, so splitting it up to allow
Speaker 9: for a few members from each team I think I'm
Speaker 9: not sure if it's the IDF for who's limiting the
Speaker 9: amount of people in each convoy.
Speaker 1: But and then the prioritization.
Speaker 9: So when we did get word that our convoy was
Speaker 9: going to be leaving on when Sorry, it's.
Speaker 1: Hard to keep track of the days here. This is
Speaker 1: why we need.
Speaker 9: Relief on Tuesday that none of our team members were
Speaker 9: selected for that convoy based on some kind of priorities
Speaker 9: that the WHO.
Speaker 1: Has which we're not privy to. So the reason we
Speaker 1: do need that relief is because you know, we're exhausted,
Speaker 1: but we can't just leave and abandon the people here.
Speaker 9: Many units are working with only nursing students. Many units
Speaker 9: are run by interns and residents, so we need the
Speaker 9: support of humanitarian workers to help keep things afloat well.
Speaker 4: And speaking of the you know, actually kind of shifting
Speaker 4: from the flow of people to the flow of supplies.
Speaker 4: As Ryan mentioned earlier, can you tell us a little
Speaker 4: bit about difficulties in getting what you need for medical
Speaker 4: treatment to you guys, so that you can do your
Speaker 4: jobs and help people be safe and recover from instances
Speaker 4: in which you know they were not kept safe.
Speaker 9: Absolutely, So think of a hospital in America, they get
Speaker 9: daily shipments of supplies.
Speaker 1: Here, we brought in.
Speaker 9: Our team brought in three hundred suitcases for a two
Speaker 9: week period. We went through almost all of those supplies
Speaker 9: in one week, so you know, we're already coming to
Speaker 9: depleted situation. We I guess incorrectly expected certain things like
Speaker 9: hand soap, and sanitizer, paper towels to be here, so
Speaker 9: we didn't prioritize those items in our three hundred bags
Speaker 9: and we get here to find no units have so
Speaker 9: no units have hand sanitizer. So some basic things that
Speaker 9: help save wise help vent infections, and that's what we're seeing,
Speaker 9: just a rampant infection rate and people are dying from this.
Speaker 9: So we're running out of antibiotics, We're running out of
Speaker 9: wound care supplies, pain medicine, medication that supports vital organs,
Speaker 9: We're running out of all of those things. So it's
Speaker 9: so desperately needed to reopen the borders.
Speaker 3: And so I noticed in a video that you had
Speaker 3: sent to us earlier that you had something, I don't
Speaker 3: know the exact term for it, as kind of a
Speaker 3: stent in your arm. I if it's too personal to ask,
Speaker 3: but can you talk a little bit about what the
Speaker 3: situation is like for you and the other medical professionals
Speaker 3: that you're with, Like, what's what's going on there that
Speaker 3: dehydration or what what are you facing.
Speaker 9: Any of us have just been hit with gastroentritis, so
Speaker 9: whether it was something we ate or you know, we
Speaker 9: had some water that wasn't purified.
Speaker 1: For the most part, we're drinking bottled water.
Speaker 9: But now we're a little nervous about that supply, so
Speaker 9: we've been starting to ration that a little bit more
Speaker 9: so rationing that leads to the hydration. It's warm here.
Speaker 9: I'm not used to this climate. I'm doing twenty dressing
Speaker 9: changes in four hours.
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard, strenuous work.
Speaker 9: So me and my roommate personally, we had gastrotritis, so
Speaker 9: you know, we're dehydrated from that.
Speaker 1: We both had ibs for two days.
Speaker 9: I received three and a half liters of fluid and
Speaker 9: continued to.
Speaker 1: Work as much as I could through that because you know, you're.
Speaker 9: Here and the idea of being in bed sick it
Speaker 9: was devastating. I'm here to help and I'm sick and
Speaker 9: I can't help, and it just wasn't acceptable.
Speaker 4: And what kind of wounds and illnesses are you guys saying, like,
Speaker 4: what's a rough breakdown? Just from your perspective having treated
Speaker 4: so many people now.
Speaker 9: So lots of tragic amputations, so explosions and they lose
Speaker 9: limbs at the site and then extensive blast injuries with
Speaker 9: shrapnel that ends up causing a wound to need to
Speaker 9: be amputated later on. So we have those extensive blast
Speaker 9: injuries and then burns on top of that, lots of
Speaker 9: head injuries with that.
Speaker 1: So if you.
Speaker 9: Imagine a blast and getting thrown out one of my patients,
Speaker 9: she's an eleven year.
Speaker 1: Old, Oh, this is going to be tough.
Speaker 9: She lost bad and she was found two houses over
Speaker 9: from their home, and her and her brother were brought
Speaker 9: to our hospital and her brother died in the emergency room.
Speaker 9: So she suffered a cut to her head down to
Speaker 9: her skull, fractured pelvis, a fractured leg, and extensive blast
Speaker 9: injuries to the back side of her legs where it's
Speaker 9: going to take months to heal if she doesn't get
Speaker 9: infected here and multiple graphs if she doesn't get infected.
Speaker 1: So you know, this is this is what we're seeing
Speaker 1: the magnitude.
Speaker 9: I work at a Level one trauma burned center, and
Speaker 9: I have not seen this magnitude at this frequency. At
Speaker 9: one point, we were getting you know, five, six of
Speaker 9: these at a time, and you know, a level one
Speaker 9: Trump will.
Speaker 1: Struggle with that, let alone a place that has no.
Speaker 3: Resources and correct me if I'm wrong. To recover from
Speaker 3: injuries like that you generally need more calories, more nutrition
Speaker 3: than average. Can you talk a little bit about what
Speaker 3: people are, what people have access to, and what the
Speaker 3: effect of that is on their recovery?
Speaker 9: Very simply what they have access to is nothing, you know,
Speaker 9: or near nothing. We're talking about maybe one can of
Speaker 9: ensure for an entire day for one of these wound page.
Speaker 1: That no one can survive.
Speaker 9: On that, let alone someone who has an extensive injury.
Speaker 9: Our patients back in America, you know, they fight with
Speaker 9: us and say I can eat, I can eat, you know,
Speaker 9: and two days later we're putting a feeding tube in
Speaker 9: them because you can.
Speaker 1: You just physically can't consume that amount of calories.
Speaker 9: So it's leading to infections, graph losses if we ever
Speaker 9: get to that point, further amputations, just so many complications
Speaker 9: because of that.
Speaker 3: And somebody from your mission sent us video and control
Speaker 3: room if you can put up this vo they send
Speaker 3: us this video of the scene from a from a
Speaker 3: safe house that some of the medical staff were using.
Speaker 3: That's the trip from the safe house to the hospital.
Speaker 3: They were then told don't go back to the safe
Speaker 3: house anymore. It's not safe, it's too close. We think
Speaker 3: the idef might strike it even if they're deconflicting and
Speaker 3: give them the coordinates. So I'm curious, did you spend
Speaker 3: any time in a safe house and are you hearing shelling?
Speaker 3: What's the situation like as we speak with regards to violence.
Speaker 1: So our team in particular has only been at the
Speaker 1: hospital staying at the hospital. A couple team members have
Speaker 1: ventured out to visit surrounding areas and they just speak
Speaker 1: of the devastation kind of like what you have shown
Speaker 1: from inside the hospital, which is considered a green zone.
Speaker 1: We are hearing shelling all the time on stant whirl
Speaker 1: of the drones.
Speaker 9: This morning at six point thirty am was the largest
Speaker 9: last that I have ever heard, and it felt like
Speaker 9: it was in the next building over.
Speaker 1: It woke me out of a dead.
Speaker 9: Sleep and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest
Speaker 9: and I just sat there and I kept waiting.
Speaker 1: I kept waiting for another one, and there were, but
Speaker 1: fortunately not for us this time.
Speaker 3: I assume that some of the medical staff who were
Speaker 3: Palestinian there were in some of the other hospitals that
Speaker 3: have been, you know, raided by the IDEF. What have
Speaker 3: have they given you any advice on how to handle
Speaker 3: doing this work in this in this war zone, and
Speaker 3: what have they told you about their experience in other hospitals.
Speaker 9: So some of the other hospitals, you know, it's just infrastructure.
Speaker 9: I think at this point, seven eight months out, the
Speaker 9: infrastructure has just gone. So some of the other hospitals
Speaker 9: were run a little bit more smoothly.
Speaker 1: This one there's been just so much chaos.
Speaker 9: But I think it's you know, you think of all
Speaker 9: the people who have displaced here and have been continually displaced.
Speaker 1: So I heard.
Speaker 9: I'm not sure if this is accurate, but at one
Speaker 9: point there was thirteen thousand people occupying our hospital corridors
Speaker 9: on this campus here, and you know, when we came,
Speaker 9: you had just a small path to walk through the
Speaker 9: entire hospital, and there were walls and walls of curtains
Speaker 9: and tarts housing off families, little living quarters. So yeah,
Speaker 9: other hospitals, I don't think quite they had their own
Speaker 9: problems from what I hear, and obviously when they were invaded,
Speaker 9: absolutely had issues, but I don't think they had this
Speaker 9: mass displacement. To hear, that just is leading to even
Speaker 9: more chaos.
Speaker 3: As you're thinking about the possibility of leaving, Like how
Speaker 3: do you balance the different factors. On the one hand,
Speaker 3: you've got the Palestinians who were in the hospital saying,
Speaker 3: you know, if Westerners leave, were all going to be killed.
Speaker 3: On the other hand, you need people to replace you
Speaker 3: otherwise the thing completely collapses. But then on the third
Speaker 3: and you guys are rationing water and running out of supplies.
Speaker 3: I assume some are in facing significant health risks. How
Speaker 3: are people kind of thinking through the series of terrible
Speaker 3: options in front of you?
Speaker 9: Now, this team has been so so amazing.
Speaker 1: I cannot speak to the magnitude of how wonderful this
Speaker 1: team is.
Speaker 9: Everybody cares so much about the Palestinian people here. We're
Speaker 9: very adamant about the fact that we can't just leave
Speaker 9: without replacement.
Speaker 1: But that does mean replacement of not only personnel, but supplies.
Speaker 1: We you know, we've kind of learned from the Palestinians
Speaker 1: here like to give.
Speaker 9: Like you see them and they have nothing, and they're
Speaker 9: constantly inviting you for tea and what little food they
Speaker 9: have they're giving and giving. So as a volunteer here,
Speaker 9: it's hard not to want to do the same thing
Speaker 9: for these people, and the thought of leaving them and
Speaker 9: abandoning them is just it's not on our minds.
Speaker 3: You had mentioned by the way that a child had
Speaker 3: opened what he thought was a can of tuna and
Speaker 3: had one of them had an arm blown off. Is
Speaker 3: that a cluster bomb that looks like a can of tuna? What?
Speaker 3: What are people finding like in the street there?
Speaker 9: I am I'm not quite certain about that, but I
Speaker 9: was called to the OAR to help and I was
Speaker 9: told his story. You know, people are hungry, they find
Speaker 9: stuff they want to eat, so.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 9: There's potential that these things are getting placed in people's
Speaker 9: houses when the IOF is you know, reading homes and
Speaker 9: stuff and then affecting people like children are finding them
Speaker 9: and when you're hungry.
Speaker 1: You can't blame them, right.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's dark.
Speaker 5: Can't blame them?
Speaker 3: That is that is dark? And any any final thoughts
Speaker 3: like what what what is what is the understaffing doing?
Speaker 3: What's it like working in a hospital that is this understaffed?
Speaker 3: And any final thoughts people should know about what the
Speaker 3: situation is right now.
Speaker 9: So, yeah, the understaff we've we've gone into the ICU
Speaker 9: two mornings now and found patients in a state of
Speaker 9: rigor mortis. So that's meaning that they have been dead
Speaker 9: for some time. All their IV lines were still running,
Speaker 9: they were still hooked up to all the machines and
Speaker 9: it showed a flatline on the monitor.
Speaker 1: But there's just no staff to respond. You walk into the.
Speaker 9: ICU and there's alarms twenty four to seven on every
Speaker 9: single patient. So, you know, I asked a nurse about
Speaker 9: this because I wanted to understand, like, are you exhausted?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 9: And I eventually got out from or that. When the
Speaker 9: patient comes in, they know who's going to live and
Speaker 9: who's not. And you know, you only have so many resources,
Speaker 9: which includes you know, personal strength and resources, and to
Speaker 9: put that emotion and strength into somebody that you know
Speaker 9: is not going to make it is too much for
Speaker 9: them after such a long period.
Speaker 1: Of doing this, So you know, people are dying.
Speaker 9: People are dying, and things aren't getting caught. Just a
Speaker 9: lot of extra unneeded death.
Speaker 3: I think, Yeah, what portion do you think of people
Speaker 3: who are dying? There would not die if they were
Speaker 3: in your trauma, if in your facility back in Oregon.
Speaker 9: I mean, I don't I don't know about specific numbers,
Speaker 9: but I mean, eighty ninety percent of these injuries are survivable.
Speaker 3: Right, just with basic with the with basic supplies and
Speaker 3: attention and calories exactly.
Speaker 9: But and that's the hardest thing to sit back and
Speaker 9: not have any control over.
Speaker 1: I know it needs to be done, but I have
Speaker 1: nothing to do it with.
Speaker 3: What's the prospect for you before we let you go?
Speaker 3: What's when? When? When do you expect that you, you
Speaker 3: and your team will be able to get out and
Speaker 3: get swapped in with a new mission.
Speaker 9: You know, we have our next team sitting in Egypt waiting.
Speaker 9: I personally have just kind of settled in.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 9: You know, we're promised daily that tomorrow we'll get a
Speaker 9: convoy out.
Speaker 1: I can't think about that, you know.
Speaker 9: I'm just taking care of the people here and taking
Speaker 9: care of my team.
Speaker 1: And myself right now.
Speaker 3: Well, if and when you do get on that convoy,
Speaker 3: we we all desperately hope that the IDF does not
Speaker 3: fire on it. I hope that the attention that is
Speaker 3: finally being paid to this at least helps a little bit.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, Nurse Johnson, thank you so much for everything you're doing.
Speaker 3: Deeply appreciate it, Appreciate your time. All right. That was
Speaker 3: Nurse Monica Johnston, who's volunteering at the European hospital and
Speaker 3: stranded there by Israel siege. Meanwhile, here in the United States,
Speaker 3: if you can put up this next element, the Wall
Speaker 3: Street Journal broke the news that President Joe Biden is
Speaker 3: moving forward with another billion dollars in new weapons for
Speaker 3: the very military that is besieging American medical staff in
Speaker 3: Gaza at the moment, to be spent mostly on tank shells, mortars,
Speaker 3: and other offensive weapons, not just for Gaza presumably, but
Speaker 3: also for the saber rattling that Israel is doing worth
Speaker 3: with Lebanon. So this comes after, you know, Biden and
Speaker 3: the White House made big news by saying that they
Speaker 3: were stopping a shipment of three thousand, five hundred bombs
Speaker 3: in retaliation basically for Netanyahu rebuffing every American public attempt,
Speaker 3: I say public attempt rather than private attempt to stop
Speaker 3: them from launching this rafa invasion that is killing all
Speaker 3: of the people that that nurse Johnson just described to us. Afterwards,
Speaker 3: Young Kirby said, look, Israel's getting all the weapons that
Speaker 3: it needs. I don't understand what everybody's so upset about,
Speaker 3: because we stopped these this one shipment of three thousand,
Speaker 3: five hundred bombs. There are other reports that Israel was saying, look,
Speaker 3: we already have all the weapons we need to invade Rafa.
Speaker 3: Now doesn't mean it's not a symbolic shift perhaps, but
Speaker 3: that doesn't help the people who are going to be
Speaker 3: on the receiving end of these tank shells. I don't think.
Speaker 4: And so Acxios has this morning as well that Yahoo
Speaker 4: has been ranting that Israel quote isn't a vassal state
Speaker 4: of the United States, which.
Speaker 3: I meant this point.
Speaker 5: It's so he says.
Speaker 4: According to one of his aids, he said, we are
Speaker 4: not a vassal state of the United States. According to
Speaker 4: three people of his remarks, including with knowledge of his remarks,
Speaker 4: including one of his aids, this was in on a
Speaker 4: rant in a meeting with his security cabinet. So obviously
Speaker 4: the relationship has actually put it here is quote strained
Speaker 4: at the moment, and Biden is trying to deal with
Speaker 4: that in different ways that I have that are amounting
Speaker 4: to this is nothing new but a completely inconsistent hodgepodge
Speaker 4: policy towards this war that makes absolutely no sense.
Speaker 3: And this is what I don't get. Okay, you're not
Speaker 3: a vassal state. Fine, then arm yourself.
Speaker 4: Well, they arm yourself in don't repeatedly say over and
Speaker 4: over again that we could not fight this war without
Speaker 4: the Americans. And so if you can't fight a war
Speaker 4: that is existential, And I agree, I think this is
Speaker 4: I think Israel faces existential threats from people around it,
Speaker 4: And we may disagree in that, but I think that's true.
Speaker 4: But you know Netanyahu, his security cabinet that said the
Speaker 4: stakes of this war are existential, and we can't do
Speaker 4: it without the Americans.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I think also destiny. Actually a good
Speaker 3: point that he made in that debate that we had
Speaker 3: was it's no longer existential that they are an industrial economy,
Speaker 3: like they're powerful enough on their own.
Speaker 5: That American supports not existential.
Speaker 3: That in general, like Lebanon's not going to overrun them.
Speaker 3: Hamas with whatever ten thousand fighters it's got left, is
Speaker 3: not going to overrun them. Jordan's certainly isn't in any
Speaker 3: mood to go to war with Egypt is not invading
Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia, and the UAE just want to do business
Speaker 3: like their place is secure. In that sense, It's not
Speaker 3: like nineteen seventy three where you have Arab states who
Speaker 3: are actually like will willing to like launch a military
Speaker 3: invasion that that's over, Like that's done even without I
Speaker 3: think American military support anymore. And a mass just doesn't
Speaker 3: have the potential. And the Palestinian authority is a subcon
Speaker 3: contractor of the Israeli government, So I've been many subcontracts,
Speaker 3: subcontractors who have kind of taken over government. So that's
Speaker 3: that's unlikely. Yeah, but yeah, tactical vehicles, mortar shells, tank shells,
Speaker 3: all of the weapons that they're using to just annihilate RAFA,
Speaker 3: and that we're going to send a billion a billion
Speaker 3: dollars more, nice round number.
Speaker 4: Well, it's the same thing with the Biden Do you
Speaker 4: care about what are defined internationally as war crimes or not?
Speaker 4: I mean they care about it when it's putin, they
Speaker 4: don't care about it. It's just obviously everyone knows at
Speaker 4: this point that it's bullshit. But it's a Biden administration
Speaker 4: that continues to enforce these like bullshit ideas about how
Speaker 4: the war is being prosecuted and what international law is
Speaker 4: supposed to look like when it's convenient and again not
Speaker 4: new in American politics, not new in world politics, but
Speaker 4: to maintain that posture and to have it, you know,
Speaker 4: informing armshipments and very specific policy details in such an
Speaker 4: uneven and inconsistent way just politically even for Biden a
Speaker 4: disaster let alone, you know what it's actually doing in
Speaker 4: the war.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the American Medical Mission is an interesting proxy
Speaker 3: on this. Hn Kaudrey and I over at the Intercept
Speaker 3: broke this news on Monday that was that this was happening,
Speaker 3: and it's it's an interesting proxy. Not in the sense
Speaker 3: that American lives are inherently worth more than Palestinian lives.
Speaker 3: They aren't. And I spoke previously with Nurse Johnson and
Speaker 3: she was saying the same thing that she can tell
Speaker 3: just that politically that everybody just acknowledges that American lives
Speaker 3: are more valuable than Palestinian lives, including the Palestinians. That
Speaker 3: the Palestinians will say, we really hope that if you leave,
Speaker 3: that other Westerners come in and replace you, because otherwise
Speaker 3: we're all going to be slaughtered like we need like
Speaker 3: those are that's those are actual human shields, like Americans
Speaker 3: shielding other civilians because the thinking is that the IDF
Speaker 3: is not willing to kill in mass American citizens but
Speaker 3: that thinking is even being challenged, like the UN convoy
Speaker 3: was fired on Monday, killing a foreign driver of that vehicle.
Speaker 3: Now they're having intense difficulties. So we broke this on Monday,
Speaker 3: Washington Post, and we see others have since followed up
Speaker 3: in the reporting. Yeah, so it's it's a global story
Speaker 3: at this point. People know that there are these American
Speaker 3: citizens and Canadian citizens trapped in this hospital. If netnya
Speaker 3: who cared, he could do he could easily resolve this situation.
Speaker 3: They control this area. Okay, seven minute drive from that
Speaker 3: hospital to Rafa, they control the border crossing Monica could
Speaker 3: be out within the next hour. If Netnah who cared
Speaker 3: and net Yah who knows that they're trapped there, they
Speaker 3: don't have the supplies they need, that the American citizens
Speaker 3: and Canadian citizens are themselves facing serious health complications, and
Speaker 3: instead she's woken up by the biggest shelling that she's
Speaker 3: ever heard since being there at six thirty this morning.
Speaker 3: He knows they're there, and they're shelling right nearby. Anyway,
Speaker 3: they're being told to stay away from windows, and it
Speaker 3: really does upend this assumption that your American passport or
Speaker 3: your Canadian passport gives you any protection even as we're
Speaker 3: sending them another billion dollars in weapons, and.
Speaker 4: You know, just as we're because you have been an interesting,
Speaker 4: more interesting reporting to talk about. But as we're wrapping
Speaker 4: this up, there are how many American hostages about five
Speaker 4: American hostages that are still remaining and barely even talk
Speaker 4: about that. But you know, speaking of on that point,
Speaker 4: a producer, Max sent a tweet from Dennis Ross yesterday
Speaker 4: where he says, one thing is clear, the fact that
Speaker 4: the idea of has to go back into Jibalia and
Speaker 4: other places in zuman units.
Speaker 5: Actually, speaking of what we were just talking about with Nurse.
Speaker 4: Johnston is a reminder that no plan existed for what
Speaker 4: would replace Hamas. Yes, Hamas is weakened, but without an
Speaker 4: alternative to it, it will fill the vacuum. And Israel
Speaker 4: needs an answer. So from the interest of the United States,
Speaker 4: the American hostages that are still being held, American aid
Speaker 4: workers that you reported on shouldn't.
Speaker 3: Held hostage being how should more American hostages in that
Speaker 3: hospital than being held by Hamas.
Speaker 4: Now And just from the pure perspective of again the
Speaker 4: interests of actual Americans over there, But how has Biden
Speaker 4: handled this situation. How does the Biden administration advanced American
Speaker 4: interests in this situation?
Speaker 5: Pretty damning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as Biden said, if you harm an American, we'll respond. Yeah,
Speaker 3: terms and conditions apply, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 4: All right, Ray, you have some more reporting on a
Speaker 4: PAK in the United States in the campaign atmosphere as
Speaker 4: recreding into November.
Speaker 5: What have you got?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I'm all worked up about this. Let's talk
Speaker 3: about APAX influence in the third Congressional District out in Oregon.
Speaker 3: About two weeks ago, two candidates in an Oregon congressional
Speaker 3: race held a rare joint press conference where they leveled
Speaker 3: a charge against a third candidate. Take a listen to
Speaker 3: the local news coverage.
Speaker 11: Moving on, we wanted to bring you an update now
Speaker 11: to a story we told you about last night, the
Speaker 11: heated three way race for the third congressional district in
Speaker 11: Oregon that's Earl Blumenauer's seat in Congress. Last week, two
Speaker 11: of the candidates, Shushila Jayapaul and Eddie Morales, held her
Speaker 11: a press conference accusing the candidate, Maxine Dexter, of taking
Speaker 11: dark money washed through a super pac called three fourteen Action.
Speaker 11: They claimed without any evidence that three fourteen Action could
Speaker 11: be a front for far right donors looking to take
Speaker 11: them out of the race.
Speaker 3: The candidate getting all that dark Bunny support is Maxine Dexter,
Speaker 3: a state representative and local doctor. At a debate, she
Speaker 3: was pressed by her opponent Eddie Morales to name the
Speaker 3: source of the funding. Take a listen.
Speaker 12: I want to spend the last second of mine asking Maxine, MAXI,
Speaker 12: will you look at the camera until Auction three, one, five,
Speaker 12: three or four Action to disclose their donors before May twentieth?
Speaker 5: Do you yes? I observedly answer the question.
Speaker 10: It is absolutely They are legally obligated to.
Speaker 5: Disclose there before the day before the election.
Speaker 10: Eddie, you understand as well as I do.
Speaker 12: This is the public forum. You can tell them and
Speaker 12: this is.
Speaker 10: It is a public forum. And I believe in discussion
Speaker 10: and deliberation.
Speaker 11: Enom funding.
Speaker 5: You absolutely not.
Speaker 3: I've not taken Okay, I have to there, but I
Speaker 3: need to let Nextine have a final word here.
Speaker 10: I will just say that this entire thing is frankly absurd.
Speaker 10: I have put my values on record. I have four
Speaker 10: years of voting records on progressive values. I have stood
Speaker 10: firm with people who have supported me, and against people
Speaker 10: who have supported me. I took an oath of office,
Speaker 10: and I've taken an oath as a physician to keep
Speaker 10: people at the center and do no harm. My integrity
Speaker 10: is frankly being questioned here, which is absolutely offensive.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, we don't want to offend anybody, and
Speaker 3: of course anybody accused of anything without evidence ought to
Speaker 3: have a chance to defend themselves. So let's take a
Speaker 3: closer look. And to be fair to accusers, it did
Speaker 3: look off random. State representatives don't generally find themselves on
Speaker 3: the winning end of millions of dollars of super pac
Speaker 3: spending for no reason. And Soshilajyapaul the candidate in the middle.
Speaker 3: There is the older sister of Promilagia Paul, one of
Speaker 3: apacs most concerted adversaries on Capitol Hill and the powerful
Speaker 3: chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. APAC had been unsuccessfully
Speaker 3: recruiting a challenger to Primilagiapoul in her Seattle district. Now,
Speaker 3: looking for clues as to who might be funding the
Speaker 3: dark money operation, you could turn to the news outlet
Speaker 3: Jewish Insider, which does a great job covering congressional primaries
Speaker 3: through an Israel Palestine prism. In early December, Jewish Insider
Speaker 3: flagged Sushila Jyapaul's candidacy as alarming to Israel advocates, elevating
Speaker 3: the potential candidacy of Dexter as a strong opponent. So
Speaker 3: after a few days of reporting, I confirmed it was
Speaker 3: indeed APAC, and I found two sources who had knowledge
Speaker 3: of how specifically APAK had begun playing in the race
Speaker 3: without disclosing its role. It was routing money indeed through
Speaker 3: the Pro Science quote unquote Pro Science superPAC called three
Speaker 3: fourteen Action Fund. So I published that story on May
Speaker 3: tenth at the Intercept. Now here's our friends at the
Speaker 3: local TV station again. Three Fourteen's response.
Speaker 11: Jaiapaul and Morales are demanding that Dexter tell three fourteen
Speaker 11: Action to reveal the donors. Now they say they think
Speaker 11: they could be related to pro Israel group APAK, and
Speaker 11: some recent reporting from the news outlet The Intercept supports
Speaker 11: that claim. We reached out to three fourteen Action Group
Speaker 11: yesterday and they did respond to us. We asked if
Speaker 11: MAGA Republicans are among their donors. They didn't outright say no,
Speaker 11: but they did say that they've spent tens of millions
Speaker 11: of dollars backing other Democrats to defeat mega Republicans in
Speaker 11: other states. They also said there's no evidence to support
Speaker 11: a claim that APAK is among their donors, and that
Speaker 11: they disclose their donors every reporting cycle and follow the
Speaker 11: letter of the law. So again not outright denying that
Speaker 11: APAC is involved, just there's no evidence there yet.
Speaker 3: So the Portland Mercury did some strong follow up reporting
Speaker 3: on the race midweek, but Maxine Dexter continued to profess
Speaker 3: ignorance even in the face of that reporting. But then
Speaker 3: undeniable pieces of evidence began to emerge. While the Superpacks
Speaker 3: aren't required to disclose their donors until the day before
Speaker 3: the election, the candidate herself has to disclose regularly down
Speaker 3: the campaign stretch, so she had to produce what's called
Speaker 3: a forty eight hour report after a May seventh fundraiser.
Speaker 3: Now at that fundraiser, of the nearly eighty donors who
Speaker 3: gave that day, nearly ninety percent are also donors to
Speaker 3: a pack. In other words, it was an Apack fundraiser,
Speaker 3: which you can find out just by searching the names
Speaker 3: of those donors on the site there. The next day,
Speaker 3: Dexter disclosed having raised nearly six hundred thousand dollars in
Speaker 3: the month of April, after raising just about three hundred
Speaker 3: thousand dollars during her entire campaign before that. Doubling or
Speaker 3: tripling your fundraising in the last few weeks of the
Speaker 3: race is not typical. That is not normal. And inside
Speaker 3: that six hundred thousand dollars were scores of additional Apack donors.
Speaker 3: Of the ones we checked, we gave up after while
Speaker 3: because it was it was pointless. It was very obvious
Speaker 3: what was going on. But Okay, maybe it's a huge
Speaker 3: coincidence that Apack donors are giving to her campaign, but
Speaker 3: it's not a packed donors who are behind the super
Speaker 3: Pac spending. How do we know Apak actually organized all this? Well.
Speaker 3: I called one of the donors on the list and
Speaker 3: got through to her. This is Jney Dallisman. At first
Speaker 3: she said she didn't remember giving to Dexter at all.
Speaker 3: When I told her the three thy three hundred dollars
Speaker 3: donation of hers was in the FEC records, it clicked
Speaker 3: for her. She said, quote, I give all of my
Speaker 3: contributions through a pack whenever I am asked to give
Speaker 3: to their endorsed candidates. I give so Dexter is an
Speaker 3: endorsed candidate, even though that's not public. If that wasn't
Speaker 3: enough to put the pieces together, a staffer at three
Speaker 3: fourteen Action Fund, angry that a pack ostensibly dedicated to
Speaker 3: electing candidates with a science background was having its mission
Speaker 3: distorted to support pro Israel candidates, reached out to me
Speaker 3: to share inside information. They told me directly about the
Speaker 3: nature of the APACK driven operation. It was a pack.
Speaker 3: Three fourteen took to Twitter to respond to my article,
Speaker 3: but did so four minutes before I even published it,
Speaker 3: and they accidentally denied the wrong thing they wrote here.
Speaker 3: Ryan Graham from The Intercept is once again making up
Speaker 3: stories out of thin air. His latest accusation that three
Speaker 3: fourteen Action is a front group, or that three fourteen
Speaker 3: will be spending against Representative Corey Bush as a complete fabrication.
Speaker 3: But I had not, in fact reported that three fourteen
Speaker 3: Action was expanding its campaign to target Bush directly. I
Speaker 3: reported that three fourteen, with the heat on them, was
Speaker 3: planning to set up a shell pack they could funnel
Speaker 3: APAC money through, and so Emily, I think what's going
Speaker 3: on here. So if you're trying, here's the question people
Speaker 3: would ask, like, if you try to put together this
Speaker 3: plan that you're that voters are not going to find
Speaker 3: out that it's a PAC money until May twentieth, and
Speaker 3: the election is May twenty first, and Oregon is mail balloting,
Speaker 3: so everybody basically will voted by that's late enough. Why
Speaker 3: would you schedule a May seventh fundraiser when you know
Speaker 3: you're going to have to disclose those donors forty eight
Speaker 3: hours later? And from what I've heard from people involved
Speaker 3: in this is that they thought they would get away
Speaker 3: with it, that nobody would notice that it's Oregon, it's
Speaker 3: a small race, it's a small race. Who cares not
Speaker 3: even an incumbent. It's an incumbent sister, but it's not
Speaker 3: an incumbent.
Speaker 5: Presumably has nothing to do with foreign policy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like the race is about homelessness, basically, Like
Speaker 3: that's the big issue that they're that they're running their
Speaker 3: ads on. The APAC funded ads are hitting Giapaul because
Speaker 3: she was on the County Commission, and the County Commission
Speaker 3: did a legitimately terrible job when it comes to a homelessness.
Speaker 3: So actually that's like, that's a clean hit. It's just
Speaker 3: let's not pretend that APAC cares like that's not their mission.
Speaker 3: Their mission is not to eradicate homelessness in Portland.
Speaker 5: Why does APAC care about this?
Speaker 3: Seriously, from everything I've been able to gather, a Giapaul
Speaker 3: is no a It supports an immediate ceasefire and is generally,
Speaker 3: you know, sympathetic with the pill Palst and cause and
Speaker 3: critical of apacad. She doesn't want a PAC money, et cetera.
Speaker 3: But it's it's it's to get at Pramila Giapaul, I
Speaker 3: see because Pramila that makes more sense. So the Squad
Speaker 3: are their most outspoken kind of opponents that are elevated
Speaker 3: in the press. But Giapaul has more power in the
Speaker 3: caucus itself, ninety to one hundred members of Progressive Caucus.
Speaker 3: She shares that caucus. She has a direct line to
Speaker 3: the White House's She can make things happen in ways
Speaker 3: that members of the Squad can't. They and according to
Speaker 3: my reporting, they very much tried to recruit an opponent
Speaker 3: to her. They ran polling in Seattle trying to find
Speaker 3: ways that that she would be soft. They would have
Speaker 3: been willing to spend I'm sure million, many millions of dollars.
Speaker 3: They're spending twenty plus million to take out Jamal Bowman.
Speaker 3: They could spend millions to take out Giapoul, but they
Speaker 3: couldn't find a challenger. They have, she got one challenger
Speaker 3: at the very last minute. But the person seems like
Speaker 3: a bit of a crank, like running in like four
Speaker 3: different races. Is the very outspoken pro is real person
Speaker 3: in that But it's I don't think that's an APAC recruit.
Speaker 3: And so if you can't go after Giapaul directly in Seattle, hey,
Speaker 3: here's her sister who I should have played audio of her.
Speaker 3: You saw she looks just like her. She also sounds
Speaker 3: just like her. You're like, there's no way that's a
Speaker 3: different person.
Speaker 4: It's got to be the same person. Once agains are wrong.
Speaker 3: Right, sources are wrong. So but I think the reason
Speaker 3: that they held the APEC fundraiser on the seventh is
Speaker 3: that they knew they'd have to disclose, but they didn't
Speaker 3: think anybody care by that point, right, and then okay,
Speaker 3: maybe somebody flags it in the by May ninth. At
Speaker 3: that point it takes a week to report it out. Now,
Speaker 3: it's towards now it's basically election day, and because you
Speaker 3: need the reporting early enough that the candidates can then
Speaker 3: get it out to voters not all watching counterpoints and
Speaker 3: reading the intercept, but they should be. But believe or not,
Speaker 3: they're not, so you have to so there has to
Speaker 3: be the local news has to pick it up, which
Speaker 3: is which is now starting to happen. Uh. The sheer
Speaker 3: amount of money being spent probably is enough to overwhelm
Speaker 3: and elect Dexter.
Speaker 5: It's a crazy amount.
Speaker 3: I mean, it might blow back now that it's now
Speaker 3: that it's out and the local press is finally starting
Speaker 3: to cover it in a in a better way. You
Speaker 3: saw that one because they that that news outlet had
Speaker 3: done some dismissive reporting in the past, saying like, oh
Speaker 3: this is there's nothing to this, but now they're But
Speaker 3: now when they got three fourteen's response, they're like, hmm.
Speaker 5: Maybe Ryan Groom sources.
Speaker 3: Are right, Maybe are right, this is this is actually
Speaker 3: not a denial, because that's the funny thing. Just disclose
Speaker 3: your donor Yeah, of course. And I think three fourteen
Speaker 3: went so aggressive in its public response because they didn't
Speaker 3: know that I had an internal source of theirs, and
Speaker 3: so just a note for the organizations, like wait until
Speaker 3: the article comes out, or call me like I emailed them,
Speaker 3: like gave my number, call me then you can find
Speaker 3: out what I've got and then you can shape your
Speaker 3: response instead. I've never seen a more desperate and guilty
Speaker 3: looking response.
Speaker 4: I like how they responded to the wrong thing too. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's just great all around.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: And the other reason they wouldn't endorse directly through three
Speaker 3: fourteen action with Bush is that Bush's opponent is Guy
Speaker 3: Wesley Bell, who's a prosecutor. He's not a scientist, like
Speaker 3: they're supposed to only endorse scientists and doctors, So they'd
Speaker 3: have to set up a different pack. There's one in
Speaker 3: Portland called Americans for Responsive Government No No Voters for
Speaker 3: Responsive Government. That they registered it on April first, because
Speaker 3: if you registered it on March thirty first, then they
Speaker 3: would have to disclose by the end of the month.
Speaker 3: April first means they don't have to disclose until May twentieth. Now,
Speaker 3: let's give APEC credit where it's due. They beat the
Speaker 3: Capitol police officer, Harry Dunn. They did in Maryland's third
Speaker 3: district last night for some reason, and people still to
Speaker 3: this day do not know why they decided to spend
Speaker 3: millions of dollars backing local state legislator Sarah Elfreth. Harry
Speaker 3: Dunn had never really said anything critical of Israel. Why
Speaker 3: they decided to make a January sixth Capitol police officer,
Speaker 3: the guy that they spent millions of target is actually
Speaker 3: unknown at this point. They also try to beat this Democrat,
Speaker 3: Dave min in a primary in California, who also had
Speaker 3: not said anything. Both of them non white, and there's
Speaker 3: some suspicion that like, if you are non white, APAC
Speaker 3: believes APAK is suspicious of your politics when it comes
Speaker 3: to Palestinians until otherwise, until proven otherwise. They've done a
Speaker 3: trip there and you know, done your I would be
Speaker 3: nice if they would tell us. They don't they they
Speaker 3: don't tell us. But the most fun news out of Maryland,
Speaker 3: as we talked about at the top of the show,
Speaker 3: is that David Trone, Yeah it was a good one,
Speaker 3: lost to Angela also Brooks. David Trone is the owner
Speaker 3: of Total Wine, which great store. Terrible person. He's famously
Speaker 3: spent like something like fourteen million dollars trying to win
Speaker 3: Jamie Raskin's seat.
Speaker 5: I thought it was more than that.
Speaker 3: It might have been he, but this is a primary,
Speaker 3: a House primary. Not only did he lose to Raskin,
Speaker 3: he lost to Chris Matthews's wife, who got finished second,
Speaker 3: who was a famous local news anchor in her own
Speaker 3: right in DC. He finished third, not only spending the
Speaker 3: most money to lose a House primary in history, didn't
Speaker 3: even finish the second. So then he switched and he
Speaker 3: moved out to western Maryland and John Delaney left office,
Speaker 3: so he was able to buy his way into that seat.
Speaker 3: Tried to spend sixty plus million dollars to win the
Speaker 3: Senate seat. Everybody thought it was his to win, but
Speaker 3: Angela also Brooks beat him. She won with basically basically
Speaker 3: Baltimore City PG and Charles County in Maryland, but she
Speaker 3: also take a little Kent County prerogative. She's currently tied,
Speaker 3: so I'm from king went to Kent County High School.
Speaker 3: Kent County is a small county over on the very rural,
Speaker 3: small county over on the eastern Shore. I haven't checked
Speaker 3: the very latest. When I checked this morning, she was
Speaker 3: tied seven two to seven twenty two in the in
Speaker 3: Kent County with Trone, So I don't even have to
Speaker 3: ask my mom. I'm sure she was also Brooks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so they're now fifty four to forty one point nine,
Speaker 4: So fifty four to forty two roughly overall, and then
Speaker 4: in Kent.
Speaker 5: It's forty eight forty eight right now.
Speaker 3: Do they have the vote totals? It was flairity.
Speaker 4: We've see about fifteen hundred total votes right now. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: so it's dead. He high ballgame in Kent County.
Speaker 5: As a wise woman once said.
Speaker 3: There's no Total Wine in Kent County.
Speaker 5: Money can't buy you class.
Speaker 3: Money can't buy you class. It's true, It's it's awesome.
Speaker 3: It's great to see Trone beaten.
Speaker 5: It's always good to see money.
Speaker 3: Yes, not win the day the stole, like the Stoller's
Speaker 3: anti monopoly crowd went after Trone and a super pack
Speaker 3: basically launched a campaign hitting him on anti trust stuff.
Speaker 5: Because anti trust super.
Speaker 3: Pack, Yeah, because Total Wine is engaged in all sorts
Speaker 3: of anti trust violations allegedly and is in the process
Speaker 3: of getting prosecuted basically, and so and Trone politically is
Speaker 3: like an anti anti trust. He's a pro trust. He's
Speaker 3: for trusts because he is a he is a trust owner,
Speaker 3: he owns a trust and so allegedly, basically, what the
Speaker 3: Total Wine does is it suppressed, is it it punishes
Speaker 3: supple and it gets better, It gets better deals on
Speaker 3: booze than the mom and pops do. And it was
Speaker 3: allegedly enforcing that in a pretty kind of ruthless way.
Speaker 3: And what's amazing is during this campaign, David Trone's company
Speaker 3: sued the Biden administration in relation to this fight that
Speaker 3: they're having. So a Democratic senator running for a Democratic
Speaker 3: Senate seat sued the Democratic president over anti trust policy
Speaker 3: while he was running for Senate. Democratic voters said no,
Speaker 3: so good for them.
Speaker 4: I was going to say that this segment was peak Portland,
Speaker 4: but it has now become peak Ryan Grimm because what
Speaker 4: started as a deep investigation into the various meddling of
Speaker 4: a pac turned into a rant about the pro trust
Speaker 4: organization structurally of Total Wine.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure how we got there, but you.
Speaker 5: Didn't see it coming. That was a Shamalan style.
Speaker 3: But here it's all about big money.
Speaker 5: All about big money. Yeah, that's the overhanging.
Speaker 3: And so the election is May twenty first in Portland
Speaker 3: we'll see, like if they lose this despite spending millions
Speaker 3: of dollars against Jaya Paul, that would be a huge
Speaker 3: blow to them because that would leave them with just
Speaker 3: Harry Dunn so far as the person they beat. They
Speaker 3: and the January sixth protesters are the only ones that
Speaker 3: have beaten Harry done and nobody else.
Speaker 4: Well, best of luck to Apak going forward. And that
Speaker 4: does it for us on today's Wednesday edition of Counterpoints.
Speaker 4: But of course we now do a wonderful Friday show
Speaker 4: and that will be this week conversation with betto Work.
Speaker 4: I imagine they'll be some debate back and forth. We
Speaker 4: haven't taped it yet, but a conversation with Betoo Work
Speaker 4: on the border, and that's really exciting.
Speaker 5: I really appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Setting that up right, Yeah, love Betto. I uh first
Speaker 3: interviewed Beto when he was a El Paso City councilman
Speaker 3: because he was pushing a pot legalization initiative referendum in
Speaker 3: like not a reference, just a little resolution in like
Speaker 3: two thousand and nine. I interviewed him for that and
Speaker 3: I interviewed the sitting congressman at the time, and the
Speaker 3: congressman said, if this passes the El Paso City Council,
Speaker 3: like federal funding is going to be at risk. Beto
Speaker 3: took that as a threat that how dare you threaten
Speaker 3: federal funds over my pot resolution? And Beto ran against
Speaker 3: him for Congress after reading that and beat him in
Speaker 3: the primary. He was a border patrol guard, so he
Speaker 3: beat a border patrol guard to get the Congress.
Speaker 5: You guys are just jen X.
Speaker 4: Yeah, brothers, we are yea brothers and the brothers in
Speaker 4: the plant.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4: You got a clubhouse because this is a treehouse. You
Speaker 4: just like smoke weed and skateboard and listen to Nirvana.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're not going to sell out man, but really
Speaker 3: looking forward. Yeah all right, So come back Thursday night
Speaker 3: Friday for Counterpoints Friday with Beto o'rourk. Otherwise Crystal Sograby
Speaker 3: here tomorrow.
Speaker 4: And stay tuned of course to your inbox for just
Speaker 4: updates on the greater Breaking Points universe going forward.
Speaker 5: And we'll see you next week. Ryan will see you
Speaker 5: early next week.
Speaker 3: That's right, I'll be there Tuesday. Also, you get a
Speaker 3: lot of me next week. All right, see you guys later.