Transcription
I got to jump in on this because look, I I think this is a problem regardless of what administration is in charge. We should not engage in this war.
Look, there's a lot of saber rattling. There's a lot of fear-mongering about Iran building nuclear weapons, even though the intel is obviously contradicting. You know, you have Israel saying weeks ago, uh, they shared their intel with the United States and the administration rejected it. Our intelligence community rejected it. They said Iran is not weeks away from building a nuclear weapon. But you want to know something? There are two countries in this whole scenario that do have nuclear weapons. One, of course, is the United States of America. The other, they don't acknowledge it, is so they act like, "Oh, we're we're just little lambs and we're well, it's such a big threat." Okay. The whole thing about nuclear weapons, the reason why the United States can't allow Ukraine to do whatever it wants against Russia is because they're a nuclear power. It is a deterrent. Ukraine had nukes. Israel doesn't want Iran to have a deterrent. Now, in a perfect world, neither of those countries would have nuclear weapons, but one of them does, and the one that does loves to cry about how it's always under threat while it's bombing Iranian embassies in places like Syria, while it's literally allowing its IDF soldiers to shoot at international diplomats as they're visiting Janine. Like, are we ever going to at least address the belligerence of the current Israeli government? Also shooting at people in Gaza when they're trying to get genocide.
Exactly. I didn't expect anyone to like agree with me. Like those are You never hear that on cable news. Like I will admit that. And I'm not like trying to give myself props. I was There was a huge part of me, Kate, that was like terrified as I was saying it. That's why my voice sounds a little different because I'm I was just a little bit terrified of like what's going to happen after I say this. But for me, it was really really important to get that message across.
Yeah, I think I think you got it across well. And just to go back to the debate with Adam for a second, you you had mentioned the Janine incident in that clip. And in the debate, I I believe it was with Adam when you brought that up, he made a comment that was like, "Oh, no. It was a misunderstanding."
Yeah, it's always always a misunderstanding. Always. And then just blew right past it. Like, okay. So, there's never a respon I think that they like you managed. That's like the longest I've ever seen anyone talk on CNN on a debate panel without being interrupted. And I think it's because they were all like, "Well, nothing she's saying is wrong, so what am I gonna respond to?"
Yeah. Either that or you know what? I'm gonna give Tiffany Cross a lot of credit because I piggybacking off of what I was saying is also a scary thing to do because look, I'm not going to lie, like the kinds of messages I've been getting from just normal Israelis that are pretty grotesque, but you know, they're normal civilians. Like, I'm not scared. They just they're mad at me. It's okay. When I get the threatening messages from IDF soldiers, like that kind of stuff, like it's scary. like it scares people. It scares me and I don't get scared easily. I've been doing this for so long and I've dealt with all sorts of crazy threats including in person. Um other people are not going to want to deal with that. So like I give her so much credit for also weighing in like piggybacking off of what I I was saying by talking about you know the Palestinians who were getting shot and killed at the humanitarian aid hubs. It's just that took balls and she added a lot of really interesting points to the conversation.
Sure. Michael, by the way, he's like a conservative guy. Total class act. Like everyone at that panel was very classy, very civil. It was just like the polar opposite of my experience with Adam. And it was nice and it made me feel at ease so I can like keep making points like that. Although cable news is so constrained, so it's like you don't have a lot of time.
Yeah. Well, and I think it was a good perfect representation of, you know, when you agree with people, like as Jen always says, take yes for an answer. Like I'm sure like there's definitely things with Sher Michael and with Tiffany that you wouldn't agree with them on, but in this moment like you agree. So like why be confrontational or you know make it something that it's not? You guys agree on this issue and it's the perfect issue to come together on.
Yes. Um, so I think it was a good demonstration of uniting where you can unite and it gave me a little bit of hope, right? because I've been so pessimistic about humanity, like just the stuff that's been going on, but to know that there's agreement across the political spectrum on how these atrocities aren't called for and there should be consequences or, you know, in the case of Shermichel, he didn't weigh in on that specifically, but he did weigh in on not wanting to go to war with Iran and how disastrous that would be. So, I'm I'm grateful that there's a huge huge number of, you know, conservatives and and Republican voters who see what's going on. They're like, "No, we shouldn't do this."
Um, okay. Okay. This is a short clip. So, the first segment, there was a woman who worked for the Obama administration sitting next to me. I think she worked in the Pentagon. I could be mistaken, but clearly she worked in the foreign policy realm and is in favor of a regime change war in Iran. Or no, I'm sorry, I don't want to put words in her mouth. Um, she's in favor of, uh, striking Israel's nuclear sites and thinks the United States should provide the, you know, huge bomb, 30,000 lb bomb, um, to kind of get into that nuclear site that's under a mountain. Um, so I didn't agree with her on a lot. Uh, but I did take one small thing she said as an opportunity to add to it. So, let's take a look at L2, the JV team in in historically weakened. That's why suddenly you're seeing them take advantage of something that when I was at the White House back, this is 2010 and 11, Israel had been planning attacks back then. They've planned this for years and years. 33 year war in the making. I mean Netanyahu has been saying that Iran is on the precipice of having a nuclear weapon like 33 years ago. This is 33 years, Kate. 33 years away from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We must invade Iran. We have to have, you know, regime change. Like just she she annoyed me, right? because she's like, "Oh, I wouldn't have been in favor of striking Iran's nuclear sites before, but I'm in favor now." And it's like, "Okay, but what changed that they're in they're enriching more uranium." Okay, but can you blame them considering the fact that like like why would you abide by a nuclear deal that doesn't exist, you know?
Yeah. So at the end you hear her I think in that clip say like well it's not like I know Netanyahu has been saying this for 30 years but now it's different because the IAEA is saying it and if if I'm not mistaken I'm sure she's she's probably referring to the report like a week ago where they said well Iran's not complying anymore and we think that they're enriching more uranium which is bad. Totally acknowledged bad. But then as we played literally earlier on the show today, one of the directors from the IAA is coming out and saying, "But we have literally zero confirmation that they're actually trying to make a bomb." So like she's not telling the full story there. And and there's also like there's I think there's confusion over the difference between enriching the uranium and actually making the physical bomb because you know yeah some of these reports say like yeah they could they could probably enrich enough uranium within days. Um which if you end it there like that sounds terrifying of course and it is but like to actually make the physical bomb then that's another months to years based on the estimates. So, like there's so much mis and I see it a lot because I watch a lot of mainstream media reports for this job and and you know just to get as much information as I can and there's like rarely clarification on the difference between actually enriching it and making the bomb.
Yeah, that's so true. And that that confusion is so frustrating because it does sound scary when you hear that they're days away from having enough of the enriched uranium to build the bomb. But you're right, the actual building of the bomb. I mean, Netanyahu himself slipped during that interview with Brett Bear and made it clear that no, they're not close to building the bomb. Like that's going to take a a year at least, but likely longer than that. I've seen some estimates of three years, but nonetheless, there was obviously still time for diplomacy. There was still time to get Iran to sign a nuclear deal. And guys, this is the biggest thing that I want to make sure you all push back on because it's just not true. Okay? The reason why Netanyahu struck anyway, he doesn't want a nuclear deal. He's always wanted regime change war in Iran. So I don't even believe that the nuclear weapons is really the motivating factor for what Israel is doing right now. I think ultimately regime change is and Netanyahu is look he's trying to like not be as clear but he's pretty clear about it. He's pretty clear about it. So the nuclear thing is just it's it's the same thing that happened with Iraq.
Look, whatever you think about Glenn Greenwald and all, look, if anyone has the right to be upset with Glenn Greenwald, it's me because he totally lied about me and like whatever the whole sexual harassment thing, I don't want to get back into it cuz that was a really dark time and it was awful. I don't care, okay? Because his reporting on war, foreign policy, he does good work. So, I've been watching him and he did something that I was hoping someone would do. I was thinking about doing it on our show, but he already did it. I'm not going to copy him. He brought back videos of George W. Bush and his speeches leading up to the war in Iraq. And it's just so similar, Kate. Like, it's insanely similar. Nuclear. Nuclear. What? How do I forget how he said it, but he he can't say nuclear? He would say nuclear. Whatever. Sounded like a total doofus. And same fear-mongering tactics. And obviously, there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction and uh we got our intel from Israel.
Okay. Uh let's keep going. So, let's actually do the last video here. I forget which one this is exactly, but let's have a little fun. It's um pretty disturbing that all it takes is this like weird competitive spirit that Trump has to uh egg him on to essentially potentially engage in an offensive war against Iran, which I actually think would be absolutely disastrous. Let's just all remember the fact that the United States uh joined forces with the Saudis to try to defeat the Houthis in Yemen and failed in doing so. The way that we discuss regime change wars in this country is absolutely ridiculous. Especially when you're talking about a country like Iran, which has far more military capability than Iraq did. Uh the terrain uh the the land mass of Iran is obviously a lot more uh challenging for the United States if we decide to make the mistake of engaging in this war.
All right, that was kind of boring actually because I I make those points on the show all the time. But again, being able to make it in that context that's on CNN, I think is is pretty cool. And I want people to think about the Houthies.
[Music] I'm actually a little bit Look, I'm I'm a little disturbed that we couldn't beat the Houthies. Like that's that's not a good sign if we go to war with Iran, but I don't know. And in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of people in Yemen died.
Oh my god. I know. There was famine in Yemen. It was a horrible, horrible war that I wish we actually weren't part of at all. Um, just terrible. So, and I remember in Trump's first term, there was a bipartisan resolution to pull out of Yemen and he just he ripped it up. He's like, "No, I'm not interested in veto." He vetoed it, which was so infuriating because at the time getting bipartisan anything other than, of course, defense spending was so difficult to do. I'm like, "Oh my god, you have Democrats and Republicans joining forces to pass this incredibly important resolution, but he vetoed it."
So anyway, I had a really good time. Um, I don't know if this is awkward, but I find Abby Phillip to be so beautiful and she's even prettier in real life. She's just stunning. So, like I just not to like fang girl, I love her show. She was like a very gracious host. It was a good time and I'm Look, I thought after I said the things I said, I'm probably never going to be invited back again. But um they loved me and to their credit the booker did. Abby told me she wants me to come back on soon. So hopefully that happens because I want to get our message out there. You know, I want to have conversations with people out of our own environment. And it's fun. It's fun. I I'm finally starting to remember what it was like to have political discussions and, you know, have fun with it because I'm being challenged or I'm hearing something that's different from what I already believe and I want to challenge it. Like, it's I like debate. Like, it's fun. So, we'll see what happens. But, any final thoughts, Kate?
No, except that um definitely support you going back and doing it again because it was fun to watch. Um, and the clips I saw a lot of people appreciating it cuz you just never hear this on mainstream media. It's so rare. You'll hear a lot of a lot of talking points and a lot of kind of milk toast, you know, people caring about it and, you know, they'll bring up the horrible things happening in Gaza, but they won't really get passionate about it. Um, and it's nice. It's refreshing to have, you know, our voice on a platform like that.
It is. It is. It felt good. It really did. Um, so obviously we'll let you guys know um if it happens again in the future. And uh that's it. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.