10/19/26: Oil Prices Spike, Devastating JD Townhall, Trump Endorses Bibi, Israeli Settlers Assault Diplomats

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0:11 Head over, breakingpoints.com. You can sign up for the newsletter at the top for free today. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. Have an amazing show for everybody today. Where are we at, Crystal?

0:23 Indeed we do. More ships hit in the Strait of Hormuz. Also, Egypt has decided to join the fight against the Houthis alongside Saudi Arabia, so a lot to get into there.

0:33 J.D.

0:33 Vance with a contentious town hall over on CBS. We will bring you the highlights and the lowlights, mostly lowlights. Trump is backing Netanyahu officially with the Israeli election just around the corner. This comes as settler terrorists continue to assault journalists and diplomats. Just how much has your family paid for the Iran war? We have got the numbers on that and some of the political fallout. A viral exchange with Abdul El-Sayed is shining an unflattering light on CBS News and Barry Weiss's leadership. And France has erupted along with other European cities. We've got a guest who's going to join us to break down what exactly is happening there. and what we can expect going forward.

1:09 Yeah, lots of crazy stuff going on in France. Thank you to everybody who has subscribed to the show, breakingpoints.com. An update, let's see, we're about 30% of the way there.

1:19 Or so.

1:19 We still have plenty of time until the election. As a reminder of our contest, if you are one of those 1,000 people who signs up before the election, you will be luckily tagging along, and you can bring a friend with Ryan Grimm to the Fish Show at MSG Premium Subscribers. You also have an incentive, especially to do some gift subscription and others, because two of you will also be able to go, and as in one of our premium subscribers along with a guest. And I'm footing the bill for all of us, hence why the number is 1,000. All right, thank you. So make sure you go ahead and sign up. And of course, if you enjoy our work as well, if none of that appeals to you. If you're watching this on YouTube, please hit

1:56 subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you're listening to the podcast, please share an episode with a friend. It really helps other people find the show. But with all of that, let's get to a rock. So let's turn now to Iran, put this up here on the screen. Some very interesting attacks that are coming out from what we know in the Persian Gulf and inside the Strait of Hormuz. On the left, you'll see one of the more interesting reports that came out over the weekend. An oil tanker was attacked inside the Persian Gulf, far away from the Strait of Hormuz. A small boat approached it, and then someone fired an RPG against the vessel, as Javier Blas notes.

2:30 That's basically the Somali pirate playbook. It also demonstrates how basically as long as we're at war, we are constantly going to face these types of problems for the entire oil industry. On the right, this view of another kind of interesting one. A tugboat was actually struck by two projectiles, resulting, quote, in one minor casualty. This is actually the first time a tugboat was targeted and struck by Iran. Noteworthy that the vessel strike location is not in the typical location that is currently used. typically used for a lot of these reports. I mean, what's obviously coming out from all of this is that they are letting it fly against anything that is being used to move oil, whether you're

3:09 a tugboat, whether you're in the Persian Gulf, wherever you are. The other thing that's important to note, let's put this up here on the screen, because this is going to significantly change the way that we all have to talk about this, is that the UK MTO, which is a voluntary reporting system, has predominantly been the way that we are able to keep track of what's being hit and what's not. Now, in the last 96 hours, a lot has changed because as Brett Erickson, again, highly recommend the follow here, he says it has now been 96 hours since they reported a normal vessel being struck. This has been one tugboat and two vessels struck in the Persian Gulf, but zero vessels reported struck in the four days transiting Hormuz.

3:46 This flies directly in the face of video that has been published online and not disputed multiple times of different vessels that are disabled or on fire, and multiple reports of vessels that have been struck by different channels, the incompatibility of this extraordinary scale of Iranian attacks from 10-1 to 10-15. It is reasonable to assume, in my opinion, that somewhere between three to seven vessels per day are being struck by Iran, regardless of what is being reported then to the UK MTO. It's a voluntary reporting system.

4:13 He goes on to speculate the United States is obviously forcing companies and countries to non-report, and despite no reports publicly confirmed, You would be a fool to believe that this means Iran is not striking vessels on the daily. Remember, Crystal, that they also put out this kind of strange statement a couple of days ago where they were like, hey, we don't really know everything that's getting struck, so just keep that in mind whenever you read our data. I mean, you could kind of read between the lines. I think Brett's supposition is not a bad one, which is somebody clearly is like, hey, you know, all these reports of vessels getting struck, this is causing problems for the market.

4:47 And even though the entire system is set up to be a warning signal for the rest of the industry and to keep public information in our oil markets, why don't we just not have any of that information that's out there, period? Because that's easier for everybody ahead of the midterm elections.

4:59 Of course. And there's an alliance between the interest of the U.S. empire and the interest of the capitalist class who also want to keep some of this information hidden so that their insurance rates don't skyrocket even higher. And so I'm sure they're happy to have that wink and a nod. Don't worry, we're not going to tell when all of our ships ultimately get hit. But no, we're getting these reports all the time. We're seeing the video evidence.

5:20 So it's clear this is part of what's going on. And the other thing you have to say is so much of the U.S. and Israeli strategy has depended on hiding the reality of what has happened in the region. There was just recently a Reuters report that again revealed the catastrophic level of damage that was done to our bases throughout the region. This is something that would have been unthinkable going into this war, even I think by people like us who were skeptical of how the US would stack up against Iran. I could not have imagined that our bases would be systematically destroyed, given the advanced level of weaponry that we have, given our troop presence in the region, given how longstanding that presence is, just

5:59 given the size of our military vis-a-vis Iran and how much money we spend on this thing, you and me and all of us as taxpayers, It is truly quite shocking. So, you know, and a lot of their strategy to Sagar comes down to effectively market manipulation, because so much of the warfare is not just the kinetic military warfare, but also the economic warfare. Iran is very determined to make the U.S. pay economically. And so Trump is engaged in all these sorts of market manipulations to try to keep the full cost and full disaster of this war from coming into public view, especially in his favorite metric, which is the stock market. So you could see this as another part of that strategy and tactic from him.

6:40 Absolutely. Let's put A3 up here on the screen. This was on Friday, where Brent oil, as a result largely of many of these reports that were coming out, touched $ 110 a barrel. Let me go ahead and check it as of this morning. Yeah, about $ 108, $ 109 a barrel, roughly. So, you know, still very, very high. And of course, it's going to translate to gas prices. Let me see where things are. About $ 4. 30 a gallon. Nationally, diesel remains around $ 6. 31 a gallon, only $ 0. 20 or so off the all-time high and obviously catastrophically high in the long term. Let's also just put, guys, I sent this this morning. This is a travel update from the U.S. State Department that came out overnight. So let's read this carefully. He says,

7:25 Americans that are currently in the Middle East should exercise heightened vigilance due to complex security environment. Be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, travel disruptions. Iranian-supported Houthis have engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports.

7:41 The hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area. Americans traveling to or from the Middle East should monitor information about airport and airline operations. Iran and supported groups may target other U.S. interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world, including U.S. businesses and other institutions. I mean, it's pretty impossible to read that. I mean, they've had a lot of these as the Houthi campaign has continued. In some cases, they're like, Americans don't, they're like, don't do anything in Saudi Arabia. They're like, especially don't record anything because that would be against Saudi law. And I think, I think

8:19 the real reason why it's coming out is this. Let's put A4 on here on the screen, it does appear now that the Egyptians will now, it's unclear, they're pledging their support to Saudi Arabia after the Houthi attacks. Everyone will recall, we covered it a few weeks ago, the Egyptians, the Turks, Pakistanis, and Saudi Arabia signed some sort of a defense pact. And we talked about this with Professor Pate.

8:43 But obviously, one of the noteworthy things about it was that they clearly no longer believed the United States would come to their aid correctly, because we can't. And so they were like, well, they have to look elsewhere. But as many pointed out, you know, a defense pact only means something if you're actually going to do anything. The Pakistanis have done nothing. The Turks, I mean, they're calling the Iranians, but they're not bombing anybody in Yemen. And Saudi is unequivocally, like, actually under attack and in a genuine crisis. It does appear here that the Egyptians, all have now, the defense chiefs, have pledged to support Saudi Arabia and have raised the prospect of broader entanglement. The

9:16 National Defense Council, of course, which Sisi is himself the head of, said in a statement that they would provide all necessary and possible forms of support to defend the kingdom, but of course did not specify what that would entail. Egyptian lawmakers will now have to discuss authorizing Sisi to send forces to Saudi Arabia over the coming days. And on Saturday, he actually called for an emergency session saying that any Egyptian action would be defensive in nature. So it's possible, you know, that this may not involve directly bombing Yemen. They could help them with some missile technology.

9:51 I mean, everybody forgets, you know, for all the money we've been given to Israel, we've been given to Egypt, too. They're on the side. They got plenty of money and weapons at their disposal. Actually, a a formidable military if they ever wanted to use it. So the question really comes down to what this is going to entail. And of course, what are the Houthis going to say? Will the Houthis consider shooting their missiles down to be an act of war against them? Because if it does, I mean, this opens up a whole new All you have to do is take a look at a map and anyone want to tell me where Suez Canal is, right? Which has been the primary bypass route out of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. for the Saudis, despite the fact that they

10:29 have to put them on smaller tankers. So it does definitely have the capacity to escalate dramatically.

10:34 Yeah, this thing keeps growing and growing and growing. And if anybody is wondering, like, why would Egypt do this? Well, guess what? They get a lot of money from us. And it would not surprise me, behind the scenes, Trump was like, well, we can't get directly involved in this Houthi situation because that's already been a disaster for us.

10:49 But hey, Egypt, how about you get involved? Otherwise, we may not give you all of the aid that we've been giving you. And also... Saudi Arabia, since Sisi has come into power, has been giving them a lot of aid. So basically, they're bought off by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. That's why they're getting involved. Meanwhile, you know, the public support for this, I'm sure, is nil. And the public in Egypt has been disgusted with their lack of intervention doing anything. with regard to the genocide in Gaza. So you have all of these very volatile situations with regimes that really don't have legitimacy with their publics, including the Saudi regime. By the way, they have their own internal divisions that are effectively papered over with money. Now that

11:30 that money is not nearly as plentiful, what's going to happen there? So you're just really playing with fire in this entire region as things continue to build and build and build. By the way, with regard to Saudi and their money, They are scheduled to have this what's called Davos in the desert in just a few short weeks.

11:48 So they're supposed to decide, I think, today whether or not they're going to ultimately go forward with that. And this is all humiliating for them. Like all of the money they've put to, you know, host events on their soil and also spread around the globe for their sports washing attempt. They're having to pull a lot of that back. And, you know, the other thing to keep in mind as part of the petrodollar, what they've done with their oil revenue is then to invest that money into U.S. stocks, bonds, companies, treasury bonds, etc., If they have to start pulling some of that back, that's going to have reverberating impacts on us as well. So all of these things are deeply interconnected.

12:23 You think Jamie Dimon's going to be flying in at Riyadh, sitting in a conference building? Hell no, absolutely not.

12:29 Come on.

12:29 Not happening. The head of Citigroup, what, the Houthis? The Houthis, last time I checked, they have an internet connection. So they'll be like, oh, interesting. Davos in the desert, huh? Be a real shame if a couple drones had to go over there. And if the Saudis can't defend their own airport, you think they can defend The conference building, there's no chance. In my opinion, they'd be fools.

12:50 Even if you're coming in on a private jet, you're flying into that airport.

12:53 Scary.

12:54 So, yeah, I think that's probably not going to work out for them.

12:58 As of a couple of days, by the way, they are all working from home in the King Abdullah Financial District. for good reason, which is that that's where the Saudi wealth fund, the sovereign wealth fund, the stock exchange. I mean, you can think about it. It's like a long-held thing for asymmetric war.

13:13 Like, what do you do?

13:14 You target the financial system. That's why bin Laden targeted the Twin Towers, the beating heart of capitalism. It's trying to strike a blow at the heart of the empire. Let's put A5 on the screen. This one was kind of interesting. This is from Galibaf. And so he says, the Persian Gulf Data Authority is coming to governments, funds, and firms in the region. You are kindly advised to give no resources to any AI or data company aiding invasions or killing children. No finance, equity, land, and energy.

13:48 Assist them and face our enforcement. You know, there's a lot of different ways that you could read this. I'm assuming... what they are saying is that they are going to target, it's like an entity to impose restrictions on countries and companies that would conduct business with people who are giving resources to any company that's aiding the war on Iran. Now, I don't really know how exactly that would work. I guess it's kind of a answer to the U.S. SWIFT system and to all of their own sanctions. But effectively, I mean, I don't think it's going to be anything real, but I think what they're trying to say is if your country assists the United States or any of these companies are making war on the United States, then we

14:33 will restrict your ships in the Strait of Hormuz on a long-term basis. I think that's what he's trying to say.

14:38 What I read into it is they've already struck a number of data centers, Amazon in particular, in the region, maybe others as well. I read this to say, we're going to blow your shit up if you are a collaborationist. And we'll use this authority to sort of say- These ones are good and these ones are legitimate targets. That's what I read into that as effectively a threat because they've also been talking about targeting more of the, you know, like the Internet cables and the communications infrastructure. They've already targeted some of the data centers, which is, you know, cause a real problem for people in the region, also cause a real problem for those companies. also caused real problems for those governments which have been looking to be

15:22 part of the AI data center build out because they want to diversify away from just the oil economy. So mostly I just took this as a threat.

15:30 Very possible. That's how a lot of other people saw it as well. Obviously, a lot of it, what it comes down to is they're trying to make war on the economic pipelines, you know, quite literally in the oil sense and also for the rest of the region. That's part of the reason why the Houthi campaign has been so devastating. To that point, let's put A6 here on the screen where, you know, from the Wall Street Journal, obviously the lead from CIA and other sources, they say, Iranian support has helped the Houthis mount the most potent and sophisticated attacks yet, including helping target drone and missiles, as well as training, intelligence, and tactical guidance. The assistance has contributed to the Houthi offensive that has produced rapid

16:08 territorial gains in Yemen and now controls the coastline on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Basically, what they're saying is, behind the scenes is that they are giving them targeting data, help with some of their missile technology. I mean, and in their drones, I think it makes sense because they just battle tested all of these things against the U.S. systems, the very same systems that the Saudis are using. And so they are strategic allies. I mean, the Houthi campaign has been dramatically beneficial to Iran. Iran has not had to take a single bombing from the United States in almost in weeks now, really. and yet they still get to have higher oil prices, chaos in the region, and have some sort of strategic defeat on the half of

16:49 the Gulf allies, and particularly the House of Saud, which is their main enemy. So if you put all that together, I mean, it makes a ton of sense. It's very similar to the same proxy wars that the United States fights in the case where we're backing Saudi Arabia, where we're backing the Ukrainians. So All of this is contributing to the chaos that they want. And also, on top of everything, this just goes to our changing nature of the globe. This happened very late last night, so we weren't able to put it in the show. I don't know if you saw the Putin summit that he proposed.

17:20 And so that is, I mean, look, in my opinion, it's the most honest way to actually do anything, which is the UN and all this is all fake. The big three, we will sit and we will decide the fate. And what he proposed, if you don't, understand what I'm saying is he said, we, the United States and President Xi will sit down, we will come up to an end to the war in Ukraine. And of course, the Europeans and the Ukrainians are all freaking out because they're like, well, we're not going to have a seat at the table.

17:45 And I'm like, well, you know, it's like, these are three nuclear armed powers. These are the big three, which are actively engaged either by proxy and or actively in the conflict itself. Trump is desperate to end the war in Ukraine at this point, you know, going after Zelensky easing all... Did you see what he did with Lindsey Graham bill? It's so funny. The Lindsey Graham bill, which was passed in Lindsey's name to enable sanctions on Russia, he used the bill to waive all the sanctions on Russia.

18:12 So congratulations, Senate. You gave all those extraordinary powers to Trump, and he's decided to use them for those purposes. He's desperate to keep the price of oil down and from keeping this thing skyrocketing, in particular with diesel. So sorry, you know, Lindsey's legacy. That's what you guys decided to do.

18:27 to use it for. Yeah. There's a little bit of fun irony.

18:30 Darlene has already been asked about this.

18:32 Oh.

18:32 Didn't have a lot to say about it.

18:33 Did she say, what are you talking about?

18:35 I don't know what that means. Sorry, this isn't my lane. I don't really, you know, I'm just new to politics. I don't really understand foreign policy.

18:40 Treaties aren't, treaties which, or laws which bear my dead brother's name aren't really in my wheelhouse.

18:48 But, yeah, so put A7 back up. This is this article from the Financial Times that really gets into a lot of this interlocking dynamics. Are we sleepwalking into World War III is the question that's being asked here. And, you know, effectively— tying together Ukraine war, which look, the summit being proposed here by Russia exposes the fundamental nature of this, which is that this is a proxy war between the US and Russia. That is the way, that is the reason this thing was allowed to continue and pushed to continue is because we thought our leadership, our idiot leadership class thought this would be a great way to weaken Russia. And they've long set Ukraine up as this sort of pawn in a post-Cold War feud with Russia.

19:34 So you've got those dynamics. And then obviously, you know, similar players that are involved, whether tangentially or directly in the war with Iran. And then there's all these other conflicts around the world that we pay less attention to. But there's link between the UAE and the Horn of Africa and all of that spiraling. Now you've got Saudi Arabia and you've got the Houthis that have heated back up.

19:57 All of these things continue to grow and spread and the linkages and the overlaps between them continue to grow. And so the other question they ask here is, you know, all these alliances like the NATO alliance specifically, the idea was that this acts as a deterrent because you say Article 5 and you make it credible. Hey, if you attack one of us, we're going to come after you.

20:20 And that's supposed to serve as a deterrent effect. But at this point, it's like, well, the U.S. 's weakness has been completely exposed. And Trump doesn't really have interest in these alliances and made that quite clear. So you've got a really volatile situation and a changing world. And so I don't love the framing of sleepwalking into World War Three because I think it denies the very intentional, horrific decisions that have been made along the way. But we could very much be. headed in that direction if we're not already there. And, you know, the criteria they lay out here is that there has to be warfare across some of the major economies, major players, and you have to have all of the major world powers involved,

21:04 which at this point they are all tangentially involved. China has really tried to keep themselves out. Now, I do think they are providing some assistance to Iran, but they smartly have looked at global affairs for the past 50 years and said, you know, these wars haven't really worked out for these countries. So how about we don't get ourselves involved in these wars? And so far, they have really tried to hold to that.

21:28 Yeah, absolutely. I do think, Jen, I mean, the whole like World War III or not, everybody, because of what happened with the Second World War and the First World War, everybody just assumes that the Third World War would look that way. I actually think the opposite because of mutually assured destruction and nuclear weapons. It's actually going to look exactly like it does now. Great armies are very unlikely to take the battlefield against each other and invade each other's territories in the age of thermonuclear warfare and ICBMs. Instead, it will look exactly like it does, which is proxy conflict in non-defined treaty areas. And then it comes down to spheres of influence, of interest, of economic systems. I mean,

22:05 that's why when we say a strategic defeat for the United States, for the MAGA coalition, it reminds me a lot of It reminds me a lot of the way that the Germans felt about the First World War. They're like, how could we have lost the war if a single foreign soldier never set foot on our territory? And it's like, well, you're bankrupt. You're starving in the streets. Your army actually did collapse, you know, outside of your borders. And if this continued to come, then yes, you would fail. It's hard for somebody in Topeka, for example, to look beyond just the price of diesel. and say, how have we suffered a strategic defeat? But you and I know, it's like, the quote, rules-based international order, the law of the sea.

22:43 I mean, this is the reason why your television costs $ 300. Like, that is the ultimate purpose of the global empire. It's like, well, now, it's not gonna look like that anymore. That's why the iPhone Duo $ 2, 400. It's going to be massively expensive. Get used to it. It's probably just going to keep going up in the age of global trade or of the decline in overall global trade.

23:02 You just got to hope you can fish one out of the straight over moves and buy it on TikTok live.

23:06 From a pirate. Yeah, unless you've got to connect to some Omani smuggler, you're screwed. And did I order one on day one? Absolutely, I did. Absolutely.

23:16 I know, I want one too.

23:17 Oh, you got to do it. Of course, day one customer. I'm an Apple fanboy. Anyways, I'll debut it here on the show whenever I actually get it. Okay, I think we have a guest standing by, so let's get to him.

23:30 Vice President J.D. Vance did a rather contentious town hall over on CBS News, somewhat surprisingly so. We've got a bunch of clips from this that we want to get to because there were quite significant moments. But I wanted to start with this one, which was by far the most brutal.

23:46 Let's take a look.

23:47 Mr.

23:47 Vice President, my wife, Master Sergeant Nicole Amer, gave her life on March 1st, 2026. I am damn proud of my wife, as you should be, and the five soldiers that stood next to her that died alongside with her.

24:05 Excuse me.

24:06 Take your time, man. Take your time.

24:07 There are now six families.

24:09 Living in a nightmare.

24:15 It is a hard price to pay.

24:20 Though the Iranian drone was the weapon that killed my wife, there were a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures that led up to that I believe CBS has reported on that. My wife has told me things before she passed. There are other soldiers that know things that are being quiet about certain aspects of this. There's a failure in the leadership, and I want to know how this administration is going to start holding those leaders accountable for the actions and the deaths of the soldiers that we honor and that we love.

25:00 So Joey, first of all, look, I owe and the whole country owes your family a debt of gratitude that is.

25:08 Quite literally impossible to repay. I won't pretend that anything that I say is gonna make it better or easier, but I hope it helps a little bit to know that your wife was a precious human being who served her country honorably and I'm never gonna forget about her. I'm never gonna forget this conversation and I wanna continue this conversation offline because.

25:30 That raises the second point.

25:32 When you talk about failures that we were implicated, the administration, the Department of War, whoever you want to say, was implicated in, I want to know about that stuff. Because if there were failures, and I don't doubt there were, literally the first time I've heard of this is this conversation.

25:50 If there were failures, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. You are Vice President of the United States. I mean, this is one of the most horrible responses I could imagine. Think of all the failures we've covered on this show, and you are supposed to be, you know, one of the people in charge who are tracking all of these things. We've covered the way that some of the people, service members who were killed, felt that they were left completely vulnerable to these sorts of attacks. We've covered the fact that many of those who were injured were basically left on their own to try to seek medical care, and the medical care that they received was wildly inadequate. So for you to just say, oh, I

26:28 have no idea what's going on. I need you to tell me more. I'll look into it. I mean, what a disastrous response.

26:34 It was the second time he's used the, I just heard about that. I mean, what do you even say? It's just a full-blown disaster of a reply. By the way, you know, I have the story here. We can put it up here in post-production. Here was the AP that ran a full investigation. This has all been out here for days. This is 12 days ago. On a sunny, cloudless morning, AP investigation. where they say soldiers and Gold Star families press army leadership after the deadly Iranian drone strike.

27:01 I actually know exactly who that widower was because he has publicly spoken about how his wife had told him, hey, we don't have enough protection before she was killed. So that's what makes it so devastating. And she's the one who obviously leaves behind two children along with, I mean, one of the other people killed in that attack. I mean, he was like 20 years old. And all of their families have brought this to the Pentagon. They've gone to the media. They have repeatedly tried to bring this forward.

27:33 And look, first of all, politically, first time I'm hearing about it, nobody is going to accept that because you're literally in the chain of command. You have to have heard of that. But second, this is the bigger problem too of the actual investigations that have been going on where Trump and Hegseth have set a culture of we've done nothing wrong. So there have been no investigations. Remember this.

27:58 In current investigation, the Minab investigation is ready. It's dusted. People have read it. I know three people who have read it. Everybody's like, yeah, it was obviously us. And then it goes into some of the details. They're holding it until after the midterms. They don't want to admit anything. They don't want to give any Of the ammunition. On this one, you think Donald Trump is going to put his hand up and be like, yeah, I screwed those soldiers and it's the reason that they're dead. It's not acceptable.

28:18 And so that's where with J.D., I'm like, he's screwed. I mean, and that's the common, the common, you know, thing through these is that, and I remember thinking this whenever, when things started to really go south for Trump. Remember how much hay they made of Kamala on The View when she couldn't say there's nothing different I could do from Biden. Remember? Remember that? Yeah. How can he answer that question when you have a madman in the White House who if you say a single thing who is separate from what he said, well, he would shred you.

28:50 I mean, J.D. can't say, oh, I would have done it differently. He literally, literally cannot do that.

28:55 It's also just let me read a little bit from this report that you pulled up just so people know exactly the issue that we're talking about here. So they say many of the wounded from this attack that that man's wife was killed in told the AP commanders had been warned that this facility, a rectangular building with wooden sides at a working seaport and industrial area south of Kuwait City, was particularly vulnerable to. So brutal information here.

29:30 where they were in nearby bunkers. The wounded also would later say their serious injuries were not treated promptly or adequately in the weeks following the attack. So brutal information here. I mean, if he genuinely has not heard of this, that is just unacceptable state of affairs. And if he has heard about it and is just lying and say, oh my God, I had no idea, that is also an unacceptable state of affairs. And then there's a broader political point here, which is, look, this is a very difficult situation. question to field from someone who's just lost their wife and is clearly going through it and has a devastating analysis here of what happened and why his wife is now deceased and did not need to be.

30:10 I mean, even putting aside the fact we shouldn't have been in this frigging war to start with, like the immediate failures in this case. But you know what? A talented politician can handle these sorts of questions. You know, the first thing you do is just empathize with the man which he tried to do and say that any loss of life is completely unacceptable. And we are looking into those circumstances and we are not going to rest until we ensure that every service member.

30:36 How hard is that?

30:36 Like, that's what you have to do rather than, oh, I don't even know. Like, it's not on me. I'm not even aware. I got to talk to you more to find out more. And to your further point, this is a preview of what's to come for him. Because as much as when you're vice president, obviously you can't distance yourself. In 2028, very likely Trump is still going to be around. And you think it's going to go well for you if you start casting aspersions on the Lord King Donald Trump? Not a chance. And so all of these things that you were part of are going to be laid at your feet and you're going to have to answer for them. and you are not skilled enough to be able to turn, you know, to be able to flip these things on the interviewer or be

31:17 able to handle them in a nimble way, it's going to be a total disaster for him. Just all the things he's going to have to personally account for that he was part of under Trump.

31:28 To the extent J.D. has any true, like, great political ability, it's in these situations with a CBS News interviewer arguing over some woke shit or some dumb shit, you know, like some A Trump investigation. Well, and obviously, you know, it worked tremendous to his benefit on the campaign trail.

31:46 That all works.

31:47 But this, where you're in power and you're dealing, like you're saying, with Iran, first I've heard of it, it's unacceptable. It's unacceptable. You cannot say that. I mean, even Cheney and others would not have said anything like that in the height of Iraq. So, I mean, that's the problem. He's trying to distance himself. Because he's trying to distance himself.

32:07 He knows it's bad. He opposed it. internally, but he has to own it. I mean, and this, I mean, Trump fucked you. That's really where it all is. I mean, he did say later on in the town hall, he may not even run it. Honestly, watching that, I'm like, I don't know if I would. He's going to. You have to. I mean, at this point, you have to.

32:22 But, you know, you asked what would Trump have said in this situation? Look, faced with the husband of the dead service member, maybe a different deal. But what he said in the past is like, yeah, but if you look at Vietnam, really, there aren't that many people who are dead and we haven't been there for that long.

32:38 This is really not a big deal. That's been his orientation. So, you know, if he tried to pull that, I don't think it would land very well either. Here's another extraordinary moment. about the Iran war, where he's responding to Abdul Al-Sayed's criticism of that war. And this, I mean, this shocked me as much as anything in terms of what J.D.

32:59 Vance had to say in this town hall. Let's take a listen.

33:01 I see what Abdul El-Sayed says about the war in Iran.

33:04 I see he criticizing decisions that the president has made, the military has made.

33:08 But fundamentally, we are where we are. And you have to, in my view, I'd like to know.

33:13 What is Abdul El-Sayed's solution for the problem that we have right now. It's easy to criticize something that happened seven months ago. And the reason why I think Mike Rogers is going to make a great senator is because he's fundamentally.

33:25 A problem solver.

33:26 We are where we are. It's easy to criticize something that happened seven months ago, but what are you going to do about it? That thing that happened seven months ago is the disastrous war that your administration started. And so now he's, oh, you know, it's not fair for you to criticize the disastrous mistake I made. We need you just focused on cleaning up the disastrous mistake that I and our administration made seven months ago. I just, again, utterly sort of gobsmacked by this pathetic response.

33:56 You could look at it two ways. This is like, this is the best that they got, or that, I mean, honestly, that's what I would say. I would say this is the best that you got, because I mean, I literally know this man. He's a smart person. I can't even, I could have handled that question better. Yeah.

34:09 Well, you couldn't have a nuke.

34:10 Right. It's like, well, we had to have a nuclear weapon.

34:12 I think this war.

34:13 Is beyond retarded, and I could have given a better answer than that. But I mean, this shows the issue of where you are. And I mean, I really think Iran's, Iran's, Sorry, too much Trump in my brain. I think Iran destroyed Trump's presidency. But I also think it because I know, look, things were bad and, you know, things were trending in the wrong direction for Trump. But, you know, we've talked about this with J.D. Here's the main reason that he has to run is at the end of the day, every major candidate for American political office is literally one James Comey thing away from the heart, from the American presidency.

34:49 You have no idea what's going to happen. Like, as bad as things look right now, I mean, who knows? I mean, Trump, look, Trump could die. Like, he's old, like, literally, going into the office. And then who knows? He governs the country well for a year, he could win. You could have, you know, maybe Trump shocks everybody and is silent or something like that for the primary. I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe the Democrats nominate AOC and it becomes a woke one contest and J.D. can do a squeaker and, you know, 271 electoral votes. Like, there's no reason not to run, in my opinion, especially if you're this ambitious and you've already put it all out on the line. But we can only look at

35:24 the things from where they are today. Many of these answers, if trends continue, which there's no reason, the current reporting is J.D. himself had told Trump in the Oval Office, just so you know, this could go on until the end of your presidency, this entire Iran situation. If that remains the case, there's going to be a lot of questions, exactly like there should have been back in 2008 in the campaign where McCain also ended up having to answer repeatedly for what happened under the Iraq war. Another example, this whole Joe Biden thing, it's his fault about gas prices.

35:56 Take a listen.

35:57 That's actually the biggest reason why gas prices are so high is because when Joe Biden was president, we had about 20% of American refining capacity that went offline. We're slowly bringing that online, but it does take a little bit of time.

36:10 If I may, Kishan's talking about this increase in gas prices just since you guys took office. It's almost been two years. At a certain point, it becomes your economy, not Joe Biden's economy. Also, back in March, right here in Michigan, you said it was just a temporary blip in gas prices.

36:26 How long is temporary?

36:28 Well, look, I don't think that when this conflict is over, we are going to see gas prices come down.

36:35 Cold comfort there. When's that going to be over, buddy?

36:38 Even Tel Aviv Tony's like, come on, man. It's been two years.

36:42 Like, really?

36:42 Biden?

36:43 Okay. I mean, no one's believing this. No one is believing this. The only people are like the 20% remaining diehard MAGA cultists. They're the only ones. And you will see interviews sometimes with these people where they're like, no, it's the Democrats' fault for the gas prices. Anyone with three working brain cells looking at this can directly tie the huge spike in gas prices to when this disastrous war was launched. It is very, very obvious the connection.

37:14 No one is going to buy your, oh, we decimated the refining capacity. No, it's not that. Trump has been out there trying to blame the Ukraine war more. It's not helping. Ukraine hitting Russian oil facilities is not helping. But again, everyone can look. And that is not really absolving him either, because he told us the Ukraine war was going to be over on day one of his presidency.

37:34 But no, it's really clear what's going on here. And so, you know, a more able politician could handle these things better. But it is an impossible landscape. How do you defend a war that you didn't even support and you know is a disaster and is obviously, like, wildly unpopular among the American people? How do you defend massive gas price increase from said catastrophic war that, by the way, you ran specifically on not starting? It ultimately does end up being an impossible landscape. And speaking of impossible, this one is incredible, too. So he was challenged a couple of times by Tony DeCobol about Trump and the Trump family massive corruption and says that he sees no evidence whatsoever that Donald Trump is engaging in corrupt deals in the

38:21 White House. Let's take a listen to that.

38:23 Have you seen anything inside the White House when it comes to corruption that makes you squeamish?

38:30 You're asking, has.

38:30 Donald Trump's decision-making been influenced by his business interest? No, I'm asking if you've seen anything. I've never seen anything like that from anybody inside the White House. I've never seen anything like that from the president.

38:40 The issue that voters see and that gets on their mind and that I hear when I'm out there is the president is making a lot of money off of crypto. His own IRS has barred itself from looking into his tax returns. You have this recent issue with the ambassador to Greece seeming to sell access to the White House.

38:58 That's why people are concerned. And if there's nothing to hide, you say you've seen nothing.

39:05 First of all, if somebody's still in access to the White House, that's disgusting and despicable and they should suffer consequences.

39:10 What I'm saying is.

39:10 That's an isolated incident, though.

39:12 I want to make those judgments based on the facts and not based on a random news media report that I read.

39:17 Fair enough.

39:18 So when the facts are being investigated, let's say in January, if there's a Democratic-controlled Congress, will you comply and honor subpoenas?

39:27 Of course. Of course I will. Look, I mean, we follow the law. I follow the law. I'm a law-abiding guy outside of speeding, which.

39:35 Luckily, thanks to the Secret Service and the generosity of the American people, I don't drive anymore.

39:39 Probably good for the insurance rates in southwestern Ohio.

39:42 But look, man, I think that I've seen these media reports and I have the same reaction I imagine a lot of people in this room have, which it makes me uneasy when I read about my public officials potentially getting wealthy off of my public trust. And I'm telling you that while yes, DC is a corrupt town, Tony, you know this as well as anybody, Donald Trump, I have not seen a single shred of evidence that he participates or sanctions in that corruption. This guy was a billionaire before he ever got into politics. He made a lot of money before he.

40:13 Got into politics.

40:14 Would anybody look at what happened to him from 2016 to 2021? They tried to throw him in jail for like 900 years and say that Donald Trump has personally enriched himself. You can make all kinds of criticisms of our policies and decisions, but I don't see a single, I've not once seen evidence that Donald Trump has enriched himself.

40:31 That is so unbelievable. I mean, just look at his net worth. Like his net worth has skyrocketed since he got back in office. And it's the vast majority of its soccer comes from his crypto.

40:42 Well, also the reason you don't see the evidence because you're not investigating it. So it's a little.

40:46 Well, there is that. He's not going to base it on.

40:49 Some random news report. Difficult if that's. I mean, look, part of this is you have to look at some of the way. The bargain was you attach yourself to Trump. And you defend him, and he's the very first senator to endorse him. That's literally why he's the vice president. He endorsed him in 2023. He bet that he was going to be the person. He believed that he would become the vice president. He would have massive amounts of influence.

41:12 And ultimately, as with many politicians, you have to just swallow a lot of the other shit that they do. It turns out that the other shit here in the corruption angle becomes one of the most potent attacks on Trump today. I was just reading. Did you see this story? I think we should talk to Logan about it tomorrow, where a Republican-focused group talked to its own voters. And they were like, hey, what's the problem? And they said corruption and billionaires, right, like billionaire oligarchs. And apparently, you know, Mike Johnson's people are like, oh, shut up. That, you know, it's like, oh, I don't know. Trump has literally only had that same appeal for like 10 years now in politics.

41:48 But to the corruption point, his extraordinary corruption, whether it's uninvestigated, legal, illegal, whatever, to the eye, a guy becoming filthy rich in office and then dealing out pardons for literal Ponzi scammers while everybody else is getting poorer. What do you want to call it? It's like there's no square around it. It's obvious.

42:11 It's obvious to the naked eye.

42:13 Him, Kushner, Don Jr. They're getting freaking Pentagon contracts.

42:16 I mean, it's preposterous. But it's all the way down the line. You're talking about the top corruption. I mean, in some ways, the grossest stuff is the Guilfoyle. It's repulsive to the character.

42:25 Politically, yes. Why did you not in that answer immediately when he says, is there anything you've seen that you're squeamish about in the White House? He wasn't even asked directly about Trump. In some ways, this is a much softer question from Tony to Coppola than you could have asked much sharper one more specifically about Trump really drilled down on it. Instead, he asked this broad, like, anything you're squeamish about. Well, you just, Trump just forced Kimberly Guilfoyle out over her 100K Amex bill. Yes, I was disgusted to see the reports about Kimberly Guilfoyle allegedly trading Axis.

42:56 When we saw that, we took action immediately because this is unacceptable to us. Like, it's obviously a bullshit narrative, but at least then you're chasing down that rabbit hole. Again, in terms of being politically nimble enough to handle what is going to be a landscaped littered with landmines and from someone who is less friendly to you than Tony DeCoppo, frankly, was in this exchange. So, but, you know, there's tons of polling now about how even Republicans see Trump as enriching himself, using the office to enrich himself. Even Republicans feel he is looking more out for his own financial interests and the well-being of the American people. This is just not a narrative that anyone, anyone is going to buy.

43:38 And he goes so hard in the paint. I have not seen a single shred of evidence. Absolutely not. Donald Trump would never. Give me a break.

43:45 Well, he has to say it because otherwise Trump will turn on him.

43:46 Yeah, and this is a thing that he knows Trump will be sensitive to. So if he doesn't go hard and if there's any little sense of he's not defending me hard enough, that's going to be a big problem for him.

43:55 Finally, B5. This one is also very noteworthy of where things have to go. You know, when he wants to run for president, he's going to need a shit pot of money. And the tech industry is a big, big part of that. Let's take a listen. B5 on data centers.

44:09 My family and I live directly across the street from a data center. For years, we had been exposed to the constant noise from this company's daily operations. Being outdoors for any amount of time became unbearable. resulting in our yard becoming a useless patch of grass that we could look at but not enjoy. Opening our windows to let in a breeze became a luxury that we could no longer enjoy. Even with our windows closed, the buzzing could be heard throughout our home, day and night, 24-7. Our children's room faces the data center, and our two small boys had to sleep through this constant noise. It was like having a vacuum in our living room. You claim to care about communities like mine. What are you doing

45:00 about this problem?

45:01 I really do care about this, and I care about it not just because, you know, I can tell you, as I'm sure you could tell everybody else, that when you have a three-month-old who's exposed to constant noise, it can be a problem for everybody, especially mom's sleep. And so very mindful of that. And I guess the way that I think about it is data centers can be good.

45:19 They can also, as in your case, cause real problems.

45:22 This is the issue where the dinners and the tech guys and the money, they need it, right? They have explicitly allied themselves. Not all of tech. That would be too reductive. But a significant portion of the industry, especially the AI people, have explicitly aligned themselves with the Trump administration.

45:41 They literally need Republican governance to continue or they're like shit.

45:45 You know, yeah.

45:46 In the next in the next two or three years for their industry, they're going to shower his campaign with a lot of money. I mean, given the background, like he's been friends with a lot of these people for over a decade.

45:56 Taylor is very much responsible in part for his rise. And so he's going to be loyal to them. And he has thrown himself in with that world. I mean, he himself is involved in that world through his own fund. But so, yeah, he's got to please Donald Trump and he's also got to keep these tech titans on board.

46:13 I think it's money more than anything else. And even beyond the teal stuff, because this is about Altman. This is about Zuckerberg, like all of these other people who have explicitly aligned. They remember we interviewed, I forget the guy. They're some of the number one spenders in American politics today.

46:30 I was actually reviewing campaign finance data over the weekend. The sports gambling industry and the AI people are the two of the biggest spenders on an individual level for regulatory purposes, specifically to combat some of the, or at least rig the rules directly in their favor. So this just, you know, look, this is where the reality of Trumpism, of Trump himself being dramatically unpopular, and then also of technology being the necessary money vehicle, but being politically toxic, all of these are ingredients for devastation. Again, though, we can only look right now. People are really only a heartbeat away from the, if anything, if you take away from 2016, anybody can win the damn presidency for literally

47:14 any reason. It only takes 100,000 votes a couple different ways. If it rains in Georgia, somebody else can be president. So I think he's going to run. Ultimately, the die is cast. It's like if you lose or if you don't run, it's not like Alyssa Slotkin or these people are going to let you off the hook. It's like you're going to be investigated no matter what, so you might as well go for it. I think that's probably what's going to happen. I agree. Let's get to Israel.

47:41 Speaking of negative election consequences, here is Donald Trump near the nadir of his own personal popularity and deciding to use that, though, in a country where he is still dramatically popular. Let's put this up here on the screen. An extraordinary message. To the great people of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu has been a great warrior, prime minister, and even greater partner for peace in combating the Islamic Republic, death to America, etc. What country can survive when things such as this are allowed to be said? Because eventually they always end up being true. He talks about Iran. It would have been only a question of time until Iran would have put that ominous phrase into effect, but they have been systematically destroyed, both militarily and financially, and unless

48:19 they change their ways rapidly, we will soon finish the job. If Israel has the wrong leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so. Bibi Netanyahu has been, exactly, he talks about a strong partner, somebody who has stood behind him, strong, brave, and brilliant Bibi.

48:40 He says he is the kind of partner the United States of America is demanding of Israel, a country for which it has done so much. Please let this letter serve to represent my complete and total endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in this upcoming race for reelection as prime minister of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu will never let you down. So all of this comes exactly at the time when Netanyahu himself is in a genuine dogfight for the polls. Obviously, don't take prediction markets or any of that. too hard but if you were going to glance at them you know he's not leading actually in any of their uh...

49:11 elections the polls in the in the the polls she currently show guys in time as doing particularly well but but he also remember this the Israeli system, forming the coalition is part of the difficulty itself. So Netanyahu has been here before from a minority position being able to create some sort of a coalition. Nonetheless, Trump, remember, is very popular in Israel.

49:35 He's their guy, literally.

49:37 Spent more money for them and done more for them than anybody else in Israeli history from an American perspective. And Netanyahu is certainly behaving as if this is very impactful. Here was his message in English, I'll remind you, about thanking Trump. Let's take a listen.

49:53 President Trump, my dear friend Donald, I'm so honored and humbled by your extraordinary endorsement. I could say, and that's easy, there's never been greater friend of Israel in the White House, that's an understatement, not by the longest shot. But I think America has been fortunate to have a leader of conviction, of clarity, of courage. Donald, thank you. Thank you for your enduring support. Thank you for your unbelievable leadership. Thank you, friend.

50:31 Thank you, friend, your unbelievable leadership. So Trump trying to sway the election in Bibi's favor. And by the way, we shouldn't rule out that either of them will restart conflict with Iran just to make sure. that Bibi himself gets elected. Because now that he's down again, it's totally in his own incentive.

50:50 Well, and the thing Trump said in that endorsement is very important, which he implies that if Bibi's not in office, I'm not doing your Iran war anymore. And the Iran war is very popular in Israel. They feel it's very existential. They're very unhappy with the state of affairs as they exist right now. So he's basically saying like, look, I will continue doing this Iran war thing that you guys are into if we've got Bibi as the leader. Otherwise, I'm out. Now, whether that's true or not, I doubt is actually true. But whether that's true or not, that's the leverage he's trying to use here. And, you know, we've seen this before. This is not the first international election that he's intervened in. If you look at Argentina,

51:30 Javier Malay's party was set to take a drubbing. And they basically were like, look, we're going to cut off Argentina here. If you don't vote for the party that we want to. And it worked. So, yeah, it could definitely upend the election. I will say, again, prediction markets, they're not accurate. Take it with whatever. But this hasn't really moved the needle in terms of prediction markets. So at least in terms of how investors and Israelis are processing this, they're not feeling like it's a massive game changer.

51:56 But who knows? And it's also very possible that you end up with a situation where nobody can form a governing coalition. And then you have, you know, which has happened in the past in Israel. They've been kind of in this democratic crisis. We're going to talk to someone from France about the democratic crisis there. There's been a similar thing unfolding in Israel for a variety of reasons.

52:17 So you could end up sort of muddling through and Netanyahu gets to maintain power because neither side is able to fully form a coalition. So that is a possibility as well. I will say I was just looking at Twitter and you already have centrists like Neera Tanden who are setting it up as like, oh, it's so important that Netanyahu lose because he's the reason why there's all these problems, why Democrats are so upset with Israel. I'll just read you her tweet. She says this. The political alliance between Trump and Netanyahu and the backhand Netanyahu has given to every Democratic president are driving a lot of the Dem Party's concerns about Israel's actions. No, the genocide is causing a lot of the party concerns, regardless of

52:56 who is in charge. The people of Israel should understand for their upcoming elections that a reelected Netanyahu is a message to Democrats as well. I am hoping Netanyahu loses both because he's an utterly depraved and disgusting genocidal maniac, not that I expect the next person to be better, but quite on the contrary. I think there will have to be somewhat of a reckoning then from the liberal Zionists that, no, the problem is not just Netanyahu. This is a structural, societal issue. Gadi Eisenkot, the primary rival here of Netanyahu, is the author of the Dahiya Doctrine, which is all about, you know, massacring civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure.

53:35 It's named after a suburb of Beirut that they leveled. So there's not a lot of— there' s no peaceniks here. that are available here. There's no one here that's committed to a two-state solution whatsoever. That idea is dead and gone. And I recommend everyone go back and listen to the interview we did with Trita Parsi about the new security doctrine.

53:54 This is not a Netanyahu security doctrine. This is a new overall Israeli security doctrine. that says, we are putting the democracy part to the side. We are deeply committed to the Jewish ethnostate part of this. That is going to over the long term mean that our partnership with the U.S. is fundamentally unsustainable. There's going to be a break.

54:13 And by the way, our response to this is to believe that every Arab state around us is illegitimate and get on a perma war footing. That's not about this prime minister or the next prime minister. That is their overall societal view and the way the entire architecture is orienting themselves.

54:29 Totally agree. And I do think that, you know, if anything, Netanyahu's loss would be more clarifying because the Iran war would continue. All of their policies in Gaza or the West Bank, maybe on the West Bank, it would be like slightly different. Although, you know, I find it I find it difficult to believe that they would rein them in completely. They wouldn't just they would let them beat.

54:50 But then they would just not initially come.

54:52 There'd be more fake investigation, more fake hand rigging. That's what you would get.

54:58 Exactly. You get a lot of genuflecting, again, in English. And then in Hebrew, they'd be like, well, who knows? Maybe they were asking for it. Let's go ahead and put C3 up here on the screen. This is from Barack Ravid. He says, some of Trump's closest advisors believe the Middle East agenda would fare better if Netanyahu lost and a better, different government was formed. Trump himself is very frustrated with Netanyahu.

55:20 Yeah, sure.

55:21 In private conversations, Trump blamed Netanyahu for Israel's failures to prevent October 7th. Yeah, we know. Trump called the prime minister, quote, his own worst enemy and questioned whether Netanyahu was damaging international reputation. However, he decided to stick with Netanyahu. So that's the Barak Ravid.

55:37 Yeah, it feels like Barak Ravid ass covering of why we got all of these like, oh, he's so upset with Netanyahu. Oh, he's so frustrated. Oh, he's so disgusted.

55:46 Blah, blah, blah.

55:46 Oh, but he backed him unequivocally for reelection.

55:48 Look at that.

55:49 So joke.

55:50 Yeah. Last thing here was flagged by our friend Trita Parsi. Let's put this up here on the screen. This is the Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, where he said they are ready to strike Iran with full force and then targeting an energy infrastructure is critical to setting them back 40 years to the age of darkness and to the stone age, to set back Iran as state several decades in order to establish a far more favorable regional balance.

56:13 And so as Trita there points out, this is bigger problem, both obviously for the Iranian monarchists who are like, oh, this is going to be So amazing. But big picture, this remains a security posture of Israel. And in particular, remember, I would not put it past Netanyahu. If he is genuinely losing, if he believes he's losing, then some sort of attack, something, I think is very likely to come.

56:40 Every corruption trial, he goes and bombs something. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so maybe it's not Iran. Maybe he'll bomb Yemen without MBS asking. Maybe he'll go bomb Lebanon again. I don't know, but he's going to do something. I certainly would not put it past him. Okay, let's get to the second part here. We also wanted to return and take a look at this beating of a Washington Post journalist while on photojournalism assignment in the West Bank. You guys covered the initial footage on Friday. However, some of the more details that have come out are genuinely shocking. Let's put this up here. on the screen. So the initial response from the prime minister of Israel's office, this is so crazy.

57:14 They said, the facts surrounding the confrontation during which the journalist was allegedly assaulted remain unclear and are under investigation. We unequivocally condemn violence against anyone those responsible held accountable. But serious questions remain. Reports indicate some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths. Footage shows masked individuals on both sides hurling objects amid reports of fireworks fired at Jewish youth. Other footage appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same individual. The investigation must establish the fact we will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria.

57:54 And this facts must determine the conclusion, not the headlines. AKA, she was asking for it. And actually, even though she was asking for it, the guy who pushed her over actually helped her back up. And so that's why this was all okay. So then Mike Huckabee, let's put his statement up here. The U.S. ambassador initially, his response now, yesterday, Heidi Levine suffered serious injuries from a vicious and cowardly attack.

58:18 Heidi is a U.S. citizen, clear ideas of journalists, details of who are under investigation, but those attacked unarmed reporter should spend years in prison. We have called for a full investigation and arrest. Attacking a female photographer is despicable act of terror carried out by mass cowards, dishonorable act of senseless violence. Noteworthy, he does not. name the settlers actually there. Then we have Marco Rubio. Let's put a C7 here on the screen. He says, first, obviously we've seen the video. We've seen the media reporting. We have a process of handling these things. It turns out to be a pure what it was. You know, we have ways of communicating that to the Israelis about how we expect what we would expect them to prevent them from

58:55 happening in the future. What does that even mean? The president doesn't want to see a crisis in the West Bank. We don't need that right now. Israel doesn't need that right now. And so that's where we are. That's where our State Department and our ambassador initially speak up to this ridiculous. statement there by the Israelis. I will say it does appear this morning that some arrests have been made by the Israelis. Take that for what you will.

59:18 We'll track where they go on trial.

59:20 I mean, this is really astonishing. This is a Washington Post American journalist, Jewish, by the way. Not that it should matter, but Jewish, by the way. We watched the video, unfortunately, I wish I didn't see it, of this middle-aged woman wearing a press vest being beaten within an inch of her life. She sustained very severe injuries when Jasper Nathaniel was trying to rescue her and get her to run and move. She said, I can't, I can't, just let me die. Like, that's how severe this is. And they have the gall to put out this statement trying to blame her, again, middle-aged woman wearing a press vest. For the attack and, oh, we have to wait for the facts to come. No, we all saw the video. We saw that, and she had to be rushed to the hospital.

1:00:12 She had fingers broken, broken rib, multiple broken vertebrae, lacerations across her body. They think that she was stabbed. And we're supposed to believe, oh, it was just a mistake. She just stumbled and she was helped up by a settler. Like, we saw the video. And this is really... To my understanding, this is a new tactic, especially when you're talking about, again, an American journalist that they OK, they issue some words of, oh, we don't support this, but maybe it's her fault. And I think they did something very similar to with we just had these European diplomats who were there as well, this delegation from Europe as well. that was beaten by these settler terrorists. And they did something very similar. Oh,

1:00:55 they were asking for it. They shouldn't have been there in the first place.

1:00:57 Yes, exactly. And again, as of this morning, they said, I'm just reading the details, 10 people were arrested in the West Bank, all in separate incidents, in addition to the assault on European diplomats. Oh, actually, I totally skipped that one over. C8, let's put this up here on the screen. A bunch of European diplomats were actually beaten, savagely beaten by many settlers. Can you imagine this? You know, who tolerates this behavior from any other state in the alleged West? I mean, it's impossible to even imagine. So you had a bunch of European diplomats there. I mean, this guy's wearing the French sash there. And clearly identified.

1:01:37 And they're just beating the shit out of him. And yeah, just don't care. The Israeli authorities said that some people were arrested in Operation Olive Leaf. Border Patrol and others were entered, several aspects, items linking the suspects were seized, along with several vehicles. We'll see, you know, whether these people are taken into account. I mean, the reason why this is so crazy is that the only reason any of this is happening, as you and I know, is that she is a white woman who happens to be a U.S. citizen. Like, that's it. And the same with these European diplomats. If these were, like, anybody, literally anybody else, they wouldn't care. They would just continue to give them weapons and support. But that's the policy. By the way,

1:02:14 not just of us, of the whole West. That's what's so crazy about it. Where are these countries? You know they're not saying anything? It's crazy. Yeah, it is.

1:02:21 I mean, they are completely out of control. They know they can act with impunity. They know there will be no consequences. And so things that used to... have at least some impact. That's why you have people in Israel. You have a small group of activists in Israel who will provide what they call protective presence, where they think, if I'm there as a Jewish Israeli alongside the Palestinians, maybe they'll be able to do their olive harvest. and not be attacked. These things used to be more effective.

1:02:48 But now that you have, you know, a completely psychotic Israeli regime and you have absolute impunity and no accountability from the U.S. government, no fear that there's going to be any sort of consequences from the American government, they know it doesn't matter if you're French, you're American, doesn't matter.

1:03:03 We can do what we want and we're going to get away with it. And so if they behave this way on camera with an American journalist wearing a press vest, Imagine what they're doing, Palestinians, every single day. It's not caught on camera. That is not the subject of global international outrage that Mike Huckabee doesn't bother to tweet about.

1:03:22 Just imagine what their lives are like having to live next to these settler terrorists.

1:03:28 Yep, exactly. All right, let's get to Econ.