Israel strikes Iran with limited strikes in response to Iran's recent drone attack on Israel, a move that could be seen as a warning to Iran that if they continue to act on their nuclear program, Israel will respond in kind. But is this a good idea or a bad one? And what does it mean for the prospects of peace between Israel and Iran in the Middle East and the rest of the world? And how will the world react to Israel's limited strike on Iran's nuclear facilities and the response from the United States and its allies in the region? And why does it matter what Joe Biden says, rather than what he does? All of these questions and more are answered in this episode of the podcast by David Rothkopf, host of the show "The Middle East Eye" on CBS Radio's "The Situation Room" and host of CNN's Situation Room, where he is joined by senior Middle Eastern affairs correspondent Peter Bergen and senior foreign policy analyst Efraim Mishal Abdurrahman, as they discuss the latest in the latest news and events in the Mideast and the broader Middle East, including the latest from around the world, including Iran's drone attack by Iran and its response to the Israeli strike on Israel's response. and the Khashoggi's disappearance by Saudi Arabia's response to that attack by Israel's strike on the U.S. President, Joe Biden's comments on the situation. and more. Israel strikes back against Iran, Iran strikes back, Iran stands down, and the world wakes up to the situation, and decides to do what it s supposed to do, and does what it does best, and what it actually does, and why it s going to do the most, not what it should do next, and how it s gonna do the least worst, which is do more than anything it can do about it, which it does more than that, right here in Washington, and more, and that it does the least it does it in the most it s doing more than what it says it s getting to do more, not less, right in the next five minutes, and so on and more in response, and much more, more, etc, etc., etc., and more! - Davidowitz, David and Eichler, David, thank you for listening to this episode, and tweet us your thoughts on this one, and send us your reactions to this, and your thoughts, and we hope you like it!
00:00:00.000Last night, Israel finally struck back against Iran.
00:00:02.000Of course, earlier this week, over the weekend, Iran had struck Israel with some 350 drones, missiles, and Israel was expecting that it was going to have to fire back against Iran in some form or fashion.
00:00:15.000There were a few different options that had been tabled, that had been considered.
00:00:18.000One was a full-scale attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, for example, completely degrading their nuclear program.
00:00:25.000Another option would have been to do virtually nothing, which is what Joe Biden wanted to do.
00:00:29.000Israel last night decided on a third option that would be a targeted strike, limited in nature, inside Iran, mainly to show the Iranians as a warning.
00:00:37.000Okay, guys, if you decide that you're going to escalate this thing, We are going to get to you much more than you are going to get to us, and that is what Israel pursued last night, which is, in fact, a useful means of deterrence.
00:00:48.000It is probably the best available scenario for both America and for America's allies in the region.
00:00:53.000If Israel had gone really heavy, there was always the possibility of serious escalation via Hezbollah in Israel's north that could have turned into a larger full-blown war.
00:01:01.000Now, would it have been more in Israel's interest to completely destroy Iran's nuclear facility?
00:01:05.000Sure, it also would have been a lot riskier.
00:01:06.000Right now, the United States and Israel have been in this very fraught negotiation over what the United States will allow Israel to do.
00:01:14.000And so, the Israeli government took a sort of Conciliatory middle road by issuing this targeted strike against Iran.
00:01:23.000And the goal, of course, was deterrence of Iran itself directly, saying, listen, you guys fired 350 drones, missiles.
00:01:36.000That was the goal of the Israelis and it also offered, because it was so limited in nature, the Iranians an off-ramp.
00:01:41.000The Iranian off-ramp would be to deny that any of this ever happened, which of course is exactly what Iran did.
00:01:45.000Iran had been mouthing off a lot about the idea that if Israel launched a serious strike into Iranian territory, then Iran would up the ante with a broader retaliatory strike and then you would have an escalating conflict.
00:01:55.000Israel Issued a strike limited in nature so as to allow the Iranian government the possibility of basically denying that anything had ever happened.
00:02:02.000And that's basically what happened last night.
00:02:04.000Again, Israel is playing a different game than Joe Biden is used to.
00:02:07.000Israel is playing in an area, the Middle East, where what you do matters a hell of a lot more than what you say.
00:02:13.000Joe Biden has spent his entire career in places where what you say matters a hell of a lot more than what you do.
00:02:18.000And he is completely unfamiliar with the foreign policy realm
00:02:22.000where what you do matters an awful, awful lot, which is why reality keeps clocking Joe Biden
00:02:29.000Forget about Israel and Iran for a second.
00:02:31.000Think about the Saudi Arabian government.
00:02:32.000When Joe Biden was a candidate for presidency of the United States,
00:02:35.000Joe Biden was extraordinarily critical of Mohammed bin Salman, who was the heir apparent
00:02:39.000over in Saudi Arabia and the de facto ruler of the country.
00:02:43.000He was suggesting that he was a mass human rights violator, that he had killed Khashoggi, Jamal Khashoggi, who is a pseudo-journalist member of the Muslim Brotherhood who had written for various American outlets.
00:02:54.000And this meant that the United States had to take a very harsh tactical look at our alliance with Saudi Arabia, up to and including giving the green light to the Houthis in Yemen and Iranian proxy group by delisting them as a terror group.
00:03:05.000And then it turns out that reality intervened.
00:03:08.000And the Houthis, as it turns out, hate the United States more than they hate the Saudis.
00:03:11.000It turns out that the Saudis have control over oil supply.
00:03:15.000And Joe Biden had to go on bended knee to Mohammed bin Salman and do the thing.
00:03:18.000Because what you say in the Middle East does not matter nearly as much as what you do.
00:03:23.000And so Israel, without making a big statement, we are going to knock you guys back to the Stone Age.
00:03:28.000And they let Iran know that if, in fact, Iran decides to escalate, it will do significantly more damage to the Islamic Republic of Iran than it will do to Israel.
00:03:37.000All of this, again, was prefaced by the UN Security Council being a completely useless and garbage institution.
00:03:43.000So, of course, Israel did what it had to do because the UN Security Council could not even bring itself to condemn Iran for a full-scale attack on another nation.
00:03:51.000Remember, it's an active war, definitionally, when you fire 350 drones and missiles at another sovereign country.
00:03:57.000The UN Security Council not only did not even table a resolution condemning Iran for that attack last weekend, they allowed Iran to then lecture Israel, suggesting that, quote, Israel must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests.
00:04:11.000That is what Iran told the UN Security Council.
00:04:14.000The absolute unmitigated sheer gall of that is astonishing.
00:04:17.000Consider that it's Iranian military adventurism that has led to the entire conflagration in the Middle East.
00:04:22.000From Iraq, to Syria, to Lebanon, to the Gaza Strip, to the West Bank, to Yemen.
00:04:27.000That is Iranian military adventurism that has led to all that.
00:04:30.000And the UN Security Council, because again, the United Nations is effectively the most sizely of international politics.
00:04:37.000Because of that, the UN Security Council was never even going to take up the possibility of condemning Iran.
00:04:44.000They did, however, take up the possibility in the last 48 hours of a resolution to unilaterally declare Palestinian statehood, which would be an incredibly audacious and stupid move considering there is no actual government For a Palestinian state.
00:04:57.000The Gaza Strip is currently governed by Hamas, a terror group that is in an existential war with the State of Israel.
00:05:03.000The Palestinian Authority has so little control over the West Bank that there is open warfare between Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority.
00:05:11.000You may as well simply declare a state of unicorn land in a random part of the earth that has no government, as declared a Palestinian state, except unicorn land presumably would not necessarily turn into a terror state, whereas a Palestinian state already has turned into a terror state and remains as such.
00:05:27.000In any case, Israel decided that it was going to do what it had to do and restore the status quo ante before October 7th, and that is really what we are headed toward.
00:05:35.000We'll get to more on this in a moment.
00:05:36.000First, what's the first thing you do when you get home after work?
00:05:38.000Well, you change out of those work clothes.
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00:06:58.000It also included a bunch of the Saudi-sponsored states like UAE and Bahrain.
00:07:02.000A variety of these states had basically formed up an alliance, and it was just really a matter of toppling that last domino in Saudi Arabia for the alliance to go full scale.
00:07:11.000And if Donald Trump had been elected, there's no doubt in my mind, and by the way, in the mind of the Israelis or the Saudis, that that deal would have gotten done.
00:07:17.000Even with Joe Biden as president, though, it appeared as though that deal was very close on the horizon.
00:07:22.000Not because Joe Biden is great at this.
00:07:24.000But because he sucks at this and because Joe Biden had been so conciliatory toward the Iranians, the Saudis had basically gone to the Israelis and said, listen, we need to make a deal with you now because we don't trust the Americans.
00:07:33.000We don't trust that Joe Biden is going to come to our defense if, in fact, Iran attacks us.
00:07:37.000So let's form up a regional alliance against Iran.
00:07:40.000And that was really, really close to happening.
00:07:43.000In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, had spoken openly about it at the United Nations.
00:07:49.000Iran activated Hamas to go into Israel and kill 1,200 people and take 250 hostages back to the Gaza Strip in the hopes that this would start a conflagration that would burn down the possibility of a Sunni-Israeli deal.
00:08:01.000Well, it appears that the status quo ante is now being Reinforced.
00:08:34.000And so what Hamas did by striking at Israel was to dent that perception in the Saudis.
00:08:39.000Israel has reinforced the perception, the prior perception, in the aftermath by its successful military action in the Gaza Strip, which is why they are now going to go in and finish off Rafa in the south of the Gaza Strip.
00:08:50.000And the last two weeks have shown that Israel not only is capable with its allies of repelling a mass Iranian attack, but also that Israel can strike pretty much where it wants to in Iran.
00:09:02.000And so Iran had better not escalate because it'll be worse for Iran than it will be for Israel.
00:09:05.000And Saudi, of course, wants to sign on to that.
00:09:09.000In other words, what Israel just did in Iran is actually de-escalatory.
00:09:14.000If Israel wanted to escalate with Iran, certainly they could have.
00:09:17.000They could have done that mass attack on their nuclear facilities, for example.
00:09:21.000Or they could have tried to kill members of the regime in Tehran.
00:09:23.000Because they can hit anywhere in Iran, apparently.
00:09:41.000If Israel had not actually retaliated against a mass missile and drone attack against its own territory, that would have been radically destabilizing because then Iran would have sensed weakness and would have gone forward with, for example, activating Hezbollah in Israel's north.
00:09:55.000But here are your typical journalistic idiots completely missing the point.
00:10:01.000This could be a deeply, deeply destabilizing move by the Israelis.
00:10:04.000And again, not just for the Iranians, but for the entire region.
00:10:08.000And it could even draw in the United States.
00:10:10.000The United States has said that they are committed to defending Israel's security.
00:10:14.000Well, I spoke with the deputy chief of Hezbollah just today.
00:10:18.000He said that they are committed to defending against Israeli attacks against Hamas on the Gaza Strip and against civilians there.
00:10:26.000So they are ready and willing to fight.
00:10:30.000We're hearing a lot of bellicose language from a lot of different groups.
00:10:33.000So this is a very, very dangerous situation.
00:10:36.000Wait, you mean everybody is bellicose in their language in the Middle East?
00:11:09.000And they have 200,000 rockets pointed at Israel, including 50,000 rockets sophisticated enough to hit actual targets.
00:11:15.000The reason they're not going all out is because the minute they do, Israel will unleash its F-16s as well as its F-35s, and there will be no Hezbollah in southern Lebanon anymore.
00:11:24.000Because that actually will be an existential battle for Israel involving the possibility of tens of thousands of Israeli deaths, and Israel is not going to go quite as nice as they have in the Gaza Strip.
00:11:34.000And yes, they've been going pretty nice in the Gaza Strip, considering that they've sent about 300 of their own soldiers into position to die, going house to house to preserve civilian life in the Gaza Strip.
00:11:43.000That will not be the case when you're talking about the necessity for a fast takeout of vast rocket capacity in
00:12:06.000There's good information that the United States knew 24 to 48 hours in advance of this attack.
00:12:10.000In fact, there's pretty good evidence that the Iranians knew something was coming because they had pulled apparently some of their IRGC activists out of Syria and out of Lebanon in anticipation of Israeli attacks.
00:12:21.000Also, they had shelved a few of their naval assets because they were afraid that Israel was going to hit their navy.
00:12:28.000Anthony Blinken said, I'm not going to speak to that except to say the United States has
00:12:30.000not been involved in any offensive operations.
00:12:32.000He said, all I can say is that for our part and for the entire G7, our focus has been
00:12:36.000on de-escalation and avoiding the larger conflict.
00:12:39.000Okay, well now because reality is setting in, even the United States is starting to
00:12:43.000act under Joe Biden like, you know, a more rational actor.
00:12:46.000Because here is what has actually happened here.
00:12:49.000Israel will, in the next six weeks, take out the last vestiges of Hamas's military organization in Rafah.
00:12:55.000That's not going to end Hamas's threat in the Gaza Strip.
00:12:58.000Obviously, the biggest problem in the Gaza Strip is that any sort of denazification policy that takes place in the Gaza Strip is going to have some pretty steep obstacles to it, considering the level of love of the population for Hamas.
00:13:13.000This is not an ISIS situation in which you have a terror group that simply seizes control of the territory.
00:13:19.000Hamas is, by polling data, still the most popular group of all the groups in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank.
00:13:25.000With that said, Israel will establish effective military control of the Gaza Strip, which means there will be no more offensive threat to the State of Israel from the Gaza Strip.
00:13:35.000Israel will have negated Iran's direct attack Willingness, which is what last night was all about.
00:13:42.000And eventually, after Israel signs some sort of deal with the Saudis, then there will be a move on Hezbollah in the north, unless Hezbollah pulls back.
00:13:48.000We'll get some more on this in just one moment.
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00:14:48.000Now again, all of this could have happened literally the day after he took office.
00:14:59.000All Joe Biden had to do, this is why he's such a fool, all the presidents of the United States had to do when he took office was this.
00:15:04.000Go to the Saudis, say, listen, we want you to enter the Abraham Accords.
00:15:09.000All that requires of you is to make a mutual defense pact in some form or fashion with the state of Israel and normalize and we will help subsidize that and sponsor that and it will create a really solid ring of fire around Iran.
00:15:28.000Instead, he decided to orient himself against the Saudis and orient himself, like Barack Obama before him, in favor of Iran as a regional power.
00:15:37.000Well, now again, reality is setting in.
00:15:39.000So, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration is considering more than a billion dollars in new weapons deals for Israel, including tank ammo, military vehicles, and mortar rounds, at a time of heightened scrutiny of the use of American-made weapons in the war in Gaza.
00:15:51.000If you want less death, In this particular region of the world, Israel needs to win and win quickly.
00:15:56.000Prolonged wars in the Middle East cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
00:16:00.000Short wars in the Middle East kill fewer people.
00:16:02.000And usually the right side ends up winning in quick wars in the Middle East.
00:16:06.000The proposed weapons transfers would be among the largest to Israel since it invaded Gaza in response to the Hamas October 7th attack.
00:16:12.000The sales would also be the first since Iran launched an unprecedented direct missile and drone attack on Israel just last weekend in retaliation for the killing of a top Iranian general in Syria.
00:16:20.000The top Iranian general in Syria, of course, was the organizer, one of them, of the October 7th attacks in Israel.
00:16:28.000The United States is recognizing reality, which is that Iran is the head of the octopus in the Middle East, that their terror proxies have been spreading violence and evil throughout the region, and that Israel and Sunni allies should team up together.
00:16:43.000So Joe Biden is facilitating that now, which is what he should have been doing all along.
00:16:46.000It just took him too long to get here.
00:16:49.000Which is why, like, this is an amazing story.
00:16:52.000According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House is making a fresh push for a historic deal to forge Saudi-Israeli ties.
00:16:57.000Now, the part about this that is truly amazing is that, again, this should not be a hard push.
00:17:11.000The Biden administration, because they cannot let go of the absolutely asinine, imbecilic idea that the central conflict in the Middle East is Israel versus the Palestinians.
00:17:49.000They tried out Queen Rania, who is ethnically Palestinian, to talk about the horrors that the Israelis are unleashing upon the Palestinians.
00:18:35.000I know the press is going to try and play this up.
00:18:36.000So if it occurs, then it'll be like, wow, Biden pulled a rabbit out of the hat.
00:18:39.000This rabbit was in the hat from day one of the administration.
00:18:42.000Donald Trump would have pulled it out the first day.
00:18:45.000The Biden administration is pushing for a long-shot diplomatic deal in coming months that presses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a new commitment to Palestinian statehood in exchange for diplomatic recognition by Riyadh, U.S.
00:18:58.000As inducements to recognize Israel, the White House is offering Riyadh a more formal defense relationship with Washington, assistance in acquiring civil nuclear power, and a renewed push for a Palestinian state, a package the U.S.
00:19:08.000officials say they are in the final stages of negotiating.
00:19:12.000officials say the successful multi-country effort to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones on Saturday should make it clear to Israel its security against threats from Tehran can be enhanced through closer integration with Saudi Arabia.
00:19:21.000So first of all, Israel knows that, which is why they've been covertly working with the Saudis for legitimately probably a couple of decades at this point.
00:19:28.000For President Biden, the gambit offers the chance of a significant diplomatic breakthrough in the middle of a presidential campaign year, one that would expand the Abraham Accords his Republican opponent Donald Trump sealed when he was in office.
00:19:39.000Now here's the best part of this article.
00:19:41.000So, you notice those conditions, right?
00:19:42.000The conditions were that the United States would help subsidize more of a defense relationship with the Saudis.
00:19:48.000They would push for civil nuclear power, which again is the predicate to a Saudi nuclear program in all likelihood.
00:20:19.000Saudi Arabia's leaders have said for decades that a Palestinian state is a priority.
00:20:23.000And as top diplomats have said, creating a path to a two-state solution is part of their price for normalization.
00:20:28.000Now, Saudi officials have privately indicated to the U.S.
00:20:31.000they might accept verbal assurances from Israel that it would engage in new talks on Palestinian statehood to secure the other parts of the deal of more interest to Riyadh, Saudi officials said.
00:20:41.000Okay, so that's diplomatic speak for we don't give two sh** about the Palestinian state.
00:20:55.000Quote, Saudi officials have privately indicated they might accept verbal assurances from Israel that it would engage in new talks on Palestinian statehood to secure the other parts of the deal they care about.
00:21:06.000Okay, that is what would be a contingency upon a contingency.
00:21:09.000We'll get some more on this in just a moment.
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00:22:10.000So, they're saying that if Israel signs a formal deal with Saudi and the United States that allows for normalization and further defense funding of the Saudis and civil nuclear power and all the rest, that they will accept a handshake verbal deal to have a future discussion about a Palestinian state in return for that.
00:22:36.000When you sign a really important contract, like a super important contract, have you ever said the most important part of this deal is the stuff that we don't include in the agreement?
00:22:48.000If so, you need a better lawyer because that's not how this stuff works.
00:22:52.000If I were to negotiate an agreement with you, And that agreement were to include an incredibly important term, like the most important term, something I've been talking about for decades.
00:23:00.000And then at the last minute, I were to say to you, listen, I don't even need you to write it down.
00:23:03.000I just need you to say out loud that you want to engage in discussions about this thing two years from now.
00:23:11.000Am I very serious about that particular term?
00:23:22.000Literally no one wants a Palestinian state in this region except for Iran and the absolute... Again, I'm running out of synonyms for morons, but anyone who is low IQ enough to believe.
00:23:33.000That a Palestinian state solves the problems in the Middle East rather than creating vast new problems in the Middle East knows literally nothing about the Palestinian population, the history of the region, what the Palestinians have done to literally every state they have moved to, including Lebanon, which used to be a Christian Maronite state.
00:23:49.000Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East when Christians were running it.
00:23:53.000And then it turns out the Palestinian Liberation Organization moved there after Black September and completely wrecked the place.
00:24:01.000No one, you want to know why Egypt is not allowing in Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip?
00:24:38.000broker deal might also aid Israel with a potential exit strategy from the Gaza Strip, according to the Saudis.
00:24:44.000Several potential Arab contributors said they wouldn't consider participating without public moves by Israel toward establishment of a Palestinian state.
00:25:01.000And then you could have, you know, strong allies like the Saudis and the Egyptians and the Israelis as a bulwark against Iranian revanchism.
00:25:11.000That would be a very, very good thing.
00:25:14.000In fact, Foreign policy is turning out to be,
00:25:18.000the alignment of interest in foreign policy right now is actually quite fortuitous for the United States.
00:25:22.000Not just because Iranian aggression in the Middle East has created the possibility
00:25:26.000of a Middle East peaceful breakout, but also because all over the world,
00:25:30.000America's enemies who are on the march are forcing other countries into making a decision
00:25:34.000between whether they wish to march with America's enemies or march with America, which is why over the last 48 hours,
00:25:40.000my favorite world leader and recent interview subject Javier Mille
00:25:45.000has repeatedly said that he now wants to become a global partner in NATO, which is good.
00:25:51.000Okay, having more open, overt, Western aligned powers in the world, like Argentina,
00:26:03.000It was basically the European powers don't get to be involved in South America.
00:26:06.000That obviously has not been true for a while.
00:26:07.000The Russians are very much involved, and so are the Chinese, in South America.
00:26:11.000And so now, South and Latin America is split between a group of libertarian-minded fixers, like Javier Mille in Argentina, or Bukele in El Salvador, And between actual radical Marxists like Maduro in Venezuela.
00:26:32.000And the question is which way Latin America is going to go.
00:26:34.000The more allies the United States has, the better.
00:26:45.000All that requires is a little bit of American leadership and a little bit of American strength.
00:26:49.000We'll get to more on this in just a moment.
00:26:51.000First, the people of Israel are once again under attack.
00:26:53.000Last weekend, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched a wave of suicide drones followed by ballistic and cruise missiles at Israel.
00:26:58.000The situation in northern Israel has been tense for months.
00:27:01.000The region has been subject to repeated rocket attacks from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists operating out of Lebanon.
00:27:07.000Now the situation is coming to a head.
00:27:08.000Israel needs your prayers and your support now more than ever.
00:27:11.000The entry of Iran into the war directly is an extremely serious development.
00:27:14.000It means that Israel could be fighting with Hamas terrorists in the south, Iran back Hezbollah in the north, and Iran itself, which has military capabilities beyond either Hamas or Hezbollah.
00:27:22.000The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has been responding to Israel's emergency needs during the war by supplying protective gear for first responders, emergency supply kits, bomb shelters, reinforced ambulances, and other critical needs in northern Israel.
00:27:33.000They're on the ground right now, preparing to protect civilian populations with mobile bomb shelters, food, and other basic necessities.
00:27:38.000Please, I urge you, give as generously as you can.
00:27:49.000So, with all of this happening, you got the Biden administration, which is totally incapable of world leadership, and meanwhile, you have a Congress that is busy farting around.
00:28:06.000The Freedom Caucus, which is sort of the more extreme right-wing caucus in the Republican Party.
00:28:14.000It includes a bunch of people I like and some people who I think are frankly clowns.
00:28:18.000The Freedom Caucus is trying to uphold the stupid rule that I've been railing against for weeks at this point.
00:28:25.000That requires that the Speaker of the House be allowed to be essentially ousted after the call of a vote by a single member of the Republican Party.
00:28:36.000So there can be a motion to vacate the chair by any member of the Republican Party.
00:28:39.000This is the game that Marjorie Taylor Greene is playing.
00:28:42.000It's the game that Matt Gaetz played against Kevin McCarthy and all the rest.
00:28:47.000Well now, Mike Johnson is looking at the possibility of fixing that, so that you can't have three members of the Republican caucus who oust the Speaker of the House, as opposed to the other 215 Republicans who don't want to do it.
00:28:59.000So the Freedom Caucus has decided that they are going to stand up for their right, apparently, to continue to hold the Speaker of the House hostage in some form or fashion.
00:29:10.000They have now created what they call the Freedom Caucus Floor Action Response Team.
00:29:25.000So, I'm glad that you created the Freedom Caucus Fart Click.
00:29:31.000Their job is to guard against an unannounced request to pass resolutions that would stealthily limit their leverage against leadership, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge, who are granted anonymity to speak candidly.
00:29:41.000Members don't want to be caught flat-footed if a GOP colleague tries to seek unanimous consent or a voice vote for resolution that would change the House's structure.
00:29:49.000So, if Mike Johnson tries to call a vote that gets rid of this dumb motion-to-vacate rule, then the fart team will jump into action.
00:29:59.000The fart team will explode into action.
00:30:03.000The fart team will let loose with the stink of truth.
00:30:11.000And all of this is because, again, there's a group of Republicans who actually want to prevent governance who have an interest, apparently, in a Republican minority.
00:30:21.000Some of this battle broke out into the open yesterday during a apparently rather colorful conversation between a Wisconsin freshman named Representative Derek Van Orden who confronted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz and called him tubby.
00:30:39.000The confrontation occurred as a group of GOP hardliners, according to the Journal Sentinel, including Gates, Representative Lauren Boebert, who loves Betelgeuse and getting felt up at Betelgeuse, and Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett, huddled around Mike Johnson to voice their displeasure with his plan to put a $95 billion package of foreign aid bills to a vote this weekend.
00:30:57.000Now remember, what Mike Johnson is doing is he's putting up each of these bills as a separate piece of legislation.
00:31:02.000If they garner majority support, they will then be packaged back together and sent on to the Senate.
00:31:07.000A majority of Republicans will likely vote in favor of each one of these bills.
00:31:11.000But this makes Matt Gaetz very, very mad.
00:31:14.000And so, he apparently was going after Mike Johnson on the floor, and Van Orden said, fine, you want to ask the speaker, do it.
00:31:21.000Like you keep threatening to do it, do it.
00:31:23.000He said, they've been trying to blackmail the Republican conference now for a long time.
00:31:47.000Van Orden, who's a retired Navy SEAL, said, I said people who have not been to combat and been shot at, who have not held one of their friend's hands as they died, probably shouldn't be calling other people squishes.
00:32:13.000Bobert and I, we're working to avoid that.
00:32:15.000Our goal is to avoid a motion to vacate.
00:32:17.000But we are not going to surrender that accountability tool, particularly in a time when we're seeing America's interests subjugated to foreign interests abroad.
00:32:26.000And explain what was going on with Mr. Van Orten.
00:32:28.000He kept demanding that we file a motion to vacate, and demanding that we do it in a privileged way.
00:32:34.000I mean, does it surprise you in this climate that people might be saying that?
00:32:59.000And so if he's ready to throw in the towel on that, what are we doing here?
00:33:05.000I mean, the answer is that you challenged one speaker for no apparent reason in Kevin McCarthy, and now you are holding the motion to vacate over Johnson's head so as to, what, hold up a vote that a majority of Republicans are going to vote for?
00:33:17.000And I'm going to point out, as I did yesterday, that when it comes to this foreign aid package, It's too big.
00:33:22.000There's a bunch of stuff I don't like in it.
00:33:24.000Also, it is worth noting at this point that that foreign aid package is in fact necessary.
00:33:31.000Israel is in the middle of an existential war with a variety of opponents in the Middle East, all sponsored by Iran.
00:33:36.000Ukraine is in the middle of an existential war with Russia.
00:33:40.000Donald Trump put out a statement yesterday suggesting that the European allies need to give more money to help Ukraine.
00:33:44.000He said, why isn't Europe giving more money to help Ukraine?
00:33:47.000Why is it the United States is over a hundred billion dollars into the Ukraine war more than Europe and we have an ocean between us as a separation?
00:33:52.000Why can't Europe equalize or match the money put in by the United States in order to help a country in desperate need?
00:33:58.000Now, as I pointed out, I'm supporting President Trump.
00:34:02.000The fact is that the European Union and their 27 member states have agreed to commit at least $54 billion more on 1 February 2024 as part of their new Ukraine facility.
00:34:13.000Their commitments to date are over $155 billion.
00:34:15.000The United States has not given $155 billion.
00:34:18.000$155 billion. The United States has not given $155 billion.
00:34:23.000This includes, by the way, over $51 billion in financial and budgetary support and in
00:34:29.000humanitarian and emergency assistance.
00:34:31.000It includes $36 billion in military assistance and increasing ranging from ammo to air defense systems.
00:34:37.000That includes $11.5 billion from the European Peace Facility in addition to $25 billion in bilateral contributions from member states.
00:34:46.000It also includes $18 billion from the EU budget to support Ukrainian refugees who have fled into Europe.
00:34:52.000So again, the basic idea, which is that the EU has not been stepping up, that's not true.
00:34:56.000Donald Trump successfully forced the EU countries to step up with regard to their defense commitments with regards to NATO, and the EU has in fact been stepping up with regard to the amount of aid provided to Ukraine.
00:35:08.000The real question, as I keep asking for Matt Gaetz, and for Lauren Boebert, and for Thomas Massey, and for everyone else, is how is it in America's interest for Russia to stroll into Kiev?
00:35:18.000And if it is not, what level of support do you think would be necessary in order to prevent that?
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00:37:27.000How was it working as a woman in this world?
00:37:30.000Because obviously there's a lot of controversy, especially at this time in the 80s, early 90s, about women being in sort of the sporting world.
00:37:38.000I remember there were a lot of conferences about women in the locker room and this sort of stuff.
00:37:44.000What it did for me was it made me better.
00:37:49.000Because when you're in the, you know, you call it the Media Scrum, and it's an NFL Media Wednesday, and you've got, you know, 20 reporters, you know, gathering around Shannon Sharp or Ray Lewis or whoever it was.
00:38:01.000And, you know, Warren Sapp, difficult people like Warren Sapp, and you have to, like, you know, you're in there, you're trying to get your mic in, and all these big, fat, smelly male reporters, and I was like, okay, that's helpful, number one.
00:38:13.000one, but number two, because it was all male voices, I knew that when I spoke, it would
00:38:18.000sound different and it would maybe stop some people.
00:38:20.000And so what came out of my mouth better be damn good.
00:38:23.000Remember, that episode drops this Sunday.
00:38:32.000Meanwhile, it turns out that the apple does not fall far from the anti-American, anti-Jewish tree.
00:38:37.000Ilhan Omar's daughter has apparently now been suspended from Barnard College for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests, according to the New York Post.
00:38:46.000Her daughter, Isra Hirsi, revealed Thursday she has been suspended from Barnard College over her involvement in disruptive anti-Israel protests on Columbia University's Morningside campus, at which scores of demonstrators were arrested.
00:38:56.000They had set up a bunch of tents basically in the middle of the Columbia campus, sort of like Occupy Columbia, in order to say that they hate Israel.
00:39:05.000The 21-year-old wrote, I just received notice.
00:39:06.000I'm one of three students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.
00:39:12.000Well, I doubt that that's really what it was about, since most Columbia students are far to the left on this.
00:39:16.000Hersey was one of more than 100 protesters hauled away in cuffs by the NYPD Thursday afternoon after they erected a tent city on the campus of the $90,000 per year Ivy League school.
00:39:26.000By late Thursday afternoon, the protests had dispersed.
00:39:28.000Cleaning crews were brought in to disassemble and remove dozens of tents that littered the campus.
00:39:34.000Percy has spent much of her life attending demonstrations.
00:39:36.000Apparently, she attended her first protest at the age of six.
00:39:39.000At 12, she joined a Black Lives Matter protest, forcing the Mall of America to shut down.
00:39:44.000And then they received, she and two other students, notice of their suspension from the Barnard Dean.
00:39:51.000Apparently, the Dean's statement said, the decision is based on information related to the Columbia University Public Safety.
00:39:55.000You've been involved in an unauthorized encampment on the Columbia University campus.
00:39:59.000You've not ceased participation in this unauthorized encampment.
00:40:22.000A shout out to actual, a rare shout out to a legacy media figure today.
00:40:25.000Jake Tapper over at CNN actually did something good on his show a couple of days ago.
00:40:31.000So, there's been a lot of coverage of a terrorist named Walid Daka, who had died in Israeli prison, and he was portrayed by the media as some sort of victim of Israeli aggression.
00:40:43.000Jake Tapper fully dismissed that, and that, of course, is good for him.
00:40:48.000Amnesty International had called for DACA, who was in his 60s, to be released on humanitarian grounds after he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 2022.
00:40:57.000Amnesty issued a statement saying, quote, death in custody of Walid Daka is a cruel reminder
00:41:02.000of Israel's disregard for Palestinians' right to life.
00:41:07.000It's an interesting turn of phrase there, a disregard for Palestinians' right to life.
00:41:12.000Much of the news media coverage of Waleed Daka's death after his 38 years in prison was along these lines.
00:41:20.000Many stories barely, if at all, even mentioned why Waleed Daka was in the Israeli prison to begin with.
00:41:28.000He was in prison because he was part of a militant group that killed this 19-year-old, Moshe Tamam.
00:41:37.000It is heart-wrenching that Walid Daka has died in Israeli custody, said Amnesty International.
00:42:51.000It was incredibly emotional and important to him.
00:42:53.000You saw him respond to all of you when asked about the moment yesterday and his uncle who lost his life when the military aircraft he was on crashed in the Pacific after taking off near New Guinea.
00:43:06.000The president highlighted his uncle's story as he made the case for honoring our sacred commitment to to equip those we send to war and to take care of them and
00:43:17.000And as he reiterated that the last thing American veterans are are suckers or losers and he wanted
00:43:22.000to make that clear he wanted to make a story. I mean look I don't have anything beyond about
00:43:28.000what I just laid out but it was a really proud moment for him. It was a proud moment when his
00:43:34.000uncle was eaten by cannibals. That was a that was a proud moment that didn't happen.
00:43:39.000I just love that Joe Biden's stories are, as I've said before, one of my favorite things.
00:43:44.000That's when my uncle, uncle, we used to call him uncle, and he was in flying World War II, and his plane went down, and suddenly a bunch of native savages jumped out of the bushes, and they started chomping on his legs, and he said, whoa, whoa there, bucko!
00:44:06.000You know things are going well when the Biden campaign has to run an ad.
00:45:02.000We'll get to more on this in a moment.
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00:46:05.000Well, meanwhile, when Joe Biden isn't telling weird stories about how his uncle was eaten by cannibals or weird stories about how his dad once informed him about homosexual rights on the streets of Scranton, Pennsylvania in like 1956 while watching Two Men Kissing, when Joe Biden isn't telling weird stories like that, he's now attacking RFK Jr.
00:46:24.000So, when you are the candidate who's issuing ads saying, I'm not senile, Biden 2024, When you are the candidate who's attacking the third-party candidate, you got a problem.
00:46:34.000If you're so weak that your campaign is now dependent on people not voting for the third-party candidate, this is not a good sign for your campaign, which, right now, Joe Biden's campaign in a lot of trouble.
00:46:43.000The new Fox News poll has Donald Trump leading Joe Biden in Michigan.
00:46:48.000So despite Joe Biden's best attempts to appease the pro-Hamas crowd in Michigan, it isn't working, unfortunately, for him.
00:46:55.000Well, now, Joe Biden, in an attempt to, again, Cudgel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
00:47:01.000supporters into supporting him has dragged out the entire Kennedy family to endorse him.
00:47:55.000What we need in the United States is not division.
00:47:59.000What we need in the United States is not hatred.
00:48:03.000What we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer in this country, whether they be black or they be white.
00:48:23.000Joe Biden's every decision is informed By his love, his wisdom, and his compassion towards those who suffer.
00:48:35.000That is why we are so happy today to pledge our unwavering support to President Joe Biden and President Kamala Harris.
00:49:34.000Senator, I will not speak to the particulars of the case, given the pending criminal prosecution.
00:49:40.000Well, you certainly, of course, you don't want to because it is an absolutely damning indictment of your policies.
00:49:47.000Let's just review Jose Barrera and how, Ibarra rather, and how he came to be here.
00:49:52.000On September the 8th, 2022, he was encountered by United States Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas and was paroled into the United States due to lack of detention capacity.
00:50:02.000A provision, a proviso, a rule that is not permitted under the statute.
00:51:40.000All of the laws that existed under the Trump administration still exist under the Biden administration.
00:51:45.000You have all the powers that you need.
00:51:47.000The laws on accepting migrants to this country says the executive may admit migrants.
00:51:54.000It doesn't say the executive branch shall admit migrants.
00:51:58.000You can simply say we're full up and we've got too many criminals and we've got the horrendous thing that happened to Lake and Riley and to others.
00:52:05.000And we're just full and we're just, we're going to stop taking migrants for a while until we can sort out the mess we have at the border.
00:52:15.000But it isn't about really being good at utilizing the power, we just think you're not obeying the law.
00:52:21.000He happens to be correct about all of that.
00:52:23.000Meanwhile, folks, we've been discussing the chaos in the Republican House.
00:52:25.000We are joined on the line by Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
00:52:28.000So on Friday morning, the House voted on debate rules that advance a series of foreign aid bills to the full House for final passage on Saturday.
00:52:37.000Broad bipartisan support for these bills, 316, 294.
00:52:39.000But there are people, as usual, screaming and crying about it.
00:52:43.000Speaker Johnson, thanks so much for joining the show.
00:52:49.000So why don't we start by talking about what's actually in these bills.
00:52:51.000These bills, as always, are not perfect.
00:52:53.000It turns out there are these things and they are called Democrats and they exist in the House and they also exist in the majority in the Senate and also one of them is sitting in the White House able to veto things.
00:53:01.000So what is in these bills that is good?
00:53:04.000Why are you advancing these bills to the floor?
00:53:06.000Well, we're at a point of pivotal decision.
00:53:09.000I mean, this is a dangerous time on the world stage, as you and I know, and Israel is in great jeopardy fighting for their existence.
00:53:16.000Ukraine is close to being overrun, and they're estimated to be out of ammo by the end of this month, literally, which would allow Vladimir Putin to roll through the country, take Kiev, and set up on the borders of NATO countries.
00:53:28.000Of course, Iran and its aggression of Israel has continued, and Xi is watching this from China, and all of the axis of evil is empowered.
00:53:37.000We're in the midst of this dynamic where we have divided government, and as you noted, the Democrats control the White House and the Senate, so we in the House here, with the smallest majority, For the Republican Party, smallest majority in U.S.
00:53:49.000history, one to two vote margin on any given day.
00:53:55.000And so the House is fixing the Senate supplemental bill, the foreign aid bill that was sent to us a few months ago, with better policy and better process.
00:54:04.000And so what we've done is we've taken, for example, the Ukraine funding elements that are controversial, of course, on our side.
00:54:12.000We have added the Repo Act, which is the use of corrupt Russian oligarchs' seized assets to support the effort there.
00:54:20.000We've added oversight, accountability, and a strategy shift to force the White House to give us the information and the endgame and all the rest.
00:54:27.000We have an amendment process so we can address each of these measures on their own merit in four separate bills instead of having them sandwiched together.
00:54:34.000And everybody can vote their own will and their own conscience and their own constituents.
00:54:38.000That's the way this place is supposed to work.
00:54:40.000And we included tough measures on Russia, China and Iran, including sanctions and some other innovations.
00:54:46.000So a very important change in both the process and the policy.
00:54:51.000And if we had not done this, Ben, and this is very important, we would have had to eat the Senate supplemental.
00:54:57.000If we had not taken this step, there would have been a discharge petition.
00:55:00.000And that means that a handful of Republicans would have crossed over and gotten on board with the Democrats to force it out of my hands and make us take the Senate supplemental as is.
00:55:11.000And this is the best possible outcome that we can achieve.
00:55:13.000You know, Speaker, that last phrase that you used, the best possible outcome that we can achieve, that's the one that so many members of sort of the House Freedom Caucus's right have been focusing in on.
00:55:22.000They suggest that there is a better deal that could be made if only there was the will, then suddenly Democrats would collapse on a bunch of these issues, or suddenly there would be in Israel only a bill that would go forward without any sort of humanitarian aid to Gaza, or maybe the Ukraine bill could be pared down much smaller than it currently is, but you're the one who's actually in the negotiating room Is there a lot of wiggle room here with Democrats that's been left?
00:56:00.000But when you're in a negotiation and you literally have the smallest margin in the history of the United States Congress, The other side obviously knows that, and they're watching the dissension among our ranks, and that takes away our negotiation ability.
00:56:13.000Look, on the Ukraine piece, this is really important to point out.
00:56:16.000You know, there's a lot of angst about, you know, quote-unquote, sending more money to Ukraine, but 80% of the funds that are in this package for Ukraine are literally to replenish American weapons and stocks and facilities.
00:56:28.000This is America's defense industrial base.
00:56:31.000This is building weapons here at home and refilling our stockpiles.
00:56:34.000Really, really important thing for us to do.
00:56:37.000Ukraine is in a position where they very likely would fall.
00:56:42.000And so this is going to allow them to at least hold the line.
00:56:46.000And I believe, Ben, that President Donald Trump is going to have another term early next year if this is continuing to that point.
00:56:53.000I think he's the one that has the strength to go in and negotiate a peace in this,
00:56:58.000but not if Russia rolls through the country.
00:57:32.000That's the history of America's foreign policy.
00:57:34.000When we have weak allies who are unable to take care of themselves, very often we end up sending our own troops, sending our own resources in much greater numbers than would have been the case if we had simply supported our allies from the outset so that they were strong enough to actually I've yet to hear any Republican actually explain what the alternative to, for example, aid to Ukraine would be.
00:57:57.000I've heard some people in the Republican caucus call them principled libertarians who just say that we should spend no money at all.
00:58:02.000Okay, that's consistent, although I think that it does not have the virtue of wisdom.
00:58:05.000But that's not a lot of members of the Republican caucus.
00:58:08.000Many of the people who are sounding out in the Republican caucus and in the commentariat about aid to Ukraine Can't seem to express why exactly it would be in America's interest for Russia to actually overrun Kiev, which would be the predictable result if in fact no aid gets moved to Ukraine in the middle of this.
00:58:24.000I think you stated that very well, and you're right, they don't have an answer because there isn't one.
00:58:29.000And I'll point out too, to my real frustration, I mean, some of my colleagues who are the most adamantly opposed to this and who have, in some senses, mocked the arguments of why this is so important, have not availed themselves of the, you know, the defense briefings that are available here.
00:58:46.000They've not gone to talk to the generals, they've not gone into the The confidential classified briefing on exactly what the status is on the ground.
00:58:53.000And they're making monumental decisions with global implications, not completely informed about the facts.
00:59:00.000And I think that's dereliction of duty.
00:59:01.000And I've said it as much, and I'm not naming anyone, but there are some people that have just refused to go on the skiff.
00:59:41.000We're the most free, most benevolent, the strongest, the most powerful.
00:59:45.000And if we don't act like it, then terrorists and tyrants take over.
00:59:49.000The reason that Iran and China and North Korea and Russia right now are acting so provocatively is because we're projecting weakness on the world stage.
00:59:58.000Joe Biden's foreign policy has been an absolute disaster.
01:00:01.000And that's what's got us in this situation.
01:00:03.000And if we do this little bit of investment here, we can stem the tide, hold them off, hopefully, until we get a new president.
01:00:10.000And that day cannot happen soon enough.
01:00:12.000You know, Speaker Johnson, one of the things that has come up in this context, obviously, is the ridiculous motion to vacate.
01:00:18.000Obviously, you inherited a set of rules that were originally negotiated by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who then had his speakership vacated by some members of the Republican caucus who never really specified why McCarthy was doing such a terrible job, but they just decided that he had to go, and then he couldn't actually Get enough Democrats to vote with him to preserve his speakership or he couldn't get enough Republicans to vote with him to preserve his speakership and he ended up ousted and then leaving Congress.
01:00:42.000Now you have a similar group of people, smaller it seems, who are attempting to challenge your speakership.
01:00:47.000They keep threatening a motion to vacate.
01:00:49.000I noticed they haven't actually brought one formally yet because I think that they are afraid they're not going to get nearly as many votes as they keep trumpeting.
01:00:55.000With regard to the media, these are unworkable rules.
01:00:57.000I mean, right now, the situation, as you mentioned, in the House of Representatives is that you are presiding over the slimmest majority for the Republicans in modern history, and that majority could theoretically be thrown into complete chaos by a couple of attention seekers at any time.
01:01:12.000Those rules, I've been pushing for you to try to change those rules.
01:01:17.000Is there going to be a move to go back to what was a sense of normalcy, which is that you needed a significant percentage of the caucus to actually challenge a speaker in order to oust a speaker, and then go back to what is the way the Republicans used to govern, which was the Hastert rule, which says that you don't bring forward a bill unless a majority of the caucus supports it.
01:01:32.000By the way, again, worth noting, a majority of the Republican caucus supports these foreign aid bills.
01:02:07.000He's a friend, but what Newt was suggesting there is that we now live in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and social media, and so every member of Congress has their own You know, media outlet and platform and they can go online and tell the American public every 5 minutes what they're disgruntled about and why they don't get 100% of what they want.
01:02:26.000It makes it a real challenge to, you know, to get things done when the margin is as small as ours is.
01:02:31.000But look, on the motion to vacate, It's not something I'd walk around being concerned about.
01:03:34.000Ben, I think we're on track to do that, but we can shoot ourselves in the foot and take the victory away from ourselves if we're not careful here.
01:03:42.000You know, Speaker Johnson, that is, I think, the main point is that if Republicans wish
01:03:46.000to govern and actually make the sort of major changes that are necessary, they are going
01:03:49.000to have to run all three elected branches of government.
01:03:52.000They're going to have to run the Senate.
01:03:54.000Republicans have a good shot of winning back the Senate, given the map this year.
01:03:56.000They're going to have to have a much larger majority in the House.
01:03:59.000Right now, frankly, none of this would be a problem if Republicans had an additional
01:04:08.000And if Donald Trump is the president, I mean, the reality is that in a presidential race, you know what he's not going to want to have to deal with?
01:04:14.000A completely dysfunctional Congress that Democrats are going to be running against, including President Joe Biden.
01:04:18.000So, the idea that the Republican conference should actually, you know, do their jobs as opposed to grandstanding for the cameras in the name of a purity that they never seem to achieve, that is absolute foolishness.
01:04:30.000So, Speaker Johnson, I'm glad that you're doing what you're doing.