Valuetainment - April 23, 2026


“You Called Me A Hardcore Zionist？” - PBD Confronts John Kiriakou


Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

191.54

Word count

2,399

Sentence count

172

Harmful content

Toxicity

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

25

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we have a special guest on the show, John Rocha. John is a long time friend of the show and has been with us for a long period of time. He is also a supporter of the late Iranian leader Reza Pahlavi.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 But I want to get into one thing right off the bat.
00:00:02.240 You were on a podcast, and my phone started blowing up.
00:00:06.040 And I'm like, why is everybody texting me this?
00:00:09.160 Look what John said about you.
00:00:11.260 I said, John is about to get on the podcast.
00:00:14.500 So, Rob, if you have the clip, I want to start off with this.
00:00:16.600 I want to address it one by one by one.
00:00:18.280 I want you to cover this for me.
00:00:19.380 So you're on a podcast.
00:00:20.340 I don't know which podcast this is.
00:00:22.320 But whatever it is, I was texted by everybody with this.
00:00:25.880 So go ahead and play this clip.
00:00:27.080 I was watching Patrick Bet David yesterday. 0.87
00:00:29.080 Patrick is a hardcore Zionist. 1.00
00:00:33.920 He's Iranian. 0.97
00:00:34.960 I don't think he's Jewish.
00:00:36.260 I think he's like half a Syrian and half Armenian.
00:00:38.660 Yeah, hang on.
00:00:39.320 But he's a hardcore Zionist and not just a Zionist.
00:00:42.840 He is a like 1,000% backer of Reza Pahlavi to return to Iran and to assume the peacock throne and blah, blah, blah.
00:00:52.020 And he was saying yesterday that it's not 60 percent of the Iranian people who support the overthrow of the regime.
00:01:02.840 It is 94 percent. 0.97
00:01:05.840 I don't know when I've ever said that, but OK, let's keep going.
00:01:08.740 There are no polls.
00:01:10.100 There are no polls. 1.00
00:01:11.540 You just make this shit up to put your stooge in. 1.00
00:01:16.380 The monarchists are crazy online. 1.00
00:01:18.520 I mean, they are. 0.99
00:01:19.080 I saw some.
00:01:20.060 they've been passing around the message that iran only became um muslim a hundred years ago
00:01:25.880 no that was a thousand years ago a thousand years ago yes and i get that there are still
00:01:32.720 zoroastrians and i get all that which is the funniest part elliot covert patrick bet david
00:01:38.260 is jewish okay i stand corrected i wasn't sure you're not jewish no i'm not jewish but i know
00:01:43.760 he's not ethnic persian he's what else is there is there anything else that goes on yeah 94 percent
00:01:49.300 of his friends i want to get all of it out well that's what they do right literally i've been
00:01:53.280 asking online like from these you know these persian monarchists see this is what i get for
00:01:57.540 listening to people you say oh everybody wants the shah back i find that very hard to believe 0.80
00:02:02.920 um considering how brutal the shah was and the fact that he was overthrown by his own people
00:02:07.720 right i mean it wasn't like he was cooed out by any foreign yeah uh power quite the op quite to 0.80
00:02:13.000 the contrary so he um but yeah they they literally these these persian monarchists they just they do
00:02:20.240 polls of like is there anything else okay you can pause it right there walk me through oh i have an
00:02:25.720 apology no but tell me this it's not i'm not i don't want an apology i i enjoy talking to you
00:02:30.400 last time we spoke uh i think out of the seven clips that we posted three of them was upset
00:02:37.140 jews because it was comments you made that were bad against masada and we played i thought it was
00:02:41.460 Very revealing.
00:02:42.400 I thought it was great.
00:02:43.900 But walk me through each of these. 0.87
00:02:45.400 Number one, hardcore Zionist, 100% backer of Pallavi, and then 94%. 0.56
00:02:50.060 Tell me. 0.64
00:02:50.640 Okay.
00:02:51.140 The reason I said that is because of Netanyahu's appearance, number one.
00:02:55.940 Yep.
00:02:57.040 And the comments that you've made about Pallavi, like, why hasn't this guy called me back?
00:03:02.940 I want him on the show.
00:03:04.400 Like, why?
00:03:05.400 He's irrelevant. 1.00
00:03:06.860 He's a clown. 0.99
00:03:07.900 Why hasn't he called me back? 0.98
00:03:09.600 I had him on the show two times.
00:03:11.180 Yeah, but when you first invited him.
00:03:13.360 Do you know why?
00:03:13.640 Do you know what happened there?
00:03:14.820 He's asking for help.
00:03:17.040 Because the interviewer, the Iranian interviewer that interviewed me, is asking me, are you going to help him?
00:03:23.640 Are you going to help Reza Pahlavi?
00:03:25.200 And we're speaking in Farsi and English.
00:03:27.760 And I said, no.
00:03:29.060 He asked me for help.
00:03:30.300 I never heard back from him.
00:03:32.480 But I made some very bad remarks about the guy.
00:03:34.620 Have you heard what I've said about them?
00:03:35.920 No.
00:03:36.520 I'd love to.
00:03:37.100 I don't know.
00:03:37.980 You must not know how monarchists think of me right now.
00:03:40.640 No.
00:03:41.180 Do you know they can't stand me today?
00:03:43.780 Good.
00:03:44.300 No, no, it's not good.
00:03:45.480 I liked his father.
00:03:46.480 I don't think he's a strong leader.
00:03:48.100 He's not.
00:03:48.520 He was following me.
00:03:49.520 His wife was following me.
00:03:50.820 His daughter was following me.
00:03:52.040 Everybody unfollowed.
00:03:53.600 The monarchists attacked me because I called him.
00:03:55.800 Oh, it is in shambles with me and that relationship.
00:03:59.100 Rob, maybe play a clip of what I said in the podcast if you want to play that.
00:04:02.960 That's a badge of honor. 1.00
00:04:03.680 I'm going to leave Iran and go. 0.91
00:04:04.780 By the way, you know what's the biggest thing that Iranian people are saying?
00:04:07.300 Hey, Reza Pellev, why don't you go to Azerbaijan? 0.87
00:04:09.060 on and and say a few words from there come closer to iran show some stuff he's not doing it the one
00:04:14.540 thing about trump let me tell you what was very crystal clear about trump about mille about bukele
00:04:19.700 you know what it was they're willing to do the like work they're willing to go out there they're
00:04:23.820 willing to pay the price they're willing to drive they're willing to work their tails off it's very
00:04:29.040 obvious we the market said who is this crazy elvis looking guy from argentina there is no way he'll
00:04:34.580 ever win making out with people on stage guess what he won who is this guy that's in his early
00:04:40.480 mid-30s and by the way let me give you what's going to be confusing i have a painting of his
00:04:45.740 dad in my house so i'm a fan of his father so this is this is not like a bash towards the family no
00:04:53.920 of course and so but this is towards i was critical of him because for 47 years he's been talking
00:04:58.700 about he wants to have iran be free and he didn't do it and keep in mind a part of me is yeah that's
00:05:03.360 The painting in my house, that's a 15-foot painting.
00:05:05.680 His father's right in the middle.
00:05:06.820 My criticism is of him.
00:05:08.760 But I was watching, and I'm like, why?
00:05:10.780 Did somebody tell you I'm a Zionist?
00:05:12.520 Yeah.
00:05:12.640 Did you?
00:05:13.040 Who's that?
00:05:13.560 It was in the chat.
00:05:15.000 No, no.
00:05:15.500 I was reading the chat.
00:05:16.540 Did any other influencers that you go and do interviews with, 0.97
00:05:19.760 did anybody whisper to you off camera, hey, be careful with Patrick, he's a Zionist? 0.97
00:05:24.020 Yes. 0.99
00:05:24.780 Who was that?
00:05:25.540 Oh, I don't want to out him like that.
00:05:27.700 But he said, oh, you're going on PBD.
00:05:29.820 I said, yeah.
00:05:30.420 He said, be careful.
00:05:31.760 Patrick comes out swinging on Israel.
00:05:34.140 Is this a big name?
00:05:35.640 Yeah, it's a pretty big name.
00:05:36.860 One of the biggest names?
00:05:38.360 So then I know who it is.
00:05:39.580 I don't want to add him.
00:05:40.640 Was his family in the CIA before, maybe?
00:05:44.360 I've got to stop.
00:05:45.420 Okay.
00:05:45.880 But I want to apologize on the record because I was wrong. 0.57
00:05:49.060 Okay, so that, and the Bibi side, 0.93
00:05:52.400 because you know who's the only person in the world
00:05:54.180 that interviewed Bibi and Nick Fuentes within 30 days?
00:05:56.580 It's got to be you.
00:05:57.380 It's only me.
00:05:58.000 It's got to be.
00:05:58.560 So you know what the problem is with me, John?
00:06:00.400 This is the problem.
00:06:01.600 But the same people that want freedom of speech, that pitch it, don't practice it.
00:06:09.000 What do I mean by that?
00:06:10.340 They generally want to only talk to people that agree with them.
00:06:14.040 You and I don't agree on maybe a few things.
00:06:16.620 No, which is why I so enjoy it.
00:06:18.340 But I love the conversation.
00:06:18.820 I love the conversation because my thoughts are, Alicia, just bring it to me.
00:06:24.160 It's totally fine.
00:06:24.740 My thoughts are it's like, man, I don't know.
00:06:27.900 He's a CIA guy.
00:06:28.860 He must know more than I do.
00:06:29.900 He has some experience.
00:06:31.060 So I want to know.
00:06:32.000 No, I'm wrong and I apologize.
00:06:33.960 No, let's go to the other one because I want to clear all of this up.
00:06:36.080 Let's go to the one about when you said 94%.
00:06:39.260 I'd love to know when I said 94%.
00:06:41.320 Rob, can you take one of the language learning models?
00:06:44.220 Matter of fact, why don't we do both of them?
00:06:45.640 Take ChachiBT and do Grok and ask a question. 0.89
00:06:50.960 How do you want to pose this question?
00:06:52.360 What percentage of Iranians don't support the IRGC?
00:06:56.500 what percentage of Iranians
00:06:59.220 don't support
00:07:00.240 the IRGC
00:07:02.000 ask the same exact question
00:07:04.720 so what we'll typically do
00:07:07.020 is we'll ask different and we'll go do our own
00:07:09.220 and then we'll look at the numbers that's being given
00:07:10.980 this is which one
00:07:13.380 what does it say
00:07:14.000 around 80-92% of Iranians appear to not
00:07:17.140 support the IRGC
00:07:18.140 based on available polls
00:07:19.840 direct polling on the IRGC
00:07:22.560 challenging due to Iran repression, surveillance and self-censorship
00:07:25.100 okay great
00:07:26.080 leaked internal Iranian government poll
00:07:28.280 in 2025, commissioned by the presidency.
00:07:30.700 A confidential report found
00:07:32.400 92% of Iranians hate the regime. 0.70
00:07:35.560 And that's from Yahoo, 0.82
00:07:36.320 explicitly including Supreme Leader Khamenei
00:07:38.380 and the IRGC, not just specific
00:07:40.560 officials or policies.
00:07:42.860 This was cited by Iranian
00:07:44.580 experts and aligns with widespread
00:07:46.560 dissatisfaction.
00:07:49.000 Gammon is the one that I saw.
00:07:51.060 By the way, I haven't even seen the one above
00:07:52.420 that we're reading. Go to the Gammon one.
00:07:54.620 Gammon says what?
00:07:55.520 Independent arts, online poll 10,000, 13 to 14,000 have confidence in the IRGC.
00:07:59.600 So that leaves another 86.
00:08:01.660 And what does it say?
00:08:02.500 Broader regime rejection.
00:08:04.160 Only about 15 to 20% want Islamic Republic to continue.
00:08:07.460 70 to 80% favor regime change or major transformation.
00:08:12.120 High agreement, 70% with designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization in Iran.
00:08:16.660 Can you go to the, is this ChadGBT or Grok?
00:08:19.460 That was Grok.
00:08:20.140 Okay, let's see what ChadGBT says.
00:08:21.600 Zoom in a little bit.
00:08:22.260 okay so direct irgc spent 2019 maryland poll 80 percent uh maryland iran book so that's maryland
00:08:30.200 so you can criticize that because that's from here 80 percent gammon is the same one i think
00:08:34.540 gammon is from netherlands 71 percent of iranians oppose 20 percent support so you see what numbers
00:08:40.660 we're repeating yeah we're repeating reports that are coming in so it's not a you're you're right
00:08:45.200 and i'm wrong and i apologize no i i appreciate that and the last one i want to show you which
00:08:51.280 is crazy to get this out of the way so we can have our conversation is do you know who I brought
00:08:58.160 on the podcast who never agreed to go on the podcast with anybody and when he came in he was
00:09:04.340 the most suspicious guy here looking at me saying why do you have me on the podcast you know who it
00:09:09.020 was no who's that the co-founder of IRGC no that guy right there Mohsen Sazegara okay do you know
00:09:17.540 how did i miss that so check this out i'm gonna i'm gonna show this for you so if you go a little
00:09:21.280 bit lower to see who is he's the founder of go a little bit lower put irgc arrest blah blah blah
00:09:28.600 can we find the irgc there with him and khomeini uh okay right there in the middle there he is
00:09:35.720 an iranian journalist and political he was the founder of the islamic revolutionary gar
00:09:40.560 after the Iranian
00:09:43.460 revolution, he was the
00:09:45.440 guy, it was between him and
00:09:47.440 Khomeini that started the IRGC. 0.96
00:09:49.680 He would do the intro 1.00
00:09:51.300 to all the tapes 1.00
00:09:52.540 where they would send in for Iranians
00:09:55.440 to listen before the revolution happened to
00:09:57.300 pin Pahlavi's people
00:09:59.380 against him. This was the voice.
00:10:01.320 Then you hit Khomeini. I had him on the
00:10:03.440 podcast, and the claim was that
00:10:05.440 Sava killed 100,000 people.
00:10:07.480 Now keep in mind, he's the propaganda guy
00:10:09.520 That's at Savak, which is, you know, Pahlavi's CIA, Pahlavi's Mossad, right?
00:10:14.900 At the end of the podcast, I wanted to ask him, it's been 40-something years now.
00:10:21.220 You were involved. 0.86
00:10:22.240 Was it a lie that Shah killed 100,000 people?
00:10:25.480 This is not a fan of me.
00:10:26.940 This is not a fan of the Pahlavi.
00:10:29.320 He did not come in knowing what we were going to talk about.
00:10:31.680 Look at his answer here.
00:10:32.480 Go ahead, Rob.
00:10:32.920 Compare Shah with Khomeini. Let me say my judgment now. That many documents have come out. You know, for instance, on those days, opposition claimed that 100,000 political prisoners, Shah Hass, there are 100,000 political prisoners in Iran. That was false.
00:10:56.700 It was only 3,000, 3,500.
00:10:59.500 3,000, a few hundred.
00:11:01.880 Right.
00:11:03.900 This is the founder of IRGC.
00:11:05.580 Now that if I compare Shah with Khomeini, definitely, I already said, first of all, his personality, Shah, was a better guy than Khomeini, first.
00:11:16.360 Second, what he did for Iran, because that he believed in, you know, modernization of Iran, was definitely better than Islamic Republic.
00:11:33.100 As I said. 0.82
00:11:33.840 You can pause.
00:11:34.400 I would suggest if you want to watch it, watch it.
00:11:36.520 It's fascinating.
00:11:37.200 I absolutely will.
00:11:38.180 I'll text it to you.
00:11:39.520 I think you'll enjoy it.
00:11:40.540 But these are my positions.
00:11:42.420 My concern is, John, people that have had good relationships, there's this one guy that I think he's the head of the snake that behind closed doors is creating division and creating rumors and stories about.
00:11:54.160 And he's a very influential guy.
00:11:55.500 Could be the same guy that told you stuff about me.
00:11:57.660 Very heavyweight guy.
00:11:59.020 Very, very heavyweight guy.
00:12:00.500 I think we're talking about the same person.
00:12:02.480 If I tell you I've heard 10 people that he said stuff about me behind closed doors, that's a small number.
00:12:08.400 Wow.
00:12:09.000 So this keeps coming back to me.
00:12:10.340 I'm like, what is his issue?
00:12:12.080 What is his challenge?
00:12:14.020 We won't talk about the name because I don't want you to be in an uncomfortable position.
00:12:17.200 I'm not going to push that topic.
00:12:18.600 All I'm saying is I wanted to make sure I presented this to you.
00:12:20.920 Thank you.
00:12:21.220 And any pushback you have, please go for it.
00:12:23.060 I'm all ears.
00:12:23.880 No, no.
00:12:24.320 I owe you an apology.
00:12:25.440 As I said, you've shown me wrong.
00:12:27.660 And I'm sorry that I perpetuated an untruth.