0:01

Is Trump out of cash to form a president faces

0:03

a deadline to arrange a $454 million bond while

0:08

his legal team is signaling we may

0:10

not be able to show New York

0:12

the money? Georgia DA

0:14

Fonny Willis can remain on, but that

0:16

whole saga has raised major uncertainty on

0:19

the timing and future of that case.

0:21

And then down in Ohio, Trump once

0:24

again proved he is the Republican party

0:26

period. His hand-picked candidate for Senate beat

0:28

out the more moderate candidate endorsed

0:30

by the Republican establishment. And

0:33

then a battle is raging in federal courts over

0:35

a controversial Texas immigration law will tell you what's

0:37

going on and why it will matter for 2024.

0:41

Finally, Democrats have become more vocally

0:43

critical of Israel's Netanyahu will explore

0:45

the moral and political implications of

0:47

that trend. Welcome back to

0:49

the podcast for the 54% of Americans who

0:52

vote for progress in every election and want

0:54

to convince the conservative friends and family members

0:56

to join our majority. This is

0:58

majority 54. Again,

1:00

I'm really excited because we have a

1:02

special guest today. Jason is

1:05

in an undisclosed location. So we are welcoming

1:07

on an army veteran, the

1:09

former head of the Lincoln project,

1:11

host of on democracy here at

1:14

the Midas network, the self described

1:17

and objectively devastatedly handsome Fred

1:19

Wommen. Welcome to the podcast.

1:23

That wasn't supposed to be added, but I appreciate it. You

1:26

told me I took the notes. I know

1:28

that's what I get for being cocky. Well,

1:31

welcome to the podcast. I'm a

1:34

big fan and we've got some stuff to

1:36

talk about today. I think let's start with

1:38

some Trump legal. There

1:41

it is. All right.

1:44

So we've got this. Let's start with some

1:46

unfortunate news for the former president. He

1:49

has a couple of days now to comply

1:52

with a New York court ruling to

1:55

arrange a bond of $454 million. And

2:00

his lawyers are basically saying he's not going to be

2:02

able to make this bond. Fred, are

2:05

we going to be able to

2:07

buy some of these Trump properties at a fire sale

2:09

prices in New York? I'm pretty excited. I've always

2:11

wanted the Mulby Beach Club. Now, I

2:13

did shed almost an entire tear. You

2:16

know, it's interesting. You know, he sat on his hands for

2:18

25 days, right? I

2:21

don't think he's ever had to face consequences, Robbie,

2:23

right? So he literally thought he'd

2:25

get out of this. So he's made no moves

2:27

to like sell or liquid, you know, getting

2:29

a liquid assets. He's been claiming he has them,

2:31

but now we're getting filings saying, you know,

2:34

nobody has those. He goes, no, you literally

2:36

said you had them. So, uh, yeah, it'll be

2:38

interesting. I mean, uh, I saw a story today.

2:41

I thought maybe you saw that there literally is

2:43

talk about selling Trump tower, which would be amazing.

2:46

Yeah. I mean, I personally would

2:48

love to see his name off

2:50

of every possible property in New

2:52

York. Right. And now he goes

2:54

up. I'm not sure about that. Yeah. I

2:57

mean, these are some really, I mean, despite,

2:59

you know, his motif is not mine, but

3:01

you could imagine you could

3:03

probably, you could probably do some sprucing up,

3:06

uh, at a certain point, but, but these

3:08

are some really like great properties. So

3:10

somebody's going to scoop in here and

3:13

grab these things. It'll be really fascinating

3:15

to see. We'll know in a few

3:17

days what happens here. Uh, news organizations

3:19

have estimated that Trump has about $300

3:21

million in liquid assets. He's

3:23

already put aside a hundred million for the

3:25

Eugene Carroll case. So he's a running out

3:28

of money. Now, of course, like he's not

3:30

going to be bankrupt unless there's truly something

3:32

weird going on behind the scenes, but he,

3:34

you know, as we're talking about,

3:36

the first thing we'll see here is him

3:38

selling things off. If you can't

3:41

get somebody else or going hat

3:43

and hand to the Saudis, Russians,

3:45

who knows who else, you know, I think people

3:47

should keep an eye on, uh, if

3:50

he does wind up posting bonds, who these people

3:52

are, who are guaranteeing him.

3:54

And there've been already some questions of

3:56

the insurance company that he used

3:58

for the Eugene Carroll case. So this is

4:01

just another opportunity for corruption for him. Well,

4:03

there's a story about how Chubb, the

4:06

CEO of Chubb sent out a

4:08

note to investors and investors saying

4:11

that, hey, we didn't take a position here. It's

4:13

just a reasonable bond. But when they came to

4:15

the second one, it appears Trump was really sure

4:17

that Chubb wouldn't insure him again. They said, nah,

4:19

we can't take bills. We can't

4:21

take property, which is so ironic because he's been

4:23

inflating his pride for so long. They don't trust

4:25

him now, right? I mean, you're right. Trump

4:28

Tower isn't a great location. I'm not into

4:30

the whole Saddam decoration. I served in Iraq.

4:32

I actually lived in two of Saddam's palaces

4:34

in my four, two, or three tours. I'm

4:36

not into the gold, but it's okay. It

4:39

takes me back. You know, it's funny. I've been to one of

4:41

those. I went to Iraq when I was at the State Department.

4:44

I was at wherever Oderino was in Baghdad. I went

4:46

to one of those weird looking spots. I was there.

4:49

I was there in 2005. I started there. I worked

4:51

at Boeing. So

4:53

I've lived in some Saddam palaces. It's not my style.

4:56

You're right, but they are great locations, and

4:58

they will sell for money. I think you

5:00

have to look for me on the political

5:02

hack here as opposed to the lawyer. As

5:05

a political hack, I know he's freaking out

5:07

because he has made his entire political persona

5:09

that he's a billionaire, that he's rich. Alina

5:12

Haava was up until last week saying, oh, of

5:14

course he's a billionaire. He's got plenty of cash. Even

5:17

if he has to go hat in hand with the

5:19

Saudis or anybody, he's admitting he does not have the

5:22

billions of dollars to make ends meet. I'm

5:25

hearing – I think I saw an article today saying

5:27

that he really is freaking out at this point, that

5:29

he knows that come Monday he's going

5:31

to have to admit he's not a

5:33

billionaire like he says he is. And

5:35

I think that's interesting. I don't know if that

5:38

will change the cult much, but it is a

5:40

big chip in his whole facade of being this

5:42

maid millionaire. It's not true

5:45

at all. Well, the stakes couldn't be higher

5:47

for this guy coming into this election. He's got all

5:49

these cases that – the

5:52

assumption in the political

5:54

debates and in the media, which is –

5:57

I understand we've been operating on this assumption as

5:59

– Anything that happens

6:01

after November really doesn't matter because like

6:04

you have to kind of hold this guy accountable before the

6:06

election because once he gets in the White House, he's

6:08

going to be able to use the machinery of the White

6:10

House and the power that he has to

6:13

duck any accountability. That's true.

6:15

But I don't think people are spending enough

6:17

time thinking about, well, what if this guy

6:19

loses? Like he will run out of money

6:22

and he'll potentially have multiple opportunities

6:24

to go to prison, and he won't have

6:26

the cover of the White House to

6:30

drop the charges or the immunity of the

6:32

executive office unless the Supreme Court steps in

6:34

and says he's got that. I

6:36

mean it's quite something to think about, which

6:38

is why he's pretty urgent about winning this

6:40

election. It seems like he has no other

6:42

out except winning the – I

6:46

mean we're really at the deadline, and as

6:50

we close the election and especially as polls –

6:52

as we know, if you saw polls this week,

6:55

average polling now has Biden ahead in a

6:57

slight couple of decimal points. But for the

6:59

first time, I think in the whole time,

7:01

Biden is coming out on top of the

7:03

polling, so he's going to get crazier and crazier

7:05

I think. I think we're going to see – I

7:08

mean as the loss – as more suits start, we're

7:10

going to have Fonnie Will will start. We're going to

7:12

have Alvin Bragg start at some point, right? Man,

7:15

can you imagine? He's going to be freaking out.

7:17

And as we get closer, I mean, God, he

7:19

is – I mean I worry – I was

7:22

literally just having a conversation with a journalist about

7:24

political violence. I do worry about his

7:26

– I mean his right is freaking out,

7:28

right, Robbie? I mean it's – He's already

7:30

saying it though. He's already saying – Yeah,

7:32

now. And speaking

7:34

of the Bragg and Willis cases, on the

7:36

Bragg front, that case

7:39

looks like it's going to be delayed at

7:41

least a month. There was a document dumped

7:43

from the US Attorney's Office. It's just a

7:45

Keystone Cops kind of situation here when it

7:48

comes to these cases. So you got Bragg

7:50

who – and this particular one wasn't his

7:53

fault. I blame the US Attorney's

7:55

Office in part and Trump's lawyers for some

7:57

clever delay tactics, which seems to be their

7:59

specialty. But that one looks like it's

8:01

going to be delayed at least a month, which in

8:03

and of itself is not an issue because we're going

8:05

to see that trial before the election in all likelihood.

8:08

But it's on the appeal is going to be the

8:10

issue. We've talked about this previously. We were talking about

8:12

with Tristan Snell. We were talking to him about this,

8:14

and he thinks that the appeal will play out probably

8:18

after the election. Now, Willis case is the

8:20

one that's really turbulent, I

8:22

guess is the right word to say. So the

8:24

judge overseeing that case has

8:28

allowed Willis to stay on under

8:30

the condition that Nathan

8:33

Wade, who is the lead prosecutor who she allegedly

8:35

had a romantic relationship with, had to exit the

8:37

case. And this just out

8:40

this morning, the

8:43

judge McAfee has allowed an appeal to

8:45

go forward against his ruling, but he's

8:47

going to continue on with the case.

8:49

So it's not going to delay the

8:51

case at least for now. But

8:55

I haven't – that just came out. I haven't done

8:57

my homework on what the sort of appellate judges

8:59

in Georgia look like, but I can't

9:01

imagine that they're Democrats. No.

9:05

No, I mean, I can't imagine the art, but the same

9:07

token to one end. I mean, this

9:09

one's kind of – now, again, I'm not the lawyer on this show.

9:13

But to one end, I mean, again, it

9:15

is delay tactics, but

9:17

prosecution is going to get

9:19

prosecuted. No matter if she's sitting in the courtroom or not, they

9:22

really are just sort of throwing whatever they can against the wall to

9:24

push it out. But I think there's

9:26

danger. I mean, at a certain point, we're in a danger zone for them

9:28

too. I'm a political hack

9:30

again. If he thinks he

9:32

can survive this and he has survived everything, right, Rod?

9:34

I mean, he's – nothing is knocked him down. Then

9:36

maybe he should just get the damn court case over

9:38

with, win, lose, appeal long before the election. Part of

9:41

the thing is that I don't think they're doing

9:43

a good job in their calculation

9:45

is the more they drag out, we

9:47

may be in the middle of actual

9:49

prosecutions during the RNC convention, right?

9:52

Or during the act, people can start early voting

9:55

with his happy ass sitting in a court. You know

9:57

what I mean? And I tell you, that's quite a

9:59

visual. to be sending out as

10:01

you're voting for a guy in early voting

10:03

that he's spending his days instead of on

10:05

the campaign trail, he's sitting across more prosecutors.

10:08

So I do wonder about the legal tactics

10:11

and the political tactics that come together in

10:13

almost a perfect storm. So for me

10:15

as a political hack, I keep saying,

10:18

man, your delay may actually blow up in your face because they're

10:20

not gonna be able to delay it without

10:22

some miracle past the election, right? Either

10:24

case, because there's state cases. I

10:27

just, this one may

10:29

end up with the number one candidate, the

10:34

Republican candidate sitting at the courtroom.

10:39

Yeah, yeah, no, I hear you. Well,

10:42

that's the sort of Trump legal update,

10:44

getting to the political side of 2024.

10:49

There's some, I would say

10:51

interesting news coming out of Ohio this

10:53

week. So this guy, Bernie Moreno, who's

10:55

a wealthy former car dealer and political

10:58

newcomer are merged as the victor in

11:00

the three way race

11:02

for the Ohio Republican primary.

11:05

And this was fascinating because you had

11:08

Mike DeWine, very, very popular Republican governor

11:10

in Ohio and former Senator, and

11:13

former Senator Rob Portman, who

11:15

are both like what we would call in

11:17

this day and age moderates in Ohio.

11:22

Whatever that is. Yeah,

11:26

but two very well respected, at least within

11:28

the state of Ohio amongst the sort of

11:30

independent voters and Republican electorate you'd think, both

11:34

back a different candidate, Matt Dolan, who

11:36

is another wealthy politician there.

11:39

And Trump won this race, basically just

11:41

showing once again that the Republican party

11:43

is Donald Trump, Donald Trump is the

11:45

Republican party. Yeah, yeah,

11:47

and again, yet another weak candidate, of

11:49

course, right before the primary last week

11:51

came out, that this gentleman

11:54

apparently had an adult friend finder profile

11:57

that was set up in

11:59

his. email address at his parents home

12:02

in Fort Lauderdale for gay

12:04

hookups, which was quite scandalous the weekend before

12:06

the election, which reminds me a lot of

12:08

what just happened with the guy in North

12:10

Carolina, Robinson. We find

12:12

out this really stuff about him. Again,

12:15

you've got a MAGA candidate they've

12:17

put in place who very

12:19

well could just end up costing them the election.

12:21

They keep doing this to themselves, but you're right.

12:23

It is Trump's party to pick these people, but

12:25

Trump also has a history of picking the absolute

12:27

just most terrible people. Yeah, and

12:30

in case anybody's wondering in the audience, what

12:32

you're saying is it's no scandal to

12:34

be gay. It's a scandal to be a

12:37

hypocrite. There you go. Bingo.

12:39

Bingo. And the story, as

12:43

a political guy, I love the story. Like they

12:45

actually had, I don't know if you followed it,

12:47

but they say it was an intern who

12:49

played a prank on him at his car dealership who

12:52

had access to his email and set up this thing

12:54

as like a joke. And that intern just so happens

12:56

to be a major donor to the campaign now. Okay.

13:00

And you're like, okay. And

13:02

then they actually came out with a guy who was

13:04

the founder of Adult Friend Finder. You can't make this

13:07

up, who also has to be a donor. And

13:09

he came out with letters saying, oh yeah, that's totally

13:11

plausible. It's been really

13:14

fascinating. It's a fascinating case study in

13:16

the spin machine trying to get out of

13:18

it. But in the end, you've got a

13:20

guy who's very MAGA, who's inexperienced. He's never

13:22

been a political candidate before. Now he's the

13:24

nominee in a critical state. I mean, it's

13:27

got to get Ohio. And look,

13:29

Sherrod Brown's no joke, man. He's

13:31

a good, he's a good politician. He's been

13:33

off for a long time. He's super

13:35

strong. Super hardworking. He's got a

13:37

clear message. Founder earth. Just a

13:40

regular dude. In the sane world,

13:42

he will win this race. It's a tough, it's an uphill

13:44

battle in Ohio, but let's go. He actually, he immediately

13:47

is on TV talking about

13:49

this head to head race. Let's go to this clip. Yeah.

13:52

So that they know what's at stake in this

13:54

election between these two candidates for Senate. Well,

13:56

they, they know that, that, um, Bernie

13:59

Marino, I so. out for himself. I

14:01

mean, he has said in this campaign

14:03

that he won't work with Democrats. He

14:06

just is going to go to Washington and do

14:08

his own thing. He's illustrated that

14:10

by again calling for a national

14:13

abortion ban with no exceptions, even

14:15

though Ohio overwhelmingly last November voted

14:17

by 13 points for

14:20

a for a constitutional amendment on

14:22

abortion rights and the arrogance

14:24

of he doesn't really care what the voters

14:26

want. That's really who

14:28

he is and we will make

14:31

that contrast of I fight for Ohio. I

14:33

listen to people. I do roundtables all over the

14:36

state. That's how we that's how we help Senator

14:38

Tester write the packed act. That's

14:40

how we got a good infrastructure bill. That's

14:42

how we got the chips bill. It's going

14:44

to create thousands of jobs in Ohio. That's

14:46

how you do this job. You go county

14:48

to county. You listen to people. You come

14:51

back with ideas. You convince your colleagues to

14:53

pass the child tax credit. You convince your

14:55

colleagues on a whole host

14:57

of issues like on the pension bill

14:59

where we save the pension of 100,000 Ohio

15:01

workers, Ohio union workers. That's how you

15:05

do this job. You don't approach it arrogantly

15:07

and I know best. I don't care that

15:10

women have said that they

15:12

want control with their doctors of their own

15:14

health care. I know better and I'm going

15:16

to do. I'm going to override that, overturn

15:18

that. Well,

15:20

this map, the context here is that the

15:23

map is brutal for Democrats in 2024. So

15:25

there are 34 seats

15:27

up for grabs, including 20 held

15:30

by Democrats, 11 held by

15:32

Republicans, three by independents.

15:35

One of those independents of course is

15:37

Kyrsten Sinema who won't be running again.

15:39

And look, Democrats have to

15:41

win in states like Ohio. They have

15:43

to keep Tester's seat. And

15:46

then potentially we're probably going to need at

15:48

least one upset like Texas or something. And

15:50

so we really need to do

15:52

everything we possibly can here. And the

15:55

context is that we're looking much

15:57

better in the house. And so…

16:00

You know, if we could somehow pull off some miracle in the

16:02

Senate and went back

16:04

to House, we'll be sitting pretty. And I do think

16:07

it's possible. I mean it's hard, but it's possible. I

16:10

agree. I think the Senate map is hard. We've

16:12

got great candidates. I mean, the nice thing you're

16:14

seeing, what I'm watching, and I've got a new

16:16

series I'm doing on the network here. I've got

16:18

a plug, shameless plug, called In

16:20

the Hot Seat, where I've been interviewing these

16:22

candidates for Democratic office. I

16:25

interviewed Colin Allred against Ted Cruz. I interviewed

16:27

Debbie Mccarsal-Powell who was running against Rick Scott

16:29

in Florida. Obviously, these are tough battles, but

16:31

really good quality candidates are coming out of

16:33

the Democratic field this year that we can

16:35

feel good about getting behind that are going

16:38

to do well. I shared Brown's

16:40

terrific. John Tester is just a great, genuine

16:42

guy who's got a good chance. So

16:45

if we add, then, the layer of Roe

16:48

v. Wade Dobbs portion, hopefully we'll get a

16:50

boost out of that, a presidential year. Look,

16:53

I was skeptical too, but I do think we've got

16:55

a winning shot, and the numbers are off. I mean,

16:57

geez, even here in Missouri, I live in Missouri, the

17:01

numbers are good for Lucas. Yeah, I'm done.

17:03

The polls, if you believe polls, which of

17:05

course, obviously, but it is out of

17:07

the ear. It

17:09

is out of possibility against Josh Hawley, who

17:11

nobody likes. Nobody likes Josh Hawley. So I think

17:14

if you add in that layer of abortion, men

17:16

on the ballot, Democrats keep winning. We

17:19

keep winning races over and over these last three

17:21

years. I don't know. There is cause for optimism.

17:23

I always say this weird – you probably don't

17:25

see a ride, this weird streak of optimism that

17:27

came out. I love it. I'm fried. I

17:30

don't even love that. They say that tragedy requires

17:32

hubris, and I think for the Republicans, there's a

17:34

lot of hubris on their side. They think that

17:36

they can continue to get away with, especially places

17:39

like Missouri, where they just – they don't even

17:41

believe that they have to worry about general elections

17:43

there. At some point,

17:45

they may get shocked, and the key is just

17:47

to keep fielding great candidates and keep hoping and

17:50

working really hard on the ground. Well, with that, we're

17:52

going to take a short break. When we come back,

17:54

we're going to talk about this Texas border battle, and

17:56

then we're going to talk about some of the Israel

17:59

politics in the Senate. at all this and more when we

18:01

come back. Candidly,

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code majority. It's time to

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find your corner office conference. All

22:07

right. Well, there's a lot of action

22:09

going on at the

22:11

border. So the Supreme Court temporarily

22:15

paved the way for

22:17

a controversial Texas law that basically allows

22:19

them to enforce the

22:23

nation's immigration laws or, you know,

22:27

or defy them, depending on how you look at the law.

22:29

Down in Texas, basically locked up

22:32

people who cross over the border.

22:35

The Supreme Court basically paved the way for that implementation

22:37

of that law. Like a appeals court temporarily seems to

22:39

have frozen implementation

22:41

of that law. Yeah. My reading on

22:43

this, it looks like this is going

22:45

to go through and it's

22:47

going to be an interesting new

22:50

phase in an immigration debate in this

22:52

country where essentially states now will be

22:54

empowered to do something that just previously

22:56

the purview of the federal government, which

22:59

is immigration enforcement. I

23:02

find this slippery slope, you know, and I talk about

23:04

this a lot that especially as a veteran, you

23:06

know, I've read in Iraq. One of the things I did in

23:08

Iraq, you know, Jason was in Afghanistan doing similar things. I interact

23:10

a lot with the population, especially the early days, that first tour

23:12

I did in 2003, 2004, where

23:15

I did civil affairs. And, you know, I talked

23:18

to a lot of these

23:20

civilians and how they experience under Saddam

23:22

Hussein, you know, the life under an

23:24

authoritarian where the black SUVs

23:26

pull up your neighbor's house and scoop everybody up and take

23:28

them off. It's just for me, I

23:30

live in, I remember saying my Iraqi

23:32

friend saying, you know, hey, guy, I live in

23:34

America. And now we've got a state

23:36

that's passed a law. Well, you look kind

23:39

of Latino. You show us your papers. It's literally

23:41

to show us your papers law. And

23:44

you can ruin people's lives just by picking them up off

23:46

the street and throwing them in jail till they show you

23:48

your papers. I mean, if you've ever been arrested, it's not

23:50

a great experience. Okay. And so I'm

23:52

horrified. I'm just gonna and I think

23:54

it's a very short, very,

23:56

very short trip to much more.

24:00

dangerous and scary things where we're

24:02

being divided against each other. I'm

24:04

so disappointed with the Supreme Court. I'm

24:07

happy that the appeals court stopped it once again,

24:09

but these laws, this is such a slippery

24:12

slope. It makes me very, very, very nervous.

24:14

It really does. Well, the

24:16

Supreme Court's three liberal justices dissented,

24:18

and they said this law

24:20

invites further chaos and crisis in the

24:22

immigration enforcement. They said, quote, this law

24:24

will disrupt sensitive foreign relations, frustrate

24:26

the protection of individuals fleeing persecution,

24:29

hamper active federal enforcement efforts, undermine

24:31

federal agencies' abilities to detect and

24:33

monitor imminent security threats and deter

24:36

non-citizens reporting abuse or

24:38

trafficking. I do think this is going to

24:40

be, this is one step, I think, in

24:42

a long line of a trend that we're going to

24:44

only see more of, which is a sort of clash

24:46

between the federal government and local

24:48

authorities. Jason and

24:51

I have been long speculating that there's

24:53

like a, there's like an interstate extradition

24:55

issue that's looming in some of this

24:57

Trump stuff, whether or not

24:59

he wins the presidency. At some point, there's going

25:01

to be judgments against him in some certain cases,

25:03

civil judgments against him in certain cases, criminal, probably,

25:06

judgments against him. Some of those will be state,

25:08

some of those might be federal. And

25:10

I could see him being in places like

25:12

Florida and basically fighting

25:14

the equivalent of interstate extradition.

25:19

And if I were him and I'm in

25:21

a difficult flat, I'm going to a place

25:23

like Alabama or something. And I'm like enjoying

25:25

the protection of a state that is going

25:27

to fight the federal government or other states

25:30

every step of the way. And

25:32

I think there's like a nonzero chance that

25:34

that could be like an unprecedented federal standoff

25:36

that we have in this country. Even

25:39

if he loses, I agree. And you know, there's

25:41

hints of that already. I believe there was a

25:43

case just recently where a person was accused

25:45

of murder in New York. The

25:49

local prosecutor refused to extradite them

25:51

from Arizona to New York. And

25:53

he stated specifically because Alvin Bragg

25:55

is a political prosecutor. So, I

25:58

mean, if there are... I'm

26:00

still in shock about it. It's like, holy,

26:02

an actual guy accused of murder, and they're

26:05

injecting the politics into it. So you're right.

26:07

It is – no, there's a

26:09

non-zero chance. I mean, I would even say

26:11

there's even a damn near majority chance that

26:13

that is definitely in the realm of possible.

26:15

And like you said, we get some really

26:18

weird places pretty quick when we have states

26:20

asserting their rights against the federal government or other

26:22

states. I mean, as a historian –

26:25

I guess a student of history, if you will, all

26:27

I can say is yikes, right? I mean, Jesus, man.

26:30

Unbelievable. Well, okay, going

26:32

international now. Chuck Schumer

26:35

turned some heads. So

26:39

he basically called out Netanyahu.

26:41

He says he's lost his way. He's too

26:43

willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza.

26:46

And he really went in on Netanyahu. He's

26:48

traditionally been an ally to Israel and Netanyahu.

26:52

Let's go to a clip from Schumer on

26:54

the Senate floor. The fourth

26:56

major obstacle to peace is

26:59

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

27:02

who has all too frequently bowed to

27:04

the demands of extremists like

27:06

Ministers Smotrik and Ben Gevir and

27:09

the settlers in the West Bank. I

27:12

have known Prime Minister Netanyahu for a very

27:14

long time. While we

27:16

have vehemently disagreed on many occasions,

27:19

I will always respect his extraordinary bravery

27:21

for Israel on the battlefield as a

27:23

younger man. I

27:26

believe in his heart he has

27:28

his highest priority as

27:30

is the security of Israel. However,

27:33

I also believe

27:36

Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his

27:38

way by allowing

27:40

his political survival to take

27:42

the precedence over the best

27:44

interests of Israel. So

27:47

he called for early elections. Biden

27:49

called that, as Schumer's speech, a good speech.

27:52

It seems like there's alignment now, even

27:55

amongst some of the more

27:57

pro-Israel Democrats out there

27:59

essentially. has been a line that Jason and

28:01

I have had on this podcast for a long time, which is

28:04

you could believe in the

28:06

existence of Israel, you could be quote

28:09

unquote pro-Israel, whatever that means, while

28:11

still thinking that Netanyahu is a

28:14

right-wing, you know,

28:16

authoritarian-esque leader who is not

28:19

good for the world or for the

28:21

people of Israel. And although there is

28:23

like daylight, I think, between certain members

28:25

of the Left Coalition on, you

28:28

know, whether people are harder or

28:30

easier on the Israelis or the

28:32

Palestinians and how people feel about

28:34

Hamas or about the existence of Israel

28:36

borders. I do think there's broad alignment now

28:38

that Netanyahu is bad for that country and

28:41

that he has lost his way, in the

28:43

words of Schumer. And I

28:45

do think that this is a positive

28:47

development to see leaders

28:49

of the Democratic Party coming out and saying what I

28:51

think is obvious to anybody who's looking at that conflict.

28:55

Yeah, and I think they've been fishing for a message

28:57

in a lot of ways, don't you think? I mean, I

28:59

feel like the Democratic leadership has struggled a bit. We do

29:01

want to support our allies. We do want to support their

29:03

right to defend themselves from October 7th. We do want them

29:05

to support themselves and defend

29:07

themselves from terrorism. But there is a fine

29:09

line when you see so much death and

29:11

so much destruction. Again, and Jason, I share

29:14

the same view on that. I mean, we

29:16

do, we have to abide by the laws

29:18

of war. We have to go overextreme to

29:20

ensure that civilians caught in the crossfire are

29:22

fed and have safety. And unfortunately, with this

29:25

method of war, which was the word

29:27

we had when it went to Gaza, that that's

29:29

not something. They're just not happening like it should.

29:31

I mean, and we could argue all day about

29:33

whether or not there are laws of war, etc.

29:35

That's a better case. But I do think you're

29:37

right to say at least a and look, Netanyahu's

29:39

made it clear. He's made it

29:41

clear. He constantly says, oh, no, you know, no elections,

29:43

this war is over. Okay, when's the war going to

29:45

be over? You

29:49

know, they have not defined

29:51

the aims of that war like that.

29:54

And part of the issue and

29:56

I think Schumer's getting to this

29:59

is like The personal

30:01

interests of Netanyahu are getting in the

30:03

way of the larger interests of his

30:05

country, and it reminds me of what

30:07

we have back home. It's

30:09

like the personal interests of Donald Trump,

30:12

the interests of either his party or the country.

30:15

And there – Maharka

30:18

is out to the people in Israel and Gaza

30:20

who have to deal with this guy who's, I

30:23

think, standing in the way. And

30:26

he's been standing in the way – we've talked

30:28

about this on the spot. He's been standing in

30:30

the way of peace since I was in probably

30:32

elementary school. So this

30:35

guy, it would be great to see him go,

30:37

and it would also be great to see him

30:39

replaced by somebody who's actually legitimately committed

30:42

to peace because we

30:44

need people to take bold action. People

30:48

like Rabin, people like Ehud Barak,

30:51

who were willing to put their – in the case

30:53

of Rabin, he put his life on the line and

30:55

lost that life because he was

30:57

willing to push for peace. And

30:59

I'm hoping we can see a new generation of

31:02

Israeli and Palestinian leaders who are willing to do

31:04

that. Nobody wins the

31:06

war. And look, a lot of people have an

31:08

experience, especially – it all looks very

31:10

noble, and it looks like the right answer. When

31:12

they say these huge statements like, we must destroy

31:14

them utterly and kill Hamas, and we learn this

31:16

– and I keep harping on it. I apologize

31:19

for going back to it, but I worked for

31:21

a guy named Petraeus when I was in the

31:23

army. I was actually General Petraeus' spokesman. And

31:26

the one thing that he said often that I took

31:28

with me is an experience we had in northern Iraq

31:30

in 2003 that carried through the rest of the war

31:32

there in Iraq was that every time I killed –

31:34

it used to say, in

31:36

an industrial – in an industrial grade

31:38

insurgency, every time I kill one, I create three more.

31:41

And what

31:43

that means is, when you're fighting someone like

31:46

Hamas, when you're fighting someone like al-Qaeda

31:48

in Iraq, when you're fighting someone like an

31:51

Islamic state, as you are

31:53

killing them, and what the means you do, especially as

31:55

a large army like we do, where you blow up

31:57

a whole building, look, if I kill somebody who's grabbed

31:59

me, I'll kill them. You know,

32:01

he's going to want to kill people back, right? And

32:04

so it's just a never-ending

32:06

cycle of slaughter that

32:09

you're right. At some point, someone needs to stand

32:11

up. And look, Hamas is dirtying

32:13

this. I mean, the enemy – this

32:15

is on Hamas. This

32:18

is Hamas allowing their – again, Hamas has

32:20

a very, very dark goal here. They

32:22

have made the decision that killing their

32:25

civilians is okay. And so no one's

32:27

hands are clean here. This

32:29

is no way of apology for Hamas.

32:32

But the decision to let these people die, and

32:35

that's what always my heart goes, especially having

32:37

had the opportunity to work with the civilians

32:39

who suffer from it. That's what I did. I

32:41

was literally on Facebook yesterday with

32:44

one of the young men that was a civilian

32:46

in my village that I served in in Iraq

32:48

that first tour. He sent me one of my

32:50

own pictures from Facebook of a – I'm writing

32:52

a sub-sac about it right now. He

32:54

circled this young man in this picture under my

32:56

arm, and he said this young man

32:58

died fighting the Islamic State

33:02

in the Iraqi army. So I'm still in touch with

33:04

the civilians I served with. So knowing that, having an

33:06

experience of seeing what war does

33:08

and the long tail of war, keep in

33:10

mind that conversation, that young man I met,

33:13

I had my armor on that picture, that

33:15

was 21 years ago. 41

33:18

years. And so those guys – It's

33:20

crazy how long it took to end that war.

33:23

I know, right? So the long

33:25

tail of war, it's generational. I'll

33:27

never forget the fact that my own

33:30

son-in-law served – I served in the

33:32

first invasion, and my son-in-law served

33:34

in the exit. And it's

33:36

just – Israel and Hamas and everyone

33:38

in that, at some point, everyone's going to have to

33:40

say, our people are dying. At

33:43

what point do we figure out not to start killing each other all the

33:45

time? Yeah. Well,

33:47

on that rosy note, the – Such

33:50

a lovely show. For

33:53

Grabenor this week, I want to point

33:56

people in the direction of this

33:58

organization called ARENA, which actually – is how

34:00

Jason and I met back in the

34:03

weeks after the 2016 election. This

34:05

arena puts on summits. So

34:08

these are opportunities for people to

34:10

come together and galvanize towards action.

34:12

We've had basically every conceivable person

34:14

from rank and file, Democratic operatives

34:17

to senior leaders and

34:19

everybody from Kamala Harris to Jason and all these

34:21

types of people may appear to show up to

34:23

these things. And we're doing an arena summit April

34:26

18th to 21st in Atlanta, Georgia.

34:30

And this is going to be an opportunity to convene Democratic

34:33

changemakers and independents as well

34:35

and never trumpers, anybody, to

34:37

come together to brainstorm and

34:40

collaborate about the everyday urgency

34:42

of this movement work. You

34:44

can go to arena.run or

34:46

arena.run slash events

34:50

and just check out. You can find the summit

34:54

information. We also do academies, which are more

34:56

extended trainings, which are upended to these. You

34:58

can come, you can see us. Jason

35:00

might come by. We may do a live recording of majority

35:02

54. We're talking about it. So

35:05

come by arena.run and

35:08

get ready. Let's cut through the apathy

35:10

in this election. Let's commit to action.

35:13

And so with that, Fred, thank you

35:15

so much for

35:18

joining us today. Really

35:20

wonderful for everybody out there. Oh, is there anything you want

35:22

to plug? I mean, let's get plug. I was going to

35:24

bust in and plug. So

35:26

obviously my show on democracy with FP Wellman every

35:28

Friday night right here in the Myes Tush network

35:31

at 11 p.m. Eastern APM Pacific. We talked to

35:33

the newsmakers, the folks talk about from media to

35:35

authors. This week I've got a great guest. We're

35:37

going to talk about moms for Liberty and how

35:40

she has been dealing with them for many years.

35:42

The infiltration of the far right, the lowest levels our

35:44

government. I'm really excited about the new series I'm doing

35:46

called In the Hot Seat with FP Wellman,

35:48

where I'm talking with Democratic candidates for

35:51

office. I've talked to Colin Orr

35:54

and I've talked to Debbie McArles-Wau. I've talked

35:56

to the one you haven't heard of, like

35:58

this one young, wonderful young woman. Kaylee

36:00

Thederson running for Idaho 1 for

36:02

Congress for a second time who her very

36:05

first event she had she had armed white

36:07

supremacist militia showed up around her event. Fascinating.

36:09

So people you know the next one coming

36:11

out we just put up Gloria Johnson who's

36:13

amazing behind us. Blackbird, yeah, Gloria's been epic

36:15

and then and then Lucas Coates is in

36:18

the can. You'll see Lucas Coates this week

36:20

talking to him in his run against Josh

36:22

Hawley. So those are on the Midas Touch

36:24

network. They're called in the hot seat. Just

36:27

put Midas Touch FB Wellman and you will

36:29

find me and man I just enjoyed joining you and

36:31

I'm always available if you need me. All

36:33

right well thank you my friend. For everybody

36:35

out there go out there and leave a

36:38

review for us. Five stars preferably just say

36:40

what you love about the show and omit

36:42

anything you hate about it. It

36:45

just helps us out you know it

36:47

helps us kind of rise up the charts and

36:49

build awareness for this pod. But thank you very

36:51

much everybody. We will be back next week. Thank

36:54

you to the Midas Mighty. Remember we all have a

36:56

platform. Make sure to use yours today.