Bill cunning into Great America. Welcome this Thursday afternoon. The triesday Rech Baseball kicks off, shall we say, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They fortunately have a day off today on Thursday. We'll see what happens with the snakes over the weekend. They need to start winning some baseball games. But in the meantime, we have more important matters we concern ourselves, which is the state of the nation, especially when it
comes to anti Semitism, and so much more. As you know yours truly, about two and a half years ago, as part of a group that went to Israel, had a fabulous time. I considered it to be maybe my last trip outside of the country, and I had spent
time in the Palestinian controlled areas I went to. Of course, I spent time a little bit of time in Gaza, went to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and elsewhere, and I came away so impressed with what the Israeli people, the Jews, have done, starting about thirty five hundred years ago, but really beginning in nineteen forty eight, calls the desert to flower and have more respect than I had before. But nonetheless, Congressman Greg Lansman is one of our own congressmen. I think
I think I think you're my congressman. I'm not sure I voted for you. Maybe the next time I will. But nonetheless, Greg Lansman, I don't know if you want my vote, but welcome to the bill cunning in your vot.
Sure.
One thing that really impressed me is your comments might have been to the inquiry or elsewhere about when you're in public, you have your eyes on a swivel, and you think you're going to be assassinated. Can you put tell us what's going on with Greg Lansman, not as a politician, as a father and a husband.
Yeah, I mean, I first of all, I think a lot of people feel this way, So I'm not I'm not unique, right, and and and this goes beyond the Jews community. We're just living in very unsettling times in that regard.
Uh.
You know, look what happened to or almost happened to President Trump last summer. This is this is a highly charged political environment a b for Jewish you know, Americans and and particularly members of Congress. You know, we're seeing a ton of very vitual anti Semitic hate on our on our social media pages, and people come and protest me. Uh if they know I'm in public. It's almost every time. And and and they slept outside my house for for
three days. They wouldn't leave. And you know, they show up and they're fully masked and and and their dress had to tell them black uh. And and you know they're saying, you know, I'm a I'm a war criminal, and that I'm part of this genocide. And and you know I've been in target the parking lot, uh, you know, out with my kids and have you had a guy his wife had to pull him away from me. Uh and he said, you know you're going to pay for this.
Uh.
And so there's that threat. Is And I was on Fountain Square a couple of days before Sarah and your own were shot and murdered in DC. They're the two embassy staffers, Israelly Embassy staffers that were shot killed up here. A couple of days before that. I was on Fountain Square and I had decided not to have police protection
just because it wasn't my event. And I had this I couldn't see behind me, and all of a sudden, I had this really vivid image of being shot and there My body was on the you know, on the on the ground, and I was immediately dead. And it's an image I haven't gotten out of my head since. And then a few days later, it's what happened to your own He was shot, immediately killed. And then Sarah. I don't know if you saw this, but based on the police reports, she had tried to crawl away. She
was trying to crawl away. He just opened fire on her. And you know, it's entirely because they're Jewish, uh. And you know, there's a in anti Semitism, there is this history of blood libel, which is that we you know, some lie about us, you know, intentionally demonically killing innocent people, right, And that's been in play for the last eighteen months.
And and and then there's this other part of anti Semitism called dual loyalty, where people just assume that we can't be uh, you know, we're biased because we're so loyal to to Israel and and and and there. He just gets so complicated and awful and violent very quickly.
And you know, reason has no no place. It's rage. It's unspeakable. I look at Governor Josh Shapiro, who's uh, he has a life. He's got a wife, he's the governor of Pennsylvania. He's got children. He lives in the governor's mansion. Somehow somebody made it over a fence and fire bombed is home and his kids are upstairs smelling the smoke. And it's something in DC and Sarah's case. The assassin, the murderer who looked for Jews to kill.
She was crawling away in blood. He reloaded and shot her up to six or seven more times in the back. Ye in Boulder, Colorado, This crazy anti Semite Hamas supporting criminal wanted to burn and he did burn up to fourteen people with this Molotov cocktail and a flamethrower. I'm looking at that. I'm looking at what's happening on college campuses. We can I don't think you're a great Trump supporter,
but I am. But he's on the right track when he tries to tell colleges universities, you can't have anti Semites and pro Hamas supporters taking over college facilities, disrupting classes and making it impossible for Jewish students to go to school. And we can argue and debate whether or not the credit accreditation should be taken away, or no foreign students should be allowed. But the separate matter is it is not safe to be a Jew anywhere. In fact,
I would think as a Jewish coin. I'll give you a little story a congressman about ten fifteen years ago, Congressman Jeanie Schmidt, whoever she showed up in public, there was somebody assigned for, she thinks in the DNC, which would follow her with a smartphone to record everything she does. And she was I won't stay scared. But she couldn't go anywhere without being tracked. And that was for political purposes to have her say something that might be perceived
as being stupid politically to be used. But this is of a different category. You ever reasoned a fear of being shot because of your faith and you and your non support I guess for Hamas. And so I also would point out that if somebody would call this weekend for a day of rage, the mobs would show up at Washington Park, the six hundred strong from river to the sea. Palestine must be free, which means kill all
the Jews, whoever they might be located. That is again, I could not imagine Congressman if there were five hundred to one thousand Neo Nazis showing up in Washington Park saying using the N word in some way that there wouldn't be some stronger reaction. Is there a government? Is there government that can stop some of this or not?
You know, it's a great question. I mean, I think it gets that the difference between free speech, what's protected speech, and what's not. And when the neo Nazis showed up near Lincoln Heights, I said, look, not all speech is protected. You're not just you can't just show up and say whatever you want. I mean, for example, we all know that you can't run into you know, you can't go into a movie theater and scream fire. Right, there are things that will hurt people, that incite fear or violence,
and those that's not protected speech. And so yes, I do think that that elected officials need to appreciate that there's free speech and there's protests, but there's also hate speech and chaos. And if you believe that something is veering into you know, from protests to chaos, or from free speech to hate speech and violent speech or speech that will incite violence or unrest or you know, infringe
upon the rights of others. You have to engage. You have to engage, and you can do it thoughtfully and you can and you can talk to lawyers and all these things, but you've got to go and engage and say you can't do that. And so like when people are outside my house, I said, look, this isn't all protected speech, and you know, and then those folks, you know, some of them think, you know, I am trying to,
you know, end the suffering. I'm of course, that is a normal human reaction to seeing the pain and suffering of war. But they're could be one or two people. It only takes one who is not well. And it's hearing that I'm more criminal and they have a weapon, and it's like they're you know now they're like, oh, well, I'm justified. This is a war criminal. This is a person who's participating in genocide. But you know, and so it's very dangerous and I do think that people have
to appreciate that. You can say to folks, look, you can protest, but you got to get a permit, you got to do it over here, you got to do it in these designated areas, and here are the things that we are looking for that will suggest to us that this is not protected speech. And I don't know why that's so hard. When when college campuses told their students, look, you can protest, but you can't cause chaos. You can do free speech, but you can't do hate violent speech,
they were fine. What Columbia did was to say no, no, do whatever you want, and that was chaos and you can't do that. It's just, you know, it's it puts people in danger and it makes you look like you can't run an organization.
Have you reconsidered public service after these incidents? Have you thought, you know what, I'd rather be a live husband and father than a dead former representative because if this continues, I can't imagine what occurs if the IDF or others attack Iran, which I think is given at some point, you have to take out a deaficult committed to the destruction of Israel that has said hundreds of missiles already
from Iran into Israel. Some hit, most didn't. And when that happens, then all hell is going to break loose again. Have you considered public service? Reconsidered?
No? I have a deep, deep faith. I mean, you know, my jusness is a big part of my identity. You know, that's the connect my community, that's my family, that's that's who I am, and say who God made me. My faith is, you know, is bigger and it it includes my understanding that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. That that yes, it makes things more dangerous for me to speak out and to be as vocal about this.
But I have this platform and my goal is to help folks better understand like if you want to, if you want to, you know, protest the world. Obviously, you know that's a normal human reaction. Sure, here are here are the things that are that that would bear into anti semitism. I have this platform. I should use it and I should stick around. I think, not be afraid, keep my head on a swivel to be sure, but to stick around and try to get as much good
done as humanly possible. And I can't get deterred by the fact that, yes, somebody may do something horrible, but that that you know, that could happen no matter what. And either way, I think this work matters. I think public service matters.
Are you do you counsel with AOC and the radical elements of the Liberal Democratic Party, the squad so to speak. They have the democratic banners, but they don't think like you think when it comes to anti semitism. I won't
say it's encouraged, but it's not criticized. The idea of Hamas chapters being on major college campus is the idea the Jews are gunned down in the streets of the nation's capital, set on fire and Boulder, Colorado, that the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania's home is firebombed, and you, the radical left in your party tends not to see that as serious anti semitism, and they quickly go, but what
about is? What about that? What about this? Have you counseled with AOC and others to say, tell me those conversations?
Well, I mean she, she and I surround a committee together, so we have you know, we have a good chunk of time each week. Uh and and and you know, I'm an honest guy. I want to have these conversations. There there have been times where she has tweeted something or said something where I've just pulled her aside and said, like, I'm not I don't want to get into a Twitter fight. That's not that's not my personality. But let me tell you why that's so deeply disturbing. And the conversations have
been good. She you know, she listens. You know, I hope things we've made some progress. But what I've tried to explain is that if you you, you can be critical of the policies of Israel. I mean, Israelis do that, and you you can say I hate this war, I hate this war. You can say all kinds of things. Let me just be because I want to be helpful.
Please don't please don't call genocide because you can say that this there's way too many innocent lives and and but you say genocide, genocide means that these folks are evil and that they're they're going out of their way to kill innocent people. That leads that that that leads to all kinds of violent behavior against Jews, the free Palestine. I understand. You may think, oh, I get that sounds like oh that you know we want to make sure that Palestinians are free. Listen, I do too. I want
I want Hamas out of there. I want Palestinians to be able to run their own lives, to live free from fear and violence. So do most Israelis. All it, I mean almost all Israelis. But when you say free Palestine, Palestine suggests that that's Israel, that means get the Jews out. And when you say global Intofauna, or or you're at a rally when someone says that the Intofada included wasn't all about it, but it included suicide bombings and killing in the killing of Jews. And if you want to
globalize that that means that we're going to die. And so I you know, I do think I make some progress. But you know, the Internet has this this pull on people and they they they there's so many people on the Internet, on these social media platforms that want, you know, some of their folks to say you have to say that you've got to stand in solidarity. And I think there is this urge to stand in solidarity with people who are suffering. And I'm there, you know, in terms
of the suffering part. But I do I do think that talking directly to these folks that I have done is the best way. I don't I don't think of online Twitter battle. I do think I'm making some progress, but you know, even my staff kind of rolls their eyes sometimes and say, well, you're not gonna make as much progress as you think. But I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try now the social media stuff because I don't I don't want to, I I do think.
You know, Trump has this good relationship with these big tech CEOs, and so much the proliferation of anti Semitism and the violent stuff is on these platforms, and so you know, I had been asking the administration. I'll do it more formally next week with a letter and some phone calls to just say, hey, can you can you talk to these CEOs about a coordinated effort to crack down on the violent anti Semitic rhetoric that you see on these platforms.
You know, Trump's Trump is the only president ever to have numerous Jewish grandchildren, and he loves them dearly. Lastly, I would say this Hamas doesn't want to surrender. They've lost the war. But they've said and cut her and elsewhere that they use the living bodies of men, women and children who live in Gaza as a weapon for public relations against the Jews, because instead of surrendering and saying here's the hostages, we lost you one put down
our arms, they don't want that. They want more Palestinians killed. They want Palestinian children to starve to death. If you're with Hamas, it fits some political purpose and that's not gonna change because they're in a blood lust against Jews, irrespective effects.
So it's really you know, Hamas and Hesbela are different. They're both funded by Iron. Hamas is in Gaza and Southern is you know, in the southern part of Israel. Hesbela is north in Lebanon. When when they when they Israel approaches both almost identically, which is when they are trying to go after hes Below terrorists or their munition, you know, dumps or whatever. And the same with Hamas.
They they put out messages to civilians, Hey, this is where we're targeting, please leave, you know, you know twenty four hours. The difference is Hesbela lets people leave, and so the war and you know against Hesbela has been incredibly successful with very little civilian casualty casualties because Hasbilus
is different. Hasbulus is fine, Yeah, they can leave. Hamas won't let them leave, and Israel still waits and tries to do everything they can to get these frosts out, and sometimes they decide not to target those places because there's too many civilians. But that's the difference. Hams is the difference. Look at what's happening and Lebanon and you will see the very a very different situation because Hasbil is different than.
Hamas Greg Lansman, we got a run. But I'll stand with Israel one thousand percent at civilization against the barbarism and I get it. And Greg Lansman, once again, thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show and Congress. We'll do it again. God bless you, thank you. Let's continue with more news. Is next your home of the Reds News Radio seven hundred WW