The Tucker Carlson Show - November 07, 2025


The Global War on Christianity Just Got a Whole Lot Worse, and Ted Cruz Doesn’t Care


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 27 minutes

Words per Minute

144.16278

Word Count

12,661

Sentence Count

965

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

64


Summary

In this episode, we discuss the genocide of Armenians by the Ottomans at the end of World War I, and how Christians were forced to convert to Islam, and why this was a religious genocide. Golden Nugget Online Casino is live, bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips.


Transcript

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00:00:59.940 Thanks so much for doing this. Armenia is famous, to the extent it's famous, Armenians are famous
00:01:07.880 for, well, being successful in business and quite cohesive as a community and very sincerely
00:01:13.660 Christian, observant. But probably they're most famous for being exterminated by the Ottoman Turks
00:01:20.880 at the end of the First World War, the Armenian Genocide. And I think most people don't fully
00:01:27.520 appreciate the extent to which that was religious persecution. That was a religious genocide and
00:01:33.720 they were murdered because they were Christians.
00:01:35.480 Tell us how we know that. Yeah. At the end of the rule of Ottoman Empire, the
00:02:03.360 after the Balkan Wars, Ottoman Turks saw that some Balkan countries like
00:02:08.480 Bulgari and part of Greece became independent and the Christian countries in the Balkans became
00:02:16.640 independent. After that, they felt some, you know, big risk in Christian population of Ottoman Empire,
00:02:31.760 like Armenians, Pontus Greeks became independent and they started to persecute the Christian population
00:02:40.560 of Ottoman Empire or to convert them to Islam. How it went on? When the war started between Antanta
00:02:51.200 and Ottoman Empire and Ottoman Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary, Hungary, the Ottoman army came to all
00:03:00.240 villages of Armenians in Ottoman Empire and asked two questions, just the villagers or the people who lived
00:03:08.560 in towns. The first question was, will you convert to Islam? Like 98% of the population, Armenian population of
00:03:19.360 Ottoman Empire denied. Said no. Said no. And the second question is, if you don't convert to Islam, you will go
00:03:30.240 from here to desert of Deir-Zor. It's like 800 kilometers, 600 kilometers from Armenian highlands and all the men
00:03:41.040 were killed and all the women were taken with children to desert of Deir-Zor and will have lost the 70% of the population
00:03:51.760 of our nation because everyone, one and half million people, said no to converting to another religion.
00:04:02.160 We want everyone to know about this story, not just about the dark side of the history. It has a
00:04:13.040 bright message too that Christians in the 20th century were very, you know, they went in a way of Christ and they were
00:04:24.480 were sacrificed and we hope that all this sacrificial will bring the Christians of our days to more faith
00:04:36.560 to that what we have, the biggest and most humanistic religion that we accept and we must live with it.
00:04:45.360 So I didn't, I did not understand until we just had breakfast that the, the victims of the Armenian
00:04:53.520 genocide who've been talked about a lot. There's been a debate in the Congress for many years, whether
00:04:57.760 we can call it a genocide, whether that's somehow trademarked, but it was a genocide, but I didn't
00:05:03.760 understand that they were Christian martyrs. They died not because of their ethnicity, but because of
00:05:08.640 their religious faith.
00:05:09.600 There were no any problem with ethnicity. There were Armenians, like 2% of Armenians in Ottoman Empire were
00:05:16.640 Muslim. And just this 2% are living till now in the north of Ottoman Empire without any trouble.
00:05:24.000 Interesting.
00:05:25.200 The other 98%, every Christian Armenian who were asked this question, who answered that he will not convert to Islam,
00:05:36.400 were killed.
00:05:36.960 That's amazing. And so that, that kind of defines 20th century, 21st century Armenian culture. You know, we,
00:05:47.600 we stood steadfast in our faith and were murdered for it. So Christianity is at the center of Armenian
00:05:53.760 culture. Is that fair to say?
00:05:55.040 You know, it's the first nation who has ever converted to Christian in 301 was an Armenian kingdom.
00:06:03.440 So in 301, before Constantine, before the Roman Empire, 11 years before Constantine,
00:06:10.560 before Medellin Edict. It was 312, I guess. Armenia, like 11 years before.
00:06:19.040 He, the Armenian king, the third, converted to Christian religion and convert all our population to Christian religion.
00:06:30.800 And we are the oldest, oldest Christian nation in the world. That's why our church and our identity are so
00:06:41.200 already, it's the same thing, you know, the 80% or 70% of our identity comes from Christian values and our church,
00:06:49.600 values of our church.
00:06:52.880 Well, that's fascinating. And it's, I mean, the state of California where I'm originally from, you know,
00:06:58.800 the Armenian community is very extremely successful, but very cohesive. Like they, they have a sense of themselves
00:07:06.640 in a great way, I think. And that's why, obviously. So over the past 30 years, Armenia has been involved in
00:07:14.480 a number of conflicts, really a sort of long-running sporadic war with Azerbaijan, which is an Islamic country.
00:07:21.920 How many Armenians were killed in that war?
00:07:25.200 Almost 20,000 people were killed for defending a Christian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
00:07:31.040 Yeah.
00:07:31.760 And at the end of the war, the last war, the Christian population of Nagorno-Karabakh exited,
00:07:38.480 like we, they, everyone came to Armenia. And now after 2,000 years of living in this region,
00:07:46.480 there is no any Christian in region of Nagorno-Karabakh. So...
00:07:51.200 There are none?
00:07:51.680 There is no any.
00:07:53.040 What I don't understand is why nobody said anything as that was going on.
00:07:59.520 Um, and why Christian leaders in the West didn't say anything while that was going on that I heard.
00:08:06.720 I think it's a matter of real politics, you know, real politics. We have a very, we have allies with,
00:08:14.480 um, like we have a very close relationship with Greek nation, with Greece.
00:08:19.440 We have close relationship with Cyprus. But even from there, we felt that we had support, but not,
00:08:31.120 you know, the support was just with words, not any actions. Uh, I know that real politics and the
00:08:39.600 help of Turkey to Azerbaijan, uh, make the many countries that were allies with us or were
00:08:49.440 in a good relationship with us to avoid.
00:08:52.080 Yes. They didn't want to get crossways with power, powerful countries like Turkey.
00:08:56.720 I understand that.
00:08:57.440 And this is what we have. Like, this is, uh, the problem we face all over our history because
00:09:05.520 the Armenian nation is in the center of a region where like Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran,
00:09:11.520 and the only religious, only Christian nation of this, uh, from these three countries.
00:09:20.160 And always we had this oppression from the empires like Ottoman Empire, there is Kajar Empire and other
00:09:28.480 empires. And the only thing made us to be unite and, um, to save our culture was the church and
00:09:38.080 education from the church. Yes.
00:09:39.920 The schools, that church was built all over the country to educate us to be Christian and to be
00:09:47.840 an Armenian Christian.
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00:12:04.320 I was and remain confused by the role of Israel in this, in this war, Azerbaijan, Islamic nation versus
00:12:14.640 Armenia, Christian nation, and the cleansing of Christians for Nagorno-Karnebakh that the region
00:12:20.320 you just mentioned. Israel took a very aggressive position on the side of Azerbaijan against the
00:12:27.440 Christians using American tax dollars to do it. So Israel was a participant in this war?
00:12:32.000 The participation in Israel was the support of Azerbaijan by weapon. And it was a part of real
00:12:38.880 politics. But you know the problem? What kind of weapons?
00:12:43.120 Drones, like aircraft, aircraft and other. It's like not just defense and attack.
00:12:56.560 But offensive weapons Azerbaijan received from Israel. And the drones, many of drones and many of the
00:13:04.080 drones that were operated by, as we have read in media, by operators from these companies of Israeli companies.
00:13:15.840 So, wow. So you think there were Israeli drone operators?
00:13:19.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because as many media told, like it was in many magazines and that...
00:13:26.960 So that would mean that Israelis were killing Christians in this war with U.S. tax dollars.
00:13:33.440 I mean, because the Israeli defense sector is supported billions and billions a year by the United States.
00:13:39.680 You know, the issue is about the real politics. They were, they are getting gas from Azerbaijan.
00:13:45.760 Gasoline. Gasoline. They buy gasoline.
00:13:47.920 I think the 70% of Israel gasoline is coming from Azerbaijan. And they have some type of economic ally.
00:13:56.720 They are allies economically. The main issue is today, real politics sometimes is like,
00:14:07.840 make a big problem for the nations who wants to defend themselves alone. In the regions, we are minority.
00:14:15.440 Yeah. I mean, of course. And that's how the world works. I just suppose from an American perspective,
00:14:21.040 it's like, why are my tax dollars being used to murder Christians around the world? Cleanse the
00:14:25.200 Christians from Iraq. Cleanse the Christians from Nagorno-Karabakh. Murder Armenian Christians.
00:14:30.240 Like, why am I paying for this? It is a problem. It is a problem.
00:14:33.440 Problem for me. Yeah.
00:14:34.480 So now you have a lull in the fighting with Azerbaijan, but you have a prime minister of Armenia,
00:14:45.040 who seems to be intent on destroying traditional Christianity or the church. Tell me what this is.
00:14:51.120 Yeah. After like last two, three years after losing the war in Nagorno-Karabakh and after making like all the people,
00:15:01.120 Christians from Nagorno-Karabakh have moved to Armenia, our new prime minister decides to
00:15:08.480 have a better relationship with Azerbaijan. Better relationship with everyone is always welcomed
00:15:17.840 by Armenian society. We are okay with this. But what we feel, we feel that Turkey or Azerbaijan had a
00:15:25.680 mission like made him to change the narratives of the church. And he wants to change the narratives of
00:15:32.800 the church. Forget the issue of genocide. Forget our history. And our prime minister, six months ago,
00:15:41.680 he started attack Armenian church and head of Armenian church. He wants to dethrone him. And he wants to
00:15:48.560 dethrone, to change the structure of Armenian church that is like 1700 years old. Because of taking control of
00:15:57.040 the church, the church is the main institution in our country, like 90%, 95% of our population are the members
00:16:05.440 of Armenian Apostolic Church. And when he started to attack against the church, our society was shocked
00:16:15.280 because nobody had done it before him, even, you know, just at Ottoman time. And many people in Armenian
00:16:25.600 society, they were against them, against it, but they couldn't say anything. Why? Because they were
00:16:32.160 afraid of some oppression from government side, you know. Armenia is a democratic country. It's, I think,
00:16:39.680 it's one of the last democratic countries in this region. In the last 30 years, we have elections, we have new
00:16:46.000 leaders. It's not an authoritarian country. But this prime minister evolves from democratic leader. Every
00:16:56.320 year we see he's changing to more authoritarian style of ruling because of a decreasing of his reputation in
00:17:05.840 Armenia. And now he attacked the church. He took to prison three archbishops.
00:17:13.280 He put archbishops in prison?
00:17:15.440 Yeah. Archbishop, for you to understand, it's not shock. We were, why? The one of archbishop which took to
00:17:23.520 prison because four years ago, in an interview, he said that this prime minister must be changed. The
00:17:30.320 second archbishop was in prison, was taken to prison because of like three years ago or five years ago,
00:17:39.440 he went into a protest against the, the prime minister. And it's, you know, and nobody like
00:17:47.680 from influential part of Armenian society, everyone were afraid of to talk about this.
00:17:53.200 Yeah.
00:17:53.600 The, you know, the city, everyone could talk who hadn't a business, who hadn't the influence, but
00:18:01.360 influential part didn't want to do it. And the one man who started to talk about this was my uncle,
00:18:08.080 Samuel Karapitian. He is one of the wealthiest Armenian in the world. So, and biggest Armenian philanthropist
00:18:19.360 of last 15 years. 15 years, he is the biggest philanthropist in Armenia. So, very many hospitals,
00:18:27.680 kindergartens, schools. And when he came to Armenia, he lives out of Armenia. He came to Armenia
00:18:35.360 and at the 40 days of his father's grave, you know, and we have a tradition to go to church at
00:18:43.040 at liturgy in 40 days of someone's grave.
00:18:44.960 Good for you. So, when someone dies, an Armenian dies, the family mourns for 40 days.
00:18:50.960 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And goes to liturgy. And when he came to Armenia and he was in liturgy, after liturgy,
00:18:58.240 after mass in the church, the journalists came to him and say, what do you think about the attacks
00:19:05.440 from the side of government, attacks against the church? And he said, like, it was 37 seconds.
00:19:14.560 What can I think? If a small group of people forgetting Armenian history, forgetting history of our church,
00:19:22.640 is attacking Armenian church and Armenian people. If the politician will not handle the situation,
00:19:30.960 we will take part of handling it by ourselves, our way.
00:19:35.840 Good.
00:19:36.240 It was 37 seconds. Do you know what's going on after it?
00:19:40.800 What happened?
00:19:41.920 What happened?
00:19:43.040 Like, after 30 minutes of this interview, our prime minister posted in Facebook that this
00:19:51.920 philanthropist must shut his mouth. After three hours, he sent police special forces to a residence
00:20:00.480 of Samuel Karapitian, who is the most famous philanthropist of the country, you know.
00:20:06.160 And everyone was shocked. We were shocked too. And these police forces came to his residence without
00:20:13.360 a judge order. Armenia is a democratic country. We never saw something like this. And everything was going
00:20:21.280 on was like cameras showed everything. So everyone knows that he said it 37 seconds. Then the prime minister was in
00:20:32.880 parliament. He posted something like this in Facebook and policemen came to the residence of
00:20:39.760 Samuel Karapitian. But what happened then? The demonstrators came to the residence of Samuel Karapitian to
00:20:47.920 defend him. Thousands of people came to his house to defend him from police.
00:20:57.600 And that day, usually when police come, like it's five minutes to take someone to jail,
00:21:05.760 you know, to police station. It was 14 hour. Demonstrators didn't want to let him to go to police station.
00:21:14.960 And they were like, bring order of judge. We'll let. The demonstrators told the policemen. And then, like, he decided,
00:21:28.480 he decided to go himself to police station to not cause a clash between policemen and demonstrators.
00:21:34.640 And after that, he was arrested. And I was arrested too. And my father, his brother was arrested.
00:21:44.880 What were you arrested for?
00:21:46.080 I don't know. And with the...
00:21:48.160 Just being his nephew?
00:21:49.040 Just being there. I don't know. And I remember we were in police station, eight hour, and they were
00:21:56.240 looking for an article to charge because there is no article in 37 seconds. I remember an investigator,
00:22:04.880 came to the room and said, oh, I phoned one article. And then the other said, no, it doesn't work.
00:22:11.040 And after seven hours, they phoned an article and charged it that he said that the prime minister must be dethroned.
00:22:20.480 But in this 37 second interview, you can watch it in YouTube. It's... everyone can do it.
00:22:28.480 There were no any word about non-prime minister and no anything. And he is now in jail.
00:22:34.640 Still?
00:22:35.040 They took him to jail five months. And the jail name, do you know what is the jail name?
00:22:40.240 No.
00:22:40.800 KGB basement. So there is that old Soviet time, communist time, prison, where the communists
00:22:48.800 like sent the people who were not agree with communist ideas. And he's there in 12 square meters
00:22:55.680 for defending the church and for this 37 second.
00:23:01.120 He's still in jail.
00:23:02.000 He's still in jail.
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00:26:30.000 authoritarian by definition, is against the church. So the idea is to break the back
00:26:37.600 of Orthodox Christianity and of traditional Christianity in Armenia and to use the police
00:26:44.960 to do it. Is this popular? Do people like this? It's very unpopular. Like 90% of the population is
00:26:53.920 against that. And our society doesn't understand why he is doing that. So his agenda, he's...
00:27:04.880 So Armenia is a traditional country. Traditional families predominate. I noticed that the prime
00:27:11.120 minister's wife was interviewed and said something to the effect that women in traditional families
00:27:16.880 are all unhappy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's, you know, he wants to change the society, but with power,
00:27:25.680 not with soft power. But the way he wants to change the society is very familiar to Americans. He
00:27:32.000 is focusing on transgenderism as a good thing, LGBTQ agenda, whatever that is.
00:27:38.720 Antitraditionalism. So not to the traditional families, like you mustn't care about your son. He
00:27:46.880 must decide like what to do, but if you want to... What to do, whether to become a woman or have sex
00:27:52.880 with a man or whatever. No, he hadn't said something like this, but mostly he's against the traditional
00:27:59.760 values. So everyone knows that he has an idea of changing our society, but with...
00:28:06.960 To make it less Christian. To make it less Christian. Yeah. Yeah. I guess. Yes.
00:28:12.000 Who's supporting him in this? This has happened in every country in the West, almost every country in
00:28:18.160 the, every country in the West with varying degrees of success. But who is, who's behind that? Who's
00:28:24.560 pushing this? Who's behind that in every country in the West? Yeah. That's a good question.
00:28:29.440 Is the, is the same people who is doing it in Armenia, they are doing it here too, I guess.
00:28:36.560 Oh, and they've been extremely successful. I mean, they've destroyed, uh, you know, our social fabric
00:28:41.600 with this. Uh, but who are those people who is, let's just stick with Armenia. Who's,
00:28:46.720 who's supporting this prime minister? The population doesn't support him. Who is?
00:28:50.640 You know, uh, I think the main issue, uh, when we thought why he's doing it against the church,
00:28:59.840 uh, we think that he gets some, uh, information from Turkey and Azerbaijan that you must change the
00:29:10.960 narrative of the church to forget the genocide, uh, uh, and to have a new head of church for being,
00:29:19.760 for going to a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan. And we feel that he
00:29:28.480 wants to change the head of church to change, uh, then he will change the narrative of the church and
00:29:34.640 to make our people to forget all our like ancestors have done for our Christian religion and for being
00:29:43.840 an Armenian. And this is the, uh, thing that we must, you know, show our societies that this is the way
00:29:55.440 they work. They want to destroy all the historical truth for some reasons. The reason is to be in peace,
00:30:05.680 but we can't, we are very welcome to be in peace. But these people, one and a half million people
00:30:13.440 were killed already. They were killed for their religion. We must, the Ottoman Empire must accept it.
00:30:19.760 The Ottoman Turks or Turks must accept it because after that we will live in a more peaceful region.
00:30:30.160 Anyone who's forcing you to lie about history is your enemy. And of course, the purpose is always
00:30:34.880 to maintain power, right? Yeah. Right. Whoever controls the story, the past controls the future,
00:30:42.240 of course. That's why Wikipedia exists to, to lie to us about the past. So, um, last question that,
00:30:50.400 this is, I mean, by any definition, a grotesque human rights violation, you're arresting Christian
00:30:57.040 clergy because you don't like their theological views and you don't like their views of history.
00:31:03.200 So you throw them in prison. How many Christian churches in the West have weighed in on this,
00:31:10.320 have supported the clergy under arrest, have put pressure on the Armenian prime minister to stop
00:31:16.960 arresting Christian clergy? Like how much support are you getting from the West?
00:31:20.480 We are getting support from the West, from the churches.
00:31:23.600 You are?
00:31:24.240 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There is a huge support and we are appreciate for, for this.
00:31:30.880 And I want to tell you, um, one more thing, like why these people are brave when they are going
00:31:41.040 like against the government's ideas. So my uncle, Samuel Karabitian and the clergy,
00:31:47.920 they could be realized, like tomorrow, if they say that they will not defend the church.
00:31:56.080 It's always the same story, isn't it?
00:31:57.840 Yeah.
00:31:58.400 So my uncle, we had like, they wanted, want to confiscate his businesses in Armenia. He knows it,
00:32:06.240 but he is, he wants to defend the church after that too. So he's continuing to defend the church.
00:32:15.840 And this is the idea. These are the persons with whom we must, I think we must learn something because
00:32:26.480 it's like in the first, it's like in 20th century when these Armenians, our ancestors were
00:32:33.760 sacrificed in Ottoman Empire for their religion. I am proud that Samuel Karabitian is, he can be free,
00:32:44.400 he can be with his business, but he doesn't do this for his religion because religion and faith
00:32:51.680 matters, you know, for it's important. Like the first Christian in first century, they were oppressed,
00:33:00.160 but they fought for their religion. And this is the case, uh, Samuel Karabitian faces now.
00:33:08.080 It's, it's inspiring to watch. It's, it's upsetting to watch at the same time. So Godspeed.
00:33:13.360 Thank you for telling us that story. Too few people know, and it's, it's not just about Armenia,
00:33:18.160 of course, it's a, it's a global push against this one specific religion against Jesus. So
00:33:24.560 that's what they hate. Thank you very much. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it.
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00:37:05.980 I will say. Bob Amsterdam, as always, one of the people that I talk to most off camera about
00:37:14.940 what is happening to the Christian population of the world. It's kind of amazing. Thank you for
00:37:20.460 doing this. So, the situation in Armenia, the government of Armenia persecuting the church,
00:37:28.380 how is this happening without more international comment? Look, Tucker, as you and I have discussed,
00:37:34.340 I do not understand the evangelical movement, the Christian movement in the United States.
00:37:40.040 One thing I want to say, and I won't make many friends by saying it, in the United States,
00:37:46.940 Christianity has been subsumed by the State Department. The U.S. government decides what
00:37:53.220 Christians we support and what Christians we don't. So, in Armenia, there is going to be a prayer
00:38:00.180 breakfast. And I want you to understand, there's going to be a prayer breakfast while my client,
00:38:05.540 Samuel Karapetian, is in jail. Archbishops have been jailed. Clerics have been jailed. The leader of
00:38:15.580 the country is trying to split the church by going to services of a defrocked priest, a man who has said
00:38:22.080 he is going to remove the leader of the church. This man is being feted by American Christians
00:38:29.600 in Yerevan, Armenia, a man who calls clerics prostitutes, a man who uses language that,
00:38:39.540 at my advanced age, I've never heard a leader use against leaders of the church. And yet,
00:38:47.540 shockingly, this prayer breakfast is going to go on. And I call it a reputation laundering breakfast.
00:38:54.560 The U.S. government allows this to go on. What connection is there between the U.S. State
00:39:01.680 Department and the prayer breakfast? Look, I can't exactly tell you. I'm not privy to the
00:39:08.260 arrangements. But as I've seen in representing the Ukrainian church, the prayer breakfast and
00:39:14.920 religious freedom all seem to follow a script outlined by the State Department. And you know,
00:39:23.140 there's a lot of pressure from the administration on peace in terms of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which,
00:39:30.380 of course, all of us welcome. But it's happened at a tremendous cost to the people of Armenia.
00:39:38.120 There's tremendous cultural and church relics that are being lost and defiled. There's 120,000 who have
00:39:47.080 been cleansed from Azerbaijan. And no thought has been given to this. We have 23 Christian hostages
00:39:54.060 in Baku. And the prime minister of Armenia did not even speak of them when he was with President Trump.
00:40:04.960 President Trump raised them. I mean, it is shocking how Armenia has a prime minister who seems to
00:40:12.080 resent his own history as an Armenian. They've taken Mount Ararat off stamps. They don't talk about
00:40:22.220 the genocide. They attack the church. The leader of the country wants to remove and appoint the
00:40:28.480 Catholicos. Well, of course, he doesn't understand what an apostolic church is. To be an apostolic church,
00:40:35.280 listen to this Jew tell you about apostolic churches, you have to have a connection to the
00:40:41.740 first apostles, which means your election must be sanctified by bishops, by leaders of the church,
00:40:48.920 not a political figure. He is shockingly ignorant of his own religion.
00:40:55.720 It sounds like it's not his religion. I mean, it sounds like he's not a believer.
00:40:58.220 Well, I never will say that about someone. I agree. I don't know him. But what I will tell you is our
00:41:06.060 State Department has lost the meaning of faith. They have instrumentalized religion as a tool of
00:41:15.560 foreign policy, exactly what we accuse the Russians of doing. We have done it. Thank God our people don't
00:41:22.220 bless tanks the way Bishop Kirill did in Russia. But this support of governments, and we're seeing
00:41:32.700 it in this prayer breakfast, traveling to a country like Armenia with top leaders of the Christian
00:41:40.600 religion in particular, and doing all of this while we have clerics and I have a client in jail. And I feel
00:41:49.100 very personal about this because I was able to defend this client in an Armenian court. I want to thank
00:41:56.640 the Armenian bar for allowing me to actually speak in defense of the client directly with an interpreter.
00:42:03.500 I was able to deal with the court myself, and I thought effectively portray the absolute farce that
00:42:10.280 this trial was, and that these charges were with respect to Samuel Karpetian, who is an absolutely
00:42:18.400 unbelievably principled Christian, who is now sitting in his fifth month in jail, innocent of
00:42:26.680 everything other than praising God. And that's why he's in jail.
00:42:32.480 I just, I know I've asked you this before, maybe not as poignantly as I will now, but how did this
00:42:36.620 fall to you? How did you, I think, grew up pretty liberal or left-wing Jewish guy, wind up being like
00:42:43.640 the world's, one of the world's foremost defenders of persecuted Christians? Like, how did that happen?
00:42:50.360 Well, firstly, as a Jew, I am an inclusive person. If somebody has faith in God, almost any God,
00:43:00.020 I respect that. I feel the same way. And I was raised by a family that was deeply impacted by the
00:43:09.620 Holocaust. I have traveled all my life. I have sought refuge during riots or whatnot, whether it
00:43:17.760 be in churches or mosques. I just never feel proprietary and feel that all men of faith have
00:43:26.480 a commonality to it. I've been involved with the Orthodox Church since I was a young man.
00:43:33.620 We did a case against the Soviet Union, which a colleague of mine, Reg McLean, did most of the
00:43:41.600 work on. But Dean Peroff and I were young lawyers together, and he was a member of the Macedono-Bulgarian
00:43:48.500 Orthodox Church. And I took on that case 45 years ago, trying to fight a Soviet attempt at taking
00:43:57.700 control of a church. And since that time, I've always had an interest in these issues. And when, as you know,
00:44:04.360 I was approached by the Ukrainian church, and now by Karapetyan in the Armenian church context, it just seems
00:44:12.360 very natural as a Jew to defend children of Christ.
00:44:17.140 So it's just an amazing story. Thank you, by the way, for doing it.
00:44:20.880 So what is the latest? You have been the defender of the church in Ukraine, the Orthodox Church in
00:44:29.540 Ukraine, which is under almost unbelievable persecution by the government with the help
00:44:34.940 of the United States. Where are we now? You know, I want to be very clear, Tucker. When you say
00:44:40.680 persecution, that doesn't sum it up. I'm talking about torture. I'm talking about the theft of
00:44:48.340 churches. I'm talking about- This is not just we're cutting off funding.
00:44:51.800 No, no, no. I have pictures. I have videos. There's a trial going on in England where the
00:44:58.560 Ukrainians are trying to ship back a former member of parliament of Ukraine whose crime was to speak
00:45:07.260 out for the church. On the day they passed this horrendous bill to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
00:45:16.660 a bill that I would say has no comparison in Europe since the Nuremberg laws.
00:45:24.940 When they passed this bill to ban this church, this man had the courage to stand up in the
00:45:31.220 RADA, in their parliament, to denounce it. For that, Zelensky and Euromack pulled his security,
00:45:39.460 knowing that his statements would be highly controversial and perhaps deadly.
00:45:43.380 He realized that there was basically a death warrant. He fled the country on foot through a
00:45:50.960 forest, made it to the UK. Within 14 days of arrival in the UK, they were trying to extradite him
00:45:59.520 back to Ukraine for some hooliganism charge. And fortunate for him, I knew him. I knew when I had
00:46:08.620 met him in Ukraine when I had been there, that he had evidence of torture. We're now taking that
00:46:14.420 evidence of torture to the courts. Ukraine is a one-party, one-person, autocratic state
00:46:21.640 that has no comparison to any democratic values. Rather, today is a mirror of the old Soviet Union.
00:46:32.340 The man in charge of religious affairs is an apparatchik who wrote an anti-Jewish screed 20
00:46:41.980 years ago. He's the head of religious affairs. And by the way-
00:46:44.820 Sorry to laugh, this is so crazy.
00:46:46.240 By the way, hold on. Let me go a step crazier. He was a keynote speaker at the Religious Freedom
00:46:52.900 Conference held in Washington.
00:46:55.260 What?
00:46:55.500 Yes, his name is Yelensky. He was a keynote speaker. This is a man who spends his life
00:47:02.140 trying to destroy the Orthodox Church and transfer it into what is essentially the OCU, a state church.
00:47:09.720 He's a keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Washington, where there is a
00:47:16.800 happy hour sponsored by the Ukrainian government, where there are men in Ukrainian army uniforms
00:47:23.520 walking around. This happened in Washington, D.C.?
00:47:26.660 Yes, a number of times. And this is all going on while I, on behalf of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
00:47:33.820 we can't get an interview in any press in the United States. Censorship exists in this country.
00:47:39.200 Yes.
00:47:39.940 And when we got any coverage, it wasn't to cover the outrage in Ukraine. It was to taint me as some
00:47:47.600 form of Russian agent, a guy who was arrested by Putin, whose friends were murdered by Putin.
00:47:53.240 I am tainted as some Russian agent for speaking out against this criminalization of Christianity
00:48:00.460 that's going on in Ukraine. And by the way, supported by pastors who are very close to the
00:48:05.360 White House. And I don't fault them.
00:48:07.740 Wait, it's supported by American pastors?
00:48:10.280 Yes.
00:48:10.740 How?
00:48:11.100 They don't know. I mean, essentially, the Ukrainians are masters of disinformation,
00:48:17.920 absolute masters. They have their own sort of captive cells of religious leaders who are told,
00:48:25.600 essentially, look, we have black PR against you if you don't follow what's going on and you don't
00:48:32.420 support us, we'll take you down. I mean, the former president of Ukraine is under indictment for
00:48:39.980 treason. Nowinski, who you've interviewed, under indictment for treason, they've done nothing
00:48:46.420 treasonous. They just represent alternative areas of independent thinking. In Nowinski's case,
00:48:53.740 a religious man who supported the church. But they have sanctioned him. They have tried to destroy him.
00:49:00.240 And of course, they are within a hair's breadth of taking down the church, a thousand-year-old
00:49:08.080 church, destroying it, taking the priests out of it, removing all the churches, transferring it to
00:49:14.480 the state church of the OCU, which essentially is a cutout of the presidential administration.
00:49:22.040 This is, it's hard to, so we first spoke maybe two years ago.
00:49:27.420 Yes.
00:49:28.720 And I was shocked by what you said at the time, which is the government of Zelensky
00:49:32.980 is trying to eliminate traditional Christianity, the traditional church of Ukraine. And I thought,
00:49:39.480 boy, you know, when people find out about this, because whatever you think of Zelensky or Putin,
00:49:43.640 certainly Putin, you can hate Putin and still be appalled by this, of course. I thought,
00:49:47.940 wow, it's going to stop like that. Once people know, but it, it just kept accelerating. And I
00:49:53.560 still haven't heard a single, I'm sure there have been, but I haven't heard any American Christian
00:49:58.200 leaders say anything about this. Look, what is that? I will tell you that J.D. Vance,
00:50:05.100 when he was a senator and no one frankly knew him from Oshkosh, gave a statement in the Senate for
00:50:13.160 which I thank him every day in my prayers, that has kept, I think it's one of the key things. I
00:50:18.900 think you, J.D. Vance, and there are two young members of the Young Republicans, Catherine Whitford,
00:50:30.120 who is a co-chair of the National Young Republicans and is Orthodox, is actually leading a day of action.
00:50:38.720 And she has a colleague as well, who, who is, who is leading this. Those young people
00:50:45.260 have been, uh, along with, with our vice president now, the only sources of, of, uh, support we've had.
00:50:54.600 What about Franklin Graham?
00:50:56.400 He is speaking in Yerevan.
00:50:58.620 What does that mean?
00:50:59.820 He is the keynote at the prayer breakfast in Yerevan, Armenia.
00:51:03.560 With the prime minister who's putting clergy in jail?
00:51:08.520 Yes.
00:51:09.260 How does that work?
00:51:10.560 I, listen, I am, it may surprise you to know I am not working in evangelical circles. I have no idea.
00:51:17.980 I'm not either, but I'm very sympathetic to the, you know, to evangelical people, great people,
00:51:22.580 and I'm not against Franklin Graham, but I'm just shocked that Franklin Graham would.
00:51:26.840 I don't know, you know, having, having certainly being aware of him, I, I, I have no idea if he
00:51:31.560 knows. I, I think, um, because our government has decided, as has the EU, frankly, uh, that,
00:51:39.920 uh, they are going to go with the SOB they know. Um, I, I think the silence of the government,
00:51:47.020 uh, is something that everybody takes as permission. And I'm sure Franklin Graham is not aware that
00:51:53.800 well, has Franklin, I mean, you would think, and I don't mean to focus on Franklin Graham,
00:51:57.420 I'm sure he's a nice person, or I don't really don't know what he's like, but I'm not against
00:52:02.000 him. But has he said anything about what Zelensky is doing to the church in Ukraine that you're aware
00:52:06.700 of?
00:52:06.980 No, no, no. I, I, I honestly am in shock at the silence of the media in the United States and the
00:52:16.920 silence of, of the Christian community to what's happened. I mean, uh, thanks to Candy Stroud,
00:52:24.960 who you and I both know.
00:52:26.320 Great person.
00:52:27.040 I'm, uh, I'm, I've been on radio everywhere I can, but, um, you know, the Ukrainian effort
00:52:36.000 in Washington and with media is masterful. They have their own people in key media who continued
00:52:43.660 to write puffy articles about them. Um, never a criticism. The first time it ever came up that I
00:52:51.600 saw was the protests over corruption a few weeks ago, which led people here to scratch their head
00:52:59.860 and say, well, Christ, if, if Zelensky is so, uh, clean, how could he be trying to wipe out the
00:53:06.940 anti-corruption, uh, independence? And, and that was an eye opener to some, but, uh, you know, in the UK,
00:53:15.380 we wrote to the government to say, why aren't you doing something about the church? And they wrote
00:53:22.580 back and said, everything's great.
00:53:24.720 Everything's great.
00:53:25.720 Everything's great. I mean, the UK government is, is more hard line about Ukraine than Ukraine.
00:53:32.080 I, I, they, uh, the reaction of Europeans understand Germany is imploding because of, of this war.
00:53:41.280 I know. Um, it was obvious that it would four years ago. It was obvious. The second it started
00:53:47.140 to say, this is going to destroy Germany, which is really the economy of Europe.
00:53:51.940 And let's say something else. It's going to radicalize Germany.
00:53:55.400 Well, that is, that is deep.
00:53:56.920 And that is scary.
00:53:58.180 That is, it's coming.
00:53:59.240 And, and, and, and as a Jew, that is a very scary thing to witness, but it's, it's inevitable.
00:54:05.040 It's going to radicalize all of Europe. I mean, how could it not? Like, yeah.
00:54:09.500 And, and, and, and I will say to you that the, um, the behavior of the press has been the most
00:54:16.800 disappointing to me because I've worked with the press when I was fighting Putin in the early
00:54:23.260 2000s, uh, on behalf of, uh, one of his key opponents, uh, I had the press with me and we
00:54:30.340 would do interviews. It would, it was constant, but now that, um, St. Zelensky, um, is starting
00:54:39.780 to show a few cracks in the visage. There's still nothing about this ongoing torture and use
00:54:48.380 of secret police to destroy a church. Nothing.
00:54:53.640 What is that exactly? Like why most Americans, including certainly most reporters, most people
00:55:00.300 in the media had never heard of Zelensky until this war started. They know it, they couldn't
00:55:04.720 identify him. And immediately after it started, the loyalty to him, you know, blinded them to his
00:55:12.320 faults, induced them to lie to the public in America about what was happening. I mean, they just
00:55:17.300 became shills for Zelensky in like one day. How, why, what is that?
00:55:21.920 What's interesting? Cause we did a study. We looked at media in the United States because one
00:55:27.840 of the things that's frightening about the churches that are being taken in Ukraine is that very often
00:55:34.620 the people who take them and beat up parishioners and, and break the heads of priests, those people
00:55:42.140 have swastikas on their arms. Yeah, I noticed. So we found out that the New York times and other
00:55:49.920 papers had been profiling the rise of the right in Ukraine right up until the war. Now the Azov
00:55:58.500 battalion, which is basically a neo-Nazi battalion has almost taken over command and control in the
00:56:05.580 Ukraine. Uh, and you know, this is an ultra nationalist government right now that is pushing
00:56:15.860 a very radical line, but no one is covering it. But do you have any guesses as to, and I should say
00:56:24.820 you've been in and out of that region for over 50 years, you know, well, you know, I mean, I just
00:56:29.580 for, I could go on about your background, but I would just ask viewers to look you up or to take
00:56:34.700 my word for it. You know what you're talking about and what you're saying is true, but why would the
00:56:42.880 media again do that? Why are they defending actual Nazis? Like what, that's how deep their commitment
00:56:50.300 is to Zelensky. So what is that? What does that come in? Where does it come from? Well, you know,
00:56:54.620 it's funny because, um, Zelensky made all his money in Russia. Yeah, I know. And yet he's in charge of a
00:57:01.860 government that's debasing any guarantees of, of, uh, language rights for Russian speakers inside
00:57:08.300 Ukraine. Um, and the, the sanctification of him relates in my mind to two things. One, we have a,
00:57:19.600 a total breakdown in elite politics in, in Europe and to some extent, uh, in the United States. Yes.
00:57:28.860 Um, and, and secondly, I, you know, I stopped playing the market when I was 21, but I certainly
00:57:38.680 remember, you know, making a bet and watching it crash and then think I've got to double down to,
00:57:46.520 to lower my cost in. Exactly. And I think that's what's kind of happened here. I understand the
00:57:53.320 first one or the second one. I think you're exactly right. Like I was all in for the beginning. I can't
00:57:58.740 check it out now. Yes. Double down. And I sort of understand what you mean about the degradation of
00:58:04.380 elite politics, but can you put a finer point on that? Well, you know, look at the UK. I mean,
00:58:11.460 I love the UK. Yes. We have a government that is wildly incompetent. They even know they're
00:58:19.260 incompetent. Uh, we're going to have a budget that's going to destroy what's left of the middle
00:58:23.740 class. Uh, look at France, complete chaos right now, complete loss of direction. Um,
00:58:32.320 Italy struggling, struggling, but with Maloney, there's, there's some sort of strength there,
00:58:38.840 but many of the other countries, of course, Spain, Spain is now, uh, you may not be aware I'm,
00:58:46.520 I'm fighting Spain in a big way against their tax administration. We just outed in a press conference
00:58:53.140 last week. The fact that Spain is using Huawei computers to store tax information for Americans.
00:59:00.000 Not really. Yes. And not only are they doing that, but they have this discriminatory policy
00:59:05.840 towards Americans. They have 50,000 Americans. They have hundreds of thousands of foreigners.
00:59:10.960 They're doing discriminatory tax audits and basically stealing, stealing the money from foreigners
00:59:17.060 to try to subsidize a government that is the most corrupt government I've seen since Papa Doc
00:59:23.840 Duvalier. I think something like 21 indictments, the prime minister's wife, his brother, the general
00:59:31.820 prosecutor. I mean, what's going on in Spain is, is unexplored territory in the United States
00:59:37.080 and people don't seem to have any interest in finding him. No, zero, zero. It's a vacation spot.
00:59:41.400 And the, the king is flying to China because Sanchez is all in with China. Of course. And Venezuela. So,
00:59:52.120 uh, it's, it's astounding. And the rule of law is under such attack there that the EU is quietly
01:00:00.280 sending a commission to investigate in January, because everybody in Europe knows rule of law is
01:00:07.020 dead in Spain. So it's, it's frightening what's going on there. And, and this is what I mean about
01:00:13.280 the sort of calcification of the ruling elite. So, but what is that? Is that just a, now I'm asking you,
01:00:19.840 I'm luring you into philosophy, but I'm very interested in, I agree with everything you've said,
01:00:24.840 it's observable, it's provable, but where does it come from? Is it a natural cycle?
01:00:30.280 Or is it something else? You know, um, the cost of being a politician are so high. The reputational
01:00:39.820 costs, um, are so high and the, uh, materialistic nature of, of all of us now, uh, the loss of
01:00:51.340 ideology, the loss of principles, the loss of faith. Um, this leads to a, a loss in terms of the quality
01:01:00.160 of people entering politics. That's right. And, and you have a chaotic world situation,
01:01:06.600 which, uh, you know, there's a lot of fear. Um, and it, it leads to a completely transactional
01:01:16.640 foreign policy and more and more states are engaging in this transactional policies,
01:01:22.760 as opposed to following any form of ideological policy.
01:01:28.920 So it, it sounds like a part of a cycle then just as politics becomes less productive,
01:01:35.540 therefore more reviled by the population. These are supposedly democratic countries or not really,
01:01:40.620 but they still have the skin suit and people are mad at the political class. So that means that only
01:01:46.620 the worst people join the political class. Right. And yet fascinating what I'm seeing in, in watching,
01:01:54.020 um, the Orthodox community, the, the Christian Orthodox community and the Jewish community,
01:02:02.460 the Jewish community as a result of this horrible growth of antisemitism, the Orthodox community as a
01:02:09.640 result of the woke nature of many Christian churches is that those who are fundamental in their faith
01:02:18.700 are growing. Orthodox Christianity is growing at a massive rate. Oh yeah. Massive. I'm sure Orthodox
01:02:27.100 Judaism is too. Yeah. Because people are clinging to real values. That's right. And, and in Europe,
01:02:34.420 you know, quite frankly, uh, it's very, very hard to find inspiration in the United States. We have a
01:02:43.100 president, by the way, I think probably the most effective president in foreign affairs that we may
01:02:50.300 have had since Nixon. Um, I think he's incredibly consequential in foreign affairs, uh, on domestic policy,
01:02:59.980 on legal issues. I think the rule of law is in trouble, but I won't go into that. I've noticed.
01:03:05.580 No, I agree. But, uh, foreign policy wise, uh, he's, he's moved incredible mountains and I'm not,
01:03:12.440 I'm not just talking about the, the recent activities with the hostages. I'm talking about
01:03:17.240 as, as a lawyer engaged in Africa, the man has done more to, um, open up, uh, our eyes to the
01:03:26.820 opportunities in parts of Africa. He's made it much less risky to go into Africa as, as an American
01:03:35.640 in Africa over the last decades. You don't know how frustrating it is when the department of justice
01:03:41.400 opens up investigations. The minute, uh, American companies want to venture into, into Africa or
01:03:48.400 into Latin America. And now that's not happening. And now come American companies are going into
01:03:54.000 some of the wild West countries in Africa and Latin America. And I say more power to them. Why,
01:04:01.200 why would we just hand this to China? So, uh, Congo, most obviously, but others. Yes. Speaking of
01:04:09.700 African countries, um, all of a sudden, uh, not defending Nigeria. I don't have strong views in
01:04:16.020 Nigeria, but Nigeria has become famous in the last week as a country in which there's Christian
01:04:20.720 persecution going on. I think that's been, there's been a lot of conflict between Muslims and
01:04:25.960 Christians in Nigeria for, you know, my whole life. But all of a sudden it's a kind of centerpiece
01:04:33.000 of the conversation. How did the, what, what is the truth? You've been in and out of Nigeria for
01:04:36.760 how long? 50 years. 50 years. 1975. Is that correct? Yes. It's a long time. So you know,
01:04:43.420 Nigeria pretty well. I do. What is the truth about what's going on? Well, I ask, cause you've got
01:04:49.660 credibility, you know, the country and you're spending the rest of your life defending Christians
01:04:53.280 around the world. Tell me what the actual truth of Christian persecution in Nigeria is.
01:04:57.560 Let's be very clear that, um, the Nigerian government is populated by Christians and Muslims.
01:05:04.700 Um, I have represented, uh, in his earlier life, the national security advisor of Nigeria when he was
01:05:12.960 a young man. And, uh, he's, he's a lovely individual, um, and, and caring and, and, and, uh, universally,
01:05:23.060 uh, respected in terms of religious issues, devout Muslim, but universally respected. Um,
01:05:31.040 in, in my adopted family in Lagos, the Odesanya family sort of adopted me when I was a very,
01:05:37.900 very young man and, and living there. Um, I sort of have a half brother there, Dapo Odesanya.
01:05:45.840 That family is a totally integrated family, Muslim, Christian. Um, I was always teased that I was a
01:05:53.580 Joruba, which is a Jewish Yoruba. But I mean, um, there have always been tribal conflict.
01:06:01.040 I spoke to the foreign minister before I came here because I wanted to get clarity on
01:06:05.380 the government's position. Absolutely. Let's be clear. President Tanubo's wife is a Christian
01:06:12.740 pastor. This is not targeted at Christians. There are probably an equal or more number of Muslim deaths.
01:06:21.280 I am grateful to president Trump for identifying this Christian, these attacks on Christians.
01:06:29.980 Believe it or not, you can blame some of this on the French who had this. I do. I know nothing
01:06:35.560 about it, but I believe you anyway. They had a massive force in the Sahel. They armed the Toregs,
01:06:42.820 which are a notorious, notoriously, uh, aggressive, uh, tribal group that has, that arming has led to
01:06:52.780 mass killings of Christians. The, um, fact that when Libya blew apart, a massive amount of arms went
01:07:01.500 down to Boko Haram, uh, can't be denied by anyone. Nigeria wants to consult with the United States.
01:07:10.820 Nigeria wants assistance in protecting Christians and Muslims, protecting their populations. Nigeria
01:07:18.980 feels it has not had a fair shake from Washington. And I'm not, uh, you know, I don't work for
01:07:25.780 Nigeria. I'm not going to go on and on. The foreign minister is a close friend who I respect deeply,
01:07:30.840 but I can tell you from my work, I was privileged to represent one of the Nigerian states
01:07:36.560 years ago at Kwaibom. We, we won a case actually for them. Um, the, the Nigerians would welcome
01:07:45.560 American assistance with open arms. So this is, this is unlike Ukraine, which is destroying its church
01:07:52.040 or Armenia, which is destroying its church. Here you have a government that wants to protect
01:07:57.940 its populace, doesn't have the resources. Nobody's going to deny Nigeria has been wracked by corruption
01:08:05.320 all the years I've known it, but they want a new deal, a new relationship with Washington
01:08:11.180 and in part to assist them in protecting Christians. So when I read some of what I've been reading,
01:08:18.320 um, you know, I'm, I'm never going to say, uh, that Ted Cruz isn't a brilliant man,
01:08:24.700 but I'm going to say I, I might have a little more time in Nigeria than he does.
01:08:30.200 And I would, would welcome him to speak to the foreign minister or others because one thing America
01:08:36.860 doesn't need are more enemies. Africa is the future. I have said it time and time again,
01:08:44.680 I'm privileged to be counsel to the democratic Republic of the Congo.
01:08:50.360 We, you know, my firm has spent many years. We've just, we're still trying to defend the
01:08:56.220 opposition leader of Tanzania who Tundu Lisu, who's been illegally jailed, uh, a thousand are dead
01:09:03.320 protesting, completely bogus, fraudulent elections. And to the credit of the United States, at least in
01:09:10.360 the Senate, they've spoken out foreign relations committee has spoken out. We need our
01:09:14.380 administration and we certainly need the EU to stop funding this grotesque government in Tanzania,
01:09:21.100 but we have to stop looking at Africa as a security concern alone. And we have to recognize
01:09:29.080 that between their minerals and between the entrepreneurial spirit, Nigerian lawyers are
01:09:35.740 as good or better than American lawyers or British lawyers. I mean, there is an incredible
01:09:41.140 infrastructure of intelligence in Nigeria that we don't know anything about. All we try to do
01:09:48.100 is sanction and condemn. It is a horrible, horrible part of our policy that we sanction the hell out of
01:09:56.900 everybody. We, we are responsible for the consolidation of power in Moscow under Putin. If we were not
01:10:06.980 sanctioning the hell out of all these people who had moved to Europe, who knows whether Putin would
01:10:12.980 still be in power?
01:10:13.700 Exactly. No, it's, that's the truth. I know it's, it's so counterproductive that it's got to be part
01:10:19.060 of some sort of larger strategy that I'm too dumb to understand because it's, it's achieving the opposite
01:10:24.580 of the intended result. And let me tell you, um, I'm, I'm working in Iran, in Iraq against Iranian
01:10:32.740 interests. We have, uh, a woman, Sarah Salim, who is an American citizen, bravely, incredibly bravely
01:10:41.700 defending her interests. And, and those of the Kurdish in the North, and you know, the Kurds are going to
01:10:47.540 have an election soon. She's defending their interests against a wildly corrupt chief justice
01:10:54.900 named Zaidan, who is actually an instrument of Iran. And there have been a complete reversal of
01:11:03.540 her fortunes before the courts because of corruption, uh, against a group called the Hanna brothers. And
01:11:10.660 when we've gone to the U S embassy for help, this is an American citizen who, by the way,
01:11:16.580 was kidnapped and tortured 10 years ago, and has been fighting for her redemption and
01:11:23.060 for compensation against Al-Maliki and Zaidan and others. Our embassy pledges neutrality,
01:11:30.820 does not help this brave American citizen. How can they not help an American? Listen,
01:11:36.340 we cannot understand it, especially in a moment where the future of Iraq, which is
01:11:42.980 massively important to the United States is at risk. I mean, there's an election coming up in Iraq as well.
01:11:49.780 And the oil wealth of that country is, is almost unimaginable. And the issue is whether the Iraqi
01:11:56.340 militia will disarm, whether in fact the government, uh, that we, we not only have spent billions to
01:12:03.460 support, but we lost almost 5,000 lives. Whether that government, uh, will be a government, uh,
01:12:09.780 somewhat free of the corruption, uh, and control of Iran. Yeah. And, and, and our government's been
01:12:17.860 impotent. There's, there's a few people in Congress who have spoken out and blessed them for doing that,
01:12:23.940 but very few people have paid Iraq any thought at all. And yet we over concentrate
01:12:31.780 on Ukraine to the exclusion of almost everything else. So Ted Cruz is upset about what's happening
01:12:41.780 in Nigeria to Christians. I'm not against him being upset about that. You say it's much more
01:12:46.260 complicated than he's presenting probably more tribal than religious. I, you know, I don't know much
01:12:53.300 about it, but how much has Ted Cruz said about the, the U S funded destruction of the Ukrainian
01:13:00.660 Orthodox church? Nothing, nothing, nothing at all. Nothing, nothing. I mean, how can that be? Listen,
01:13:06.980 Tucker, nobody, I mean, I, the Washington post did a hit piece on me. A woman I knew quite well did a
01:13:16.580 terrible hit piece, tried to present me as a Russian agent. That was their focus. There was no
01:13:22.180 issue about what's happening to the church. None at all. And, and the funny thing, by the way,
01:13:29.620 is we are not trying to change American policy where you and I disagree as I've always been
01:13:35.780 totally supportive of Ukraine from a military standpoint, because my clients are in the front
01:13:41.380 line, right? Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox church are fighting and dying for Ukraine. Right.
01:13:47.940 And, you know, I don't know if you remember last time I met you,
01:13:50.740 I showed you a video that we had done of some young men in the army speaking out for the church.
01:13:57.300 Well, one of those young men has just died fighting Russia. And his comment in that video was
01:14:07.300 to the president, how do you, how do you want me to fight when my own church,
01:14:13.380 I can't defend my own church in my town? And, and, and Arsenie, here is a bishop. One of my lawyers
01:14:22.820 went to the jail in the war zone to meet Bishop Arsenie. He has been in jail 17 months.
01:14:33.140 He has no stomach. He has no stomach. He is horribly ill, horribly ill. He is a monk. He is a bishop. He has
01:14:42.500 spent his years devoted to a cathedral. What happens is we think after 17 months, they're going to release
01:14:56.500 this poor man in his sixties, possibly to die. They get him out for a moment and the secret police
01:15:06.820 arrest him again on the trumped up charge that he resisted the Russian invasion. He didn't resist the
01:15:15.620 Russian invasion, some completely bogus charge. And he is incarcerated again. It's a level of cruelty
01:15:23.300 and torture. I cannot express to you. And Cruz has said nothing about it. No,
01:15:29.220 really no one said anything about it. But Cruz specifically, and, but he's all of a sudden,
01:15:33.220 kind of out of nowhere, deeply concerned about the plate of Christians in Nigeria, which I want to
01:15:38.340 restate. Maybe a totally valid concern. I don't know. But that's weird. What is that? All of a sudden,
01:15:46.420 everybody's concerned about people who clearly have no track record of being interested in Christians
01:15:50.740 at all, including Ted Cruz. What, what is going on? Where, where is this coming from?
01:15:56.340 Well, in fact, what's interesting is they're calling it a genocide and a genocide under international
01:16:02.580 legal terms requires a, an intent. And certainly it's a very strange scenario where you have a
01:16:09.820 government richly populated by Christians, uh, and accusing them of some form of genocide.
01:16:15.700 The president, whose wife's a Christian pastor. So, but I mean, one thing I do understand is
01:16:21.460 coordinated propaganda and this is coordinated propaganda. What, I mean, is it?
01:16:27.700 Look, you know, I, I can tell you that the Nigerians have no idea where this is coming from. They've
01:16:36.260 wanted Washington's attention since the beginning of the Trump administration. There are 230
01:16:45.220 million Nigerians who long for a strong relationship with the United States, who are being cultivated by
01:16:53.300 Russia, cultivated by China, cultivated by India, but want to work with America. And we ignore them
01:17:01.300 until we condemn them for a genocide that is absolutely not a genocide. Yes, I support President
01:17:09.540 Trump's interest in helping out Christians everywhere. But let's, let's be fair to a
01:17:16.820 government who is working to try to protect Christians and doesn't have the resources.
01:17:20.820 But right. This is clearly, I'll just say it out loud. It's an effort to draw the attention of
01:17:27.220 faithful Christians in the United States away from longstanding persecution that we have studiously
01:17:32.500 ignored in Ukraine and, and other parts of the world. That is, I mean, it's obvious to me what's
01:17:39.220 going on. Does that sound crazy? No, no, because I don't have another, another way to explain it. And,
01:17:45.620 and one other thing I want to mention on your show is that, that we have this new white paper on
01:17:51.780 Armenia called Pashinian and the Persecution of Samuel Karapetian. And it's, it's available online and
01:18:01.860 it's at freekarapetian.com. And please download it and you will see a, you know, it's 60 or so pages,
01:18:12.900 but it provides the entire history of the persecution. But, you know, as, as you discovered the Armenian
01:18:19.700 genocide from there till now, Armenia has been a brave Christian country in a terrible, terrible
01:18:29.060 neighborhood. And, you know, I, having been in their court, having been in the jail, having met with
01:18:37.060 Karapetian, I am at a complete loss about the fact that I know they think that, uh, uh, they're going to
01:18:48.260 have this, uh, prayer breakfast. I believe one of the Trump children is going to Armenia. I'm sure,
01:18:55.700 uh, Donald Trump Jr. again, has no idea of what's actually going on there. Um, it's, it's a terrible
01:19:03.460 situation where, because you can't get into the media to tell them the truth, so many senior people
01:19:10.580 in the United States operate on ignorance and, and reputation launder people like Pashinian.
01:19:17.540 Well, I, I've been an unwitting participant in that phenomenon myself. So I know, like,
01:19:22.740 you don't really know what's going on. You get used. Um, I've been used. I deeply regret it. I'm
01:19:29.460 not going to happen to me again if I can help it, but I'm sympathetic in general to that. Because,
01:19:34.340 again, I've experienced it. But the Ukraine thing is anyone who wants to know about what's happening
01:19:41.460 to the church in Ukraine can find out. Like, that's not a secret now. Are there a prayer breakfast for,
01:19:47.620 in, for Ukraine? Yes. Actually? Yes. Does anyone ever bring this up? Uh, they're not. Our church is
01:19:53.940 not invited. To the prayer breakfast? Yes. We're not invited. The biggest church in Ukraine is not
01:19:59.780 invited to the prayer breakfast for Ukraine. In Ukraine? No, no. They're not invited. As you're
01:20:05.540 aware, when I fought to get into the religious freedom conference last time, we had to fight
01:20:14.740 to get a table to put information on. Then when I wanted to speak, they loaded a panel with
01:20:22.820 five or six other people. And I got about two minutes, um, to speak while the man who is in
01:20:32.740 charge of the destruction of the church was a keynote before a large audience. Who organized this?
01:20:37.940 Uh, this is the International Religious Freedom Caucus, I think. And, and, uh, I got a call
01:20:48.100 from Sam Brownback to say, if you do speak, could you be civil?
01:20:52.900 And I said, well, you don't know me, Mr. Brownback, but I don't have any record of incivility.
01:20:59.620 You know, that's not in my nature. Uh, I just want an opportunity to speak out for the people of this
01:21:06.820 church. Sam Brownback, former senator from Kansas. Yes. Um, he was running this? I think he was involved.
01:21:14.580 I have no idea. But I mean, did he speak out against the destruction of the largest church in
01:21:20.660 Ukraine at a religious freedom event? Nobody did. And let me go further. That is so bonkers
01:21:25.940 to me. Like I can hardly even believe what you're saying. Well, wait a second. What's worse is
01:21:29.860 they brought army folks. The people were in Ukrainian army uniforms walking with OCU priests,
01:21:39.860 that state church priests through the halls of this religious freedom breakfast, or I'm sorry,
01:21:44.980 religious freedom convention or conference. Um, and they had a happy hour, a happy hour
01:21:52.980 sponsored by Ukraine. That is like absolutely crazy. Are they gonna do this for, do this for
01:22:00.740 China too? A we, a Uyghur happy hour. Yeah, exactly. Celebrating religious freedom in China.
01:22:06.660 It's all. Okay. So last question, which I do think kind of sums it up. Um, you've been in and out of
01:22:11.700 Ukraine a lot. You've got, you know, of course, a huge Ukrainian client. Can you go to Ukraine?
01:22:16.020 No. Why? I'm under criminal investigation in Ukraine. For what? I don't know. I just know
01:22:25.140 if they've announced that I'm under investigation. Um, but again, it's no idea. It's like with
01:22:32.420 Karapetian, you know, they, they try to find something to get you on. Um, and they invent stuff,
01:22:40.340 uh, as you know. So it's, it's really, I'm, I'm very tempted to go and I may go again,
01:22:46.980 but I'd have no idea if I go, if I'll get out. And it's, to some extent, it's a bit like that with,
01:22:52.740 with Armenia because in Armenia, they've just arrested not only bishops, but now they've
01:22:58.260 arrested three mayors, uh, who spoke out and who weren't helpful as well as the family of the
01:23:05.460 patriarch, the Catholicos, the, uh, brother and, uh, some other relative, um, on, on again,
01:23:13.780 completely trumped up charges. It feels like we're moving very quickly to just kind of global
01:23:20.260 repression. It seems like liberal democracy has been so discredited. No one's defending it
01:23:26.340 and it's dying before our eyes. That that's kind of the overview from everything you've said.
01:23:30.420 Look, um, the EU has lost its way. There's no question. I think the EU is a tremendous
01:23:40.660 danger if it doesn't get its act together on fundamental values. You know, there's this
01:23:47.140 dialectic going on. Uh, everybody is afraid of Russia, completely afraid, paralyzed. I mean,
01:23:54.260 a Russian drone crosses the border and we're a DEFCON one yet after, I don't know, four plus years,
01:24:05.940 Kiev isn't taken. None, you know, I think there's been a 1% change in territory. So how can Europe
01:24:15.620 be so completely in fear of Russia? And yet at the same time, instrumentalize that fear to destroy
01:24:27.380 their economies, to maintain sanctions, to engage in, in wildly self-destructive behavior and fail to
01:24:37.140 maintain democratic values. You saw them throw out, uh, a candidate in Romania. You saw what they're
01:24:47.140 trying to do in, in Germany. You see what's happened in France. It is a continuous obliteration
01:24:55.940 of rule of law. And, and we have got to start getting back to first principles with respect to
01:25:03.060 rule of law everywhere, or we will lose it completely everywhere.
01:25:09.940 Bobby Amsterdam, I swear I check the news regularly waiting for an account of your arrest. I hope it
01:25:15.540 never comes, but you are taking actual physical risks, um, on behalf of people who don't have
01:25:20.660 power. So I'm grateful to you for that. Well, thank you for having me. Stay free. Thank you.
01:25:25.780 We've got a new website we hope you will visit. It's called newcommissionnow.com. And it refers to
01:25:40.180 a new 9-11 commission. So we spent months putting together our 9-11 documentary series.
01:25:46.660 And if there's one thing we learned, it's that in fact, there was foreknowledge of the attacks.
01:25:52.900 People knew. The American public deserves to know. We're shocked actually to learn that,
01:25:58.420 to have that confirmed, but it's true. The evidence is overwhelming. The CIA,
01:26:01.380 for example, knew the hijackers were here in the United States. They knew they were planning an act
01:26:05.700 of terror. In his passport is a visa to go to the United States of America. A foreign national was
01:26:12.260 caught celebrating as the World Trade Center fell and later said he was in New York, quote,
01:26:16.820 to document the event. I didn't know there would be an event to document in the first place,
01:26:21.300 because he had foreknowledge. And maybe most amazingly, somebody, an unknown investor,
01:26:26.980 shorted American Airlines and United Airlines, the companies whose planes the attackers used on 9-11,
01:26:32.820 as well as the banks that were inside the Twin Towers just before the attacks.
01:26:36.900 They made money on the 9-11 attacks because they knew they were coming. Who did that?
01:26:42.260 You have to look at the evidence. The U.S. government learned the name of that investor,
01:26:48.340 but never released it. Maybe there's an instant explanation for all this, but there isn't,
01:26:54.340 actually. And by the way, it doesn't matter whether there is or not. The public deserves to know what
01:26:59.540 the hell that was. How did people know ahead of time why was no one ever punished for it? The 9-11
01:27:05.300 commission, the original one, was a fraud. It was fake. Its conclusions were written before the
01:27:12.260 That's true. And it's outrageous. This country needs a new 9-11 commission,
01:27:17.780 one that actually tells the truth that tries to get to the bottom of the story. We can't just move
01:27:22.980 on like nothing happened. 9-11 commission is a cover. Something did happen. We need to force a new
01:27:30.980 investigation into 9-11 almost 25 years later. Sorry, justice demands it. And if you want that,
01:27:38.100 go to newcommissionnow.com to add your name to our petition. We're not getting paid for this.
01:27:43.780 We're doing this because we really mean it. Newcommissionnow.com.