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We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints dot com. Very excited now to be joined by friend of the show, Glenn Greenwall, to talk about the media environment and how it may resemble the war in Iraq. To Glenn, of course, was one of the people fighting against the administration exposing the truth there at the time,
and so can see a lot of these parallels. Glenn, one of the things we wanted to start with here is your observation about how the US media organizations are used as tools of Israel and the US intelligence community. Let's go and put this up there on the screen as you note we have two side by side stories yesterday. One is Iran is eager to negotiate with the US and Israel to end the war, but CNN says Iran refuses to negotiate while under attack until his retaliation against
Israel is completed. As you say, disinformation is always a weapon of war and lets people believe what they want. So, given your experience now covering so much of these psyops and others by the intelligence community by various foreign governments, what can we tell the audience about the warnings for how to navigate this very difficult information environment.
Yeah, I mean, I think usually now people are trained to understand that if they're getting some claim that is laundered through the media from anonymous sources, that it's often necessary to apply skepticism to it. People have warned that lesson Well, but when it comes time to war, especially when the governments are selling wars to people, when they're attempting to scare them into supporting a war, skepticism is
almost not even enough. You have to kind of begin by disbelieving what it is you're being told, knowing how often almost automatically disinformation is deliberately deployed. So it is a weapon of war. It's something that every government at war does. And we've seen over and over that our corporate media is not just incapable of guarding against it, but eager to participate in its dissemination. And that's the reason we've been deceived so many times into wars.
And so you have to look.
Back at history to get a guide for how to navigate what you're seeing currently.
Yeah, I mean, the number of conflicting reports that come out. I mean, even if you like, outside of this administration, the number of reports we got from Barock revied about how Biden was super super mad at Netnyahoo and then Trump comes into office and he's also super super mad.
At net Yahoo.
And you know, I think to your point, especially when you have the Trump administration just admitting that they lied to the Iranians, the American people, to the world about their intent to go forward with negotiations as a ruse to create an element of surprise for these Israeli attacks. Whatever credence you were giving them previously has to be completely thrown out the window at this point.
Yeah, you know, even there, I mean, that is what the United States is claiming. That is what Donald Trump is claiming, because I do believe that's what happened.
I do believe, at least recently, that the.
US was negotiating with Iran and leading them to believe that they still wanted a diplomatic solution as a way of getting Iran to believe no attack was coming to let the Israelis in the US attack them with surprise.
But it's not.
But let's assume that isn't the case.
Let's assume that what happened was what they made to look like what happened, which is that the US was saying, no, don't do this, and then Israel went and did it anyway, meaning defy Trump's orders, humiliated the United States, humiliated Donald Trump by ruining his diplomatic attempts after he told Israel not.
To do it.
Even then, what would Trump do. He wouldn't stand up and admit that net Yahu humiliated him. They would probably have an interest US officials would in pretending that Trump was in on that plan all along, that he wasn't surprised by it, or defied that this was actually Trump's war. And he's been speaking that way all the time, And I think I'm so glad you mentioned Barrock reviieve because he's such a perfect example of the kind of skepticism that we ought to have. This is a person who's
an Israeli citizen. He was in the Idea Reserves until twenty twenty three. He worked in their most notorious intelligent unit, and he has become basically the go to reporter for understanding us is really relations because he just takes whatever he's told to write down from both governments and goes and prints it completely uncritically. And he won the White House Journalism Award for doing so, which reflects the kind of stenographic function that they continue to see themselves in,
especially when it comes to foreign policy and wards. They don't question the government. They're there to publish what they're told and to stand on the side of the government. And that's what makes this combination of politics and media propaganda so potent and so dangerous.
Well, it's actually kind of a useful function if you know that's what he's doing. It's actually usefully Okay, Well, this is what they want us to believe.
This is what they're trying to sell to the public.
But it has to be read through that particular lens before we transition to talking about some of the Iraq War parallels and like lessons learned from that era, because some of the similarities are really really You talked about President Trump like trying and you know, people trying to scare us into war.
This is scaring me, but not in the direction of war.
He posted this long text that he got from Mike Huckabee, who is this, you know, evangelical End Times believer who also happens to be r US Ambassador to Israel. And so Trump posted on true Social this what they describe as a powerful message that he received from Mike Huckabee that reads, mister President, God spared you in Butler, Pennsylvania to be the most consequential president in a century, maybe ever. The decisions on your shouldiers shoulders I would not want
to be made by anyone else. You have many voices speaking to you, sir, but there is only one.
Voice that matters. His voice.
I am your appointed servant in this land, and I am available for you. But I do not try to get in your presence often because I trust your instincts. No president in my lifetime has been in a position like yours, not since Truman in nineteen forty five. I don't reach out to persuade you, only to encourage you. I believe you will hear from heaven, and that voice
is far more important than mine or anyone else's. You sent me to Israel to be your eyes, ears, and voice and make sure our flag flies above our embassy. My job is to be the last one to leave. I will not abandon this post. Our flag will not come down. You did not seek this moment. This moment sought you. It as my honor to serve you. Your thoughts about that.
Well, it's not just alarming that Hackabee wrote that, but that Trump took it and himself published it because Trump clearly believes it to be true. You know, I heard from a lot of people that everybody, I think, assume that Trump's marching around as some sort of evangelical Christian
for most of his political career was a ruse. But I heard from a lot of people who know Trump very well that, especially after that assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, which admittedly, you know, was something that I think would transform anybody coming that close to death but avoiding it, that he really did become convinced that there was some divine intervention that saved him for a reason, and it's so ironic that we're hearing that the reason Ron is
own dangerous is because they're a theocratic regime that doesn't care about anything other than the belief that God is telling them what to do.
When that not.
Only obviously effects in shapes Israel's foreign Paul, but I think it's shaping Donald Trump's as well. And I think what it's really alarming is if you look at what Trump has been saying the last twenty four to forty eight hours, he's clearly trying to at least send the signal, whether it's to Ron or Israel or to whomever, that he is about to do something of historic proportions, which is what bb net Yahoo thinks about himself as well.
They're both people in their mid to eight seventies, which is when they start thinking about how their thought of once they're dead, not what the rest of us have to deal with as a result of their decisions. And I think the kind of mindset that they're in now, as evidence by Trump posting that Huckabee email, is one that is genuinely alarming and dangerous. And I say that as somebody who's not typically alarmed moved.
No, you're absolutely right, Glenn.
And you know what really strikes me with the Bush parallel and Iraq, this is a good transition. Is one of the things that really struck me in reading a lot about Bush is he really believed that he'd been saved from addiction and like put on this earth and sent to the White House to save the United States during nine to eleven. And that really was a huge impact on why he decided to go into the war
in Iraq. And so, you know, bringing this like full circle is not only that the media aspect here, but what drives me crazy, and I'm sure it must do as well, is we have the same actors in the literally the same people who led us into the war in Iraq now really repeating so many of the same things we had Ari Fleischer talking about Tucker Carlson and hey, this is the guy who lied from the White House
podium about weapons of mass destruction. Glenn Beck, who was on television talking about how America would be greeted as liberators. He apologized in twenty fourteen, But you know, Glenn, he's back now to actually saying actually, this time around, they're going to be greeted as liberators.
Let's take a listen to that and we'll get your reaction.
Has Israel asked us to fight their war?
Answer?
No, is this another Iraq or is it something entirely different? Well, let me tell you what makes this moment unlike anything else we have faced before. First, this was not a call to war. This was not a land invasion. This is not a campaign to Toppola regime and then sit around for twenty years trying to rebuild a culture that doesn't want what we have. Even though Iran, the Iranian people are good people, the Persians are great people, and they do want a life like ours. But this was targeted.
This was surgical. This was preemptive, not against an idea, not against a guess, against the very real, very stated intentions of a regime run by men who do not think like we think. Okay, they do not want what we want. We choose life, They literally choose death. These are twelvevers. They are followers of a branch of Sied Islam that believes not just in the return of the messianic figure called the Mahadi, but also that is return
can and must be. In their words, hastened or accelerated, And the only way to do that is to quote using their words, wah, the world in blood. Okay, I think I'm out at that. You know, that's the first stop on the train, and I'm like, I'm gonna get off here please.
They hate our way of life there they choose I mean, this is three This is the same thing. You could probably copy and paste that and except this time they're different because they're Persian, which by the way, is very racist against Arabs.
But it's like, what are we doing here, Gwen?
Also, isn't it kind of ironic that we're supposed to be scared of Arod because they have a Messionic religious belief and like a third of the Congress wants to arm and support Israel no matter what because of their Messionic view that doing so is necessarily for the return of Jesus, Who's then gonna send all Jews and other believers to help. But that's a little detail that Israel as a mind because they don't actually believe that, and
they're happy for the support. But you know, Sagar, the thing is like the comparison with Iran with the Rock route there, despite it not being planned originally as a regime chain or a ground of asion. Is so obvious, right, Like we're being told the reason we have to start this war, which is a war that the United States
and Israel started, not wrong. It is because they were developing extremely dangerous new grow weapon, and they're so psychotic and dictatorial and unhinged that we can't allow them to have a new core weapon, which is exactly how the war in I Rock was justified. And I honestly did. Of course I knew that from the start. When you go back and look at the speeches and you see that the exact same people are uttering the exact same phrases, it's not even an attempt to modify the script a
little bit, you know. Just as one example, George Bush's big speech in October, in October and September seventh, rather than two thousand and two and in Cincinnati was yes, we can't give you proof that Iraq has newcre weapons, but you don't want the smoking gun to be in the form of a mushroom cloud over your city.
Ted Cruz went on.
Fox News and said exactly the same thing when asked about proof that Iran has new weapons. And this is what's scary is a week ago, every MAGA person, basically every person, if you showed them. Look, Israel has been saying for thirty years that Iran is a week away or a month away or a year away from newcre weapons,
and it never turned out to be true. Would say, yeah, we're not going to fall for that again the bombs start dropping, Trump's involved, everybody wants to cheer for it, and so you just get them on.
A silver potter.
This obviously bullshit excuse, which is that Iran has an active nucro weapons program, which Tolsey Gabert herself set three months ago, is the consensus of the intelligence community is untrue. And now it's just the assumption within every media discussion that Iron is pursuing newcrow weapons And the only question is do you want to go to word to stop them or do you want to let.
Them have it.
It's mind blowing how propaganda works, even if it's identical to the one that twenty five years ago we all watch proved to be completely disgraced and de bonked.
That is absolutely right.
And you know another person who was at the scene of the crime last time as well, Baby Natan Yahoo here's a little flashback to the case he was making at the time, and this.
Is a tyrant who is feverishly trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and today the United States must destroy the same regime because a nuclear arms Saddam will place the security of our entire world at risks. Is simply.
Not reflecting the reality to assume that Saddam isn't feverishly working to develop nuclear weapons as if you take out Saddam Saddam's regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region. Principles of real estate the three l's, location, location, location, The three principles of winning the War on Terror are the three w's, winning, winning, and winning. The more victories you amass, the easier the
next victory becomes. The first victory in Afghanistan makes a second victory in Iraq that much easier. The second victory in Iraq will make the third victory that much being less than dismantling his regime will do.
If you take out Saddam, I guarantee you it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region because he's feverishly working to develop nuclear weapons.
You know, I think there's so many interesting parts to that testimony that you show that even though just those excerpts that I think are self evident. But you notice at the end too, he said, the more you win, the easier the wins become. So the first one in Afghanistan will make the second win in Iraq all the easier. And then of course we didn't win in either, and then he said that second win will make the third win easier. Still, what did he mean by the third win?
NEO cons at that point and into two thousand and three and four were very open about the fact that they didn't want to stop at Baghdad. You know, there was that phrase that was leaked by Karl Rove or somebody like that, Paul Wolfowood saying, real men go to Tehran. The plan always was was to go top Wol Sadam and then go get regime change in Iran. And I think that's the other point that we have to be so aware of. Glenn Back said, this time it's not
about regime change. Why are they bombing Tehran? Then there are no nuclear facilities in Tehran. Why did Trump order sixteen million people to evacuate Tehran, and so they're going to destroy Tehran where there's no nuclear facilities there either. It's because this is a regime change where they want to change the regime of Iran. They want to turn it into Syria where they just have a collapse in
the central government. All these factions being backed by the CIA and the massade trying to take over Iran where at the very least rendering Iran impudent and letting Israel control the entire Middle East and therefore the United States as well. That is the real goal of everything that
they're doing. And so maybe it'll end quickly if Trump drops you know, the biggest problems we have on every population center, or maybe it'll lead to troops having to be activated if roon attacks are troops in responseive oil facility. You don't know once you and lisha war like this what the results are going to be. And that was what we learned from a rack, and we were told it would take two weeks to.
Get rid of Saddam. Is you know, Glenn, this is my final question here. I think they've won.
I think the neocons have won, and I do I mean, look, I could be totally wrong. There could be some last minted thing, but I do think the US is going to get offensively involved. At this point, I have very very little hope, So I do know that at least something is going to happen. Fortyh order consequences always do, and the neocons are going to run away from that.
And since we were somehow unsuccessful in holding them to account over the last twenty five years, what can we do differently to hold these people to account and actually tie them to their decisions or is that just structurally impossible here in Washington, DC.
That was the other thing that I really struck me saga as we prepared our own show last night, going through these two two and two thousand and three interviews. The people who went on television and just hold out right lives and the most assertive authoritative for impossible, none of them had their careers even remotely impeded, lit alone destoryed. In fact, they all continue to thrive to this very day. There's still the ones making the decisions, there's still the ones in charge.
And one of the.
Things that I thought would at least be promising this time was that there's this big section of MAGA that would turn against Trump if he actually got the the country involved in a major war with Iran on behalf of Israel, and you're already saying, like, one of the reasons Trump came out yesterday and publicly scorned and humiliated Tucker Carlson was it was a message to everybody, Look, if you even think about raising your voice against me, you will be out. We're going to exclude you from BAKA.
You will no, I'm going to be welcome with the White House. You'll have no influence. It was a way of keeping them all into line. And you're already seeing many of them who had been saying don't go to war with Iran or it's going to riud your presidency snapping into line and saying, you know what, I trust President Trump. I'm sure he's going to do the right thing. We need to get rid of this regime. And I don't see any hope of that happening.
Yes, unfortunately, Charlie Kirk last night goes on and oh, I trust President Trump.
He was made for this moment. I'm sure it's going to all work out great.
Yeah, I mean, and very few people like Tucker has his own you know, bas of support and is independent whatever. There are very few people in the right wing ecosystem who can exist outside of just like Trump support. So yeah, they're gonna they're gonna take that message in Glenn, thank you so much. You've been doing incredible work here. I also would love for people we were originally booked you to talk about Palenteer. You got to still do that in the future.
You got to come back. They matter. Hey, business is going to boom for them.
Okay, all right, all my natures here in Virginia, they're all about to get filthy rich, so I guess we can all be.
They also sponsored that great military parade over the weekend too, So thanks are thanks are things are looking good for them and Locky an the others.
Yep, all right, Glenn, great to see you.
Take care, Great to see you guys.
Bye.
So we've been covering here. Outside of the potential war with a Ron, there are a couple other stories that we've been covering. One of them is the assassination of this Minnesota state Democratic lawmaker and the attempted assassination of another Minnesota state Democratic lawmaker. The suspect has now been
apprehended after a multi day manhunt. More on that in a moment when I go ahead and show you, this is the acting US Attorney Thompson detailing some of the events that unfolded, some quite extureder information here.
Let's go out and take a listen.
After shooting Senator Hoffman and his wife, Belter traveled to the home of another Minnesota state representative in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Video surveillance showed that Belter rang the doorbell at the state representative's house at approximately two twenty four am on Friday night. Again, he was dressed as a law enforcement officer, wearing a tactical vest and body armor, carrying a handgun and a flashlight, and wearing that same hyper realistic silicon mask.
The images, as you can see on the screen are haunting. Unfortunately, the state representative was not home. She and her family were gone on vacation, and so Belter left. Belter then traveled to the home of a Minnesota state senator who lived in New Hope, Minnesota. He parked in the street in that same black SUV with the police license plate
at about two thirty six am on Friday night. After learning of the shooting of Senator Hoffman, New Hope police dispatched an officer to conduct a wellness check on the state senator who lived in New Hope. When the New Hope officer arrived at the scene, she saw Belter's black SUV parked down the block with the lights on. The New Hople police officer believed that Belter was a police officer who had been dispatched to the scene to check
on the staff of the state senator. The New Whole police officer pulled up next to Belter in his car, rolled down her window, and attempted to speak with him. Belter did not respond, according to the officer, he just sat there and stared straight ahead. So the New Whole police officer, who had been dispatched to the scene, proceeded to the state senator's home and she waited for other law enforcement to arrive. When they did. By the time they did, Belter had left the scene.
Belcher had tried to kill four different Minnesota state Democratic lawhankers and at one of them. So the police officer shows up to do a wellness check because this guy's on the loose and they're getting the idea of like always targeting state elected officials. So let's go to all the ones that are you know, in the vicinity.
So she shows up.
She sees him park down the street because he's in this fake cop car, pulls up next to him, thinking this is some law enforcement backup for you know, to assist her. He just sits there, stare straight ahead, doesn't say anything. She leaves him alone and goes and performs this check, giving him the opportunity to escape and then go to the next lawmaker's home, and I believe it's that home where he's able to actually shoot and kill
this lawmaker and her husband. At that time, they the law enforcement, they go on to say, shows up there at that house where he's able to actually assassinate this lawmaker. They exchange fire with him, and he's able to flee
on foot, leading to this again multi day manhunt. So I think there are, to put it generously, a lot of questions for the way that law enforcement handled all of this and how this was allowed to unfold when they had him right there and he's able not only to escape, but he's able to go on and commit this murder, and then they have him there and he's able to get away on foot. The way they're able to capture him when can put you two up on the screen. There was a local woman who actually saw him.
He was captured very close to his home, and she saw him crawling in the grass around her property and alerted law enforcement that she thought this was him. At first, she thought it was actually the cops looking for him, and then she realized, like, no, I think that is actually the guy. An alerted law enforcement. They're very able to use drones to track him down. They found him crawling through some underbush and some bushes and were able
to apprehend him. There's some other really troubling and eyebrow raising details in a Wall Street Journal report as well. Can put this next piece up on the screen. So Belter's wife was actually stopped near a convenience store about seventy miles north of the shootings. She had two guns, ten thousand dollars in cash, and passports for herself and her children in her car, a courney to federal court records.
Apparently she had received.
A text another fan only members as well from Belter at six eighteen am saying quote, Dad went to war last night.
Courty Federal court documents.
He also texted his wife to apologize, saying there's going to be some people coming to the house armed and trigger happy, and I don't want you guys around, according to messages quoted in court filings, and presumably that's what caused her to flee with firearms herself and ten thousand dollars in cash, cash and her kids and the passports Belter had. It was initially described as a manifesto with him.
Later details that have been revealed it wasn't so much of an explanation of what his motives were of He had a notebook with a list of targets, some sixty lawmakers throughout I think all Democratic lawmakers throughout not only Minnesota but some of the surrounding states. Tim Walls, ilhan Omar were the senators. They were all on the list, along with a number of Planned Parenthood both locations, and
pro choice activists. So we don't know, but it seems like one of the motivations may have been or the motivation may have been like anti abortion zelotry the last piece here. There have been a lot of discussion online about what his motivation was. The Right decided, based on like literally nothing, that he must be a left winger. So just so everybody's clear on how the people who know him describe his political affiliation. This is a guy
who's described as his best friend and actually roommate. Apparently he lived with his wife in this house, but then also had a roommate situation another place, and that was, you know, where this guy was who still considers him to be his best friend, talking about how he would be offended if people thought he was a Democrat and then he was actually like an Alex Jones info warst watcher.
Let's go ahead and take a listen to that.
Well, everyone's calling him a democrat.
Inside he would be offended if people called him a democrat like Jim Jim I did, Tim Howks. But what you said that, man, Well, I mean nothing for me. I mean it's just normal. Well, I don't like this that timwol did this. I don't like that day he did that.
Well you you listen to info words in Wars, but.
I kind of toil it said, well, it's.
Like fifty percent truth. And I was a Trump supporter, voted for Trump.
If you like Trump, I like Trump.
So there you go. That's what his roommate had to say.
Sober and obviously, I mean the story is important and of itself, and also comes amid a climate of rising political violence. We saw the president himself, you know, attempted assassinations against him, and yeah, there's a concern that this just becomes sort of like part of the background noise of American policy.
And the plot, the plot of it is nuts.
It's also just, I mean, his behavior obviously psychotic, regardless of his political motivations, is like pretty clear.
Lot of weird shit going on with this guy. Because he's married, he has a roommate. It's like, what's going on.
He's sending these weird text messages, he's gearing up, and police gears seems to have had all this crazy stuff.
It's something like private security.
We had a private security.
Was also evangelical minister ministering in Africa.
Check after check of psycho.
And then also apparently recent financial distress.
Right, so all the ingredients, I guess are there. He's been indicted by the FEDS in terms for political assassinations, so I'm sure that a lot more motivation and all that will come out with him. But obviously it's horrific and it's terrifying, and really what it does is just it makes people afraid, especially in the public, you know, to go out spent a time like this, this is
a time possibly of war. This is you know something Tucker and Steve we're talking about yesterday, is like when when it's time of war and you dissent, you're a trader. And I'm not trying to just link the two, but what I'm trying to say is when the tension in the heat gets turned up all the way and you really, I mean, this goes out of the conceptual and perhaps so if it's a pro life thing, it's analogous in
that way. It's like, if you believe it's life or death, then some people are going to take it that way, right, I mean, if.
You think this is the literal like genocide of babies, right told his wife dad went to war like he sees himself as a righteous figure in this right.
And if we're involved, you know, you could see very similar types of things or you know, very similar ideology and.
All that pervade.
So let's just stand against it and look at the very least, you know, the Trump administment, despite early attempts to say he was a right winger or a left winger or whatever, at the least the FBI and the dj are throwing the book at him for right now.
Yeah, and that's a good sign.
Yeah, absolutely, all right.
We've got the Attorney General of California standing by Sagastranto appointments that I'm going to conduct this interview but have a lot of questions for him about this lawsuit against the Trump administration with regard to federalizing the National Guard. Hearings happened to happen today, so let's go ahead and get to that.
So, as I was just.
Mentioning, there is are hearings today in the state of California's ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration over their decision to federalize National Guard troops and also to call up active duty marines, some several hundred to respond to protest activity in and around LA. Can go ahead and put this tear sheet up on the screen. Appeals Court has temporarily blocked the initial Federal District Court judges ruling to return control of National Guard to California, joining us now
to discuss. We're very fortunate to have the Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta.
Welcome, sir, Thanks for having me. Great to be with you.
So if you could just bring our audience a little bit up to speed on this lawsuit and what is the basis for this action.
Absolutely, as we know, last the weekend before this past one, we saw National Guard troops be brought into Los Angeles by President Trump. When they arrived on Sunday morning, it was to quiet streets. We believe that there it was inappropriate for him to deploy military to Los Angeles. The governor and the Sheriff's Department, LA Police Department, and mutual aid agencies in the surrounding areas had everything under control.
And the President has invoked a statute which requires the presence of a rebellion or an invasion, or the inability to execute the federal law to be able to deploy the National Guard. None of those things exist, and it's just defies credulity to suggest that they do it. Also, the law also requires the cooperation and consent of the
governor to deploy the National Guard. So the circumstances that are required for the President to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles weren't present, and we brought a lawsuit on the following Monday.
We brought a temporary restraining order.
The following Tuesday, and on that the Thursday following, we had an order from the.
Federal District Court judge that said two things.
One that the President violated the federal law and also violated the US Constitution, violating the states rights of the Great State of California, and he was ordered the President was ordered to return the control of the National Guard to Governor Newsom. The federal government appealed right away to the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit issued what's called an administrative stay. It's procedural while they review the merits. They are going to have a hearing today at noon to
consider those merits. It's all on shortened time. It's being done quickly because of the urgency of the matter and the harm that California faces.
So we're hoping for.
A positive ruling today. We believe we will prevail when we sue the Trump administration.
It's because we got the.
Receipts, we got the facts, we got the law, and we think we're going to win, and so we're hopeful for a favorable ruling today.
Do you expect this ultimately to end up at the Supreme Court, And if so, are you so of tailoring your arguments to think through how they could appeal to various of the conservative justices.
In particular, we always play the long game, and you know understand that the first decision might not be the last one.
That we do have a federal.
Court system that has an intermediate level of appellate review and then ultimately the US Supreme Court. Most cases don't get to the US Supreme Court, but this is one that may be of interest to them. Obviously, the state is watching, the nation is watching, the world is watching this issue of militarizing an American city when there's no basis for it and doing it over the objections of a governor and the mayor of that city. So this
one definitely could get to the US Supreme Court. We make our arguments based on what the facts in law are. We realize that different judges may review those arguments and balance them in different ways. But make the arguments that are appropriate, that that are compelling. And we've made them here to the district court judge and making them here to the Ninth Circuit, and we think they're going to
be compelling at both levels. And if it gets this case gets to the Supreme Court, we think our arguments will be very persuasive and compelling there as well.
So I read through the district courts ruling and you can correct my details on this if I don't get the legal intricacies precisely right. But one of the questions at hand here is whether there was a violation of the Possecommatatis Act, which prohibits using the military in most circumstances for domestic law enforcement. If we can put F
three up on the screen. So at the time of that ruling, the judge basically said, like, listen, we don't really have full information yet, we already have enough to say that this is the problem and we need to go ahead and side with the State of California without actually having all of the information with regard to whether or not there was a violation of Possecommatatis. Since then, we've seen this video come out showing what appears to
be active duty Marines making an arrest of a civilian. Here, my understanding is this was a man at us, actually veteran, who took a wrong turn in trying.
To get to a VA appointment.
What is your understanding of the way that both the National Guard and the Marines have been used on the ground since they have been you know, since they have been brought into the city of.
La Well, thank you.
You know, it's all evolving, and video like this is showing that evolution, and it's evolving exactly the way we feared and is prohibited by the law of the United States since the late eighteen hundreds, as you mentioned, that passcoma Tatis Act which prohibits and prevents the US military from engaging in civilian law enforcement on American soil. And that means that the military of the Marines here cannot
participate in searches and seizures and detentions and arrests. And if that is what it seems to be, the detention and or arrest of a pavilion by the Marines, that seems to be squarely in violation of the Posse Comma Tatis Act.
So the Posse Commatatus Act is in full effect.
And the National Guard and the Marines are are our military entities that are not allowed to participate in.
Civilian law enforcement.
Are you are you outside of this the incident I just showed. Are you aware of other incidents where either the National Guard or the Marines have you know, have been involved in domestic law enforcement activities or making arrest those sorts of things.
There are some that we've seen, I've seen other video with with some examples. Uh Secretary hegseth Uh posted a a on social media, but what appeared to be Marines maybe National Guard out in the field so to speak with potentially an ICE agent was a little unclear what
he was trying to suggest. But we believe that the mission of both the National Guard and the Marines is to protect federal property, personnel, and functions, and that includes while protecting a federal building or while out in the field with ICE agents engaged in immigration enforcement, them being a necessary part of those operations and taking part in
detentions and arrests, sarches and seizures. And so you're right that the federal judge, Judge Briar punted for the time being on the Postcomatatus Act because the facts were not as clear or developed as he may have wanted to see, and he wanted to see what the Marines were going to be doing, what the National Guard we're going to
be doing. And we're seeing more of that now, so that record is getting more clear, and it's getting clear in a way that is, I think better for our argument, bad for America because the military is engaged in civilian law enforcement, which is prohibited.
Another thing that is a significant point that you raised, and I think that all Americans need to be aware of, is that the order that President Trump used to federalize the National Guard was not limited, either in time or in place. And in fact, since the federalizing of the National Guard in California and sending them into LA, he has escalated rhetoric about blue cities. In particular, I want to get your reaction, guys, this is f two to some of his recent comments in that regard.
I want them to focus on the cities because the cities are where you really have what's called sanctuary cities, and that's where the people are. I look at New York, I look at Chicago. I mean, you've got a really bad governor in Chicago and a bad mayor, but the governor is probably the worst of the country, Pritzker. But I look at how that city has been overrun by criminals. And you know New York and LA. Look at La La.
Those people weren't from LA, they weren't from California. Most of those people any of those people, And yeah, that's that's the focus. Biden allowed twenty one million people to come into our country. Of that, vast numbers of those people were murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails, the empty their jails out into the US. Most of those people are in the cities, all blue cities, all Democrat run cities, and they think they're going to use them to vote.
It's not going to happen.
What is your reaction to his assertions there?
My god, I mean, there's so much in there.
You know, it's so shameless, so embarrassing, so divorced from the facts, and all just rageously politicized, and you know, just he just.
Makes it up as he talks. And you know, the.
Crime rates in California are much lower than many of the Red states, and you know, murder rates way higher many of the Red states, red cities. And you know, he's trying to portray a fiction and pawn it off of the American people as a truth when it's when it's clearly not, and you know, to it so blatantly attack blue city leaders and blue state leaders. You know, he's not a president for all America. He's wants to be president for half or less and wants to attack
transparently and vindictively everyone else in the Blue cities. He can't stand the fact that he got absolutely thrashed in the election by in California and that's too much, apparently for his fragile ego, so he needs to try to target California. It's just so inappropriate. That's not how leaders lead. It's it's it's it's sophomoric and juvenile. It's like a kid in the White House, unfortunately, but you know, so much lack of truth there. It's just hard to take
the man seriously, unfortunately. But it would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous and for him to act on, you know, this this political vengeance tour, this lack of facts to go after certain cities and states. You're right, the executive order is it was for sixty days. It wasn't targeted and surgical to an incident or incidents in LA.
And it's nationwide. It's not just for LA.
I mean, what is the basis for an executive order nationwide based on you know, a set of incidents that we see, you know, after the Lakers win a championship, right, so it's you know, he's trying to.
Invoke authority that gives him more power.
He wants the power, and when there's invasions or emergencies or rebellions or insurrections, he gets more power. So he says those things exist when they don't exist, clearly don't exist.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty clear he's testing the limits of what he can do here, what he can get away with, both in terms of, like you know, public support and resistance, and in terms of the judicial system.
I'm curious if you feel like you gotten enough support from other Democrats around the country, because, to be honest with you, I've been a little bit disappointed in the lack of vocal support and vocal resistance from elected Democrats around the country, especially given the fact, I mean, he's directly threatening.
All blue states, all blue.
Cities with rolling out the same playbook wherever in one or whenever he wants to.
We've gotten some really good support on this case, and Democrats are speaking up and out across the nation. I know that there was some concern and views shared like yours, especially as Trump took office in January twenty January twentieth, but I think there's a good rhythm and a broad organized group of Democrats that are fighting for the rule of law, for democracy. We had democratic governors through the Governors Association, every single governor signed on against this deployment
of the National Guard. We had democratic attorneys general write an anarchist brief. We had quite amazingly retired secretaries of the Army and the Navy, four star retired admirals and generals who wrote an amicust brief in our favor, in support of our position, saying that if the military is ever going to be deployed on American soil, it needs to be rare and serious and legally clear, and they
thought that those elements were not present here. So really good support for our case, and I think more broadly speaking, the voice of Democrats is getting louder and louder across the nation.
Last question I have for you.
Trump stopped short here of invoking the Insurrection Act, and so the legal grounds, of course that he invoked is what's in dispute in this particular case. If he were to invoke the Insurrection Act, do you feel like you would have a case that you could make or would it make all of these issues effectively null and void, and he could basically do what he wants.
If he invokes the Insurrection Act, we'll see him at court and confident we can block him. There's no basis for the Insurrection Act. The only reason he's interested in it is because it gives him more power, but the requirements to invoke it are not present. Again, there needs to be an inability with the regular forces. The statute says execute the laws of the federal government. That's just
not present. The federal government can execute all the laws it wants, or there needs to be a deprivation of rights of individuals in the state where are the military is being deployed. And that happened back in the sixties when black Americans were being deprived of their civil rights. That is not present here. So there's no basis for invoking the Insurrection Act. Doesn't mean he won't try, because
that's what he does. He gas lights the nation and says a certain set of conditions exist on the ground when they don't. Because if those conditions actually existed, which they don't, he would be able to have more power, which is what he really wants.
So will he try? He very well? May.
Are we ready absolutely and we'll be taking to court and block him.
We're confident we can and that we will.
All right, Well, we're going to be paying close attention to what unfolds in these hearings today, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, thank you so much for taking some time with us today, Thanks.
For having me. Grateful to be with here.
All right, guys, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for your continued support. We are not going to be able to do the AMA live today, so we're going to push it off to Ryan and Emily, but I know you guys love asking them questions too. They will also be all over what is unfolding with the potential imminent joining of the US into that war with Iran, so make sure you tune in for that. Until then, have a great day.