Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here, and we here at breaking points, are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.
We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio ad staff, give you.
Guys, the best independent coverage that is possible.
If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody, Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. Ryan Grim is in for Crystal Ball.
It's good to see you man, Good to see you too. Yeah, Bro show, first Bro show here on the news set. I hope everybody likes it.
We're still playing around and doing lots of fun things here on the camera, so let us know what you think about that. But we've got a lot of great topics for everyone today. You can tell this is difficult for me. Pristle usually does this part. I just sit here nicely, look pretty and drink coffee. So we're going to talk about twenty twenty four RFK junior headaches for
Joe Biden. We're going to be talking about the Ukraine War, some new extraordinary claims by President Vladimir Putin of Russia about a peace deal and what he alleges happened there behind the scenes. And then give everybody an update about the counter offensive. We'll be talking about Donald Trump in an absolute bonkers.
Fox News interview.
We were reviewing everything before we started the show, Ryan and I and we were just cackling with laughter.
So I think everybody will enjoy it.
A new Epstein report out of JP Morgan that I know that a lot of people will be very interested in. And then Megan Markle, she truly does not disappoint. Some new updates Ryan about just how much of a grifter this woman was side of Spotify. Yes, as podcasters, I honestly I need tips from this lady about how to make twenty million dollars and do zero work. So you know, in many ways, it's the American dream. So we've got
good updates. I have a monologue on the whole Doctor Peter Hotes, RFK Junior, Joe Rogan debate thing going on, and Ryan, we saved this for you. You're gonna be memorializing Daniel Elsberg, one of the Greek heroes and whistleblowers of our time who passed away over the weekend, and we're gonna have a fun discussion for everybody. But before we get to that, thank you all so much. People have been signing up for their premium membership breakcompoints dot Com,
buying the new merchandise. It's moving well. The mugs are moving well. But we got to sell more of those bucket hats, right especially, we talked a big game. We didn't like them, and they were selling. Well, let's sell even more of them. T shirts, all of that stuff. I love seeing photos of people wearing their hoodies. No, I do not approve of people wearing the hoodies with suits, but it is what it is. You know, you can't
control everybody and what they're doing out there. So anyways, you can sign up for that, you can purchase that. And also, we are getting dangerously close to one million subscribers on YouTube, so if you can help us out, hit the subscribe button on YouTube. We are only ten or eleven thousand away something like that from one million.
So let's put a nice gold plaque there right.
Behind the crystal's head, so I think it'll look nice. Okay, let's start with this news. Ryan out of the Biden campaign. Let's put this up there on the screen. Some interesting new leaks from the Biden team about Robert Kennedy Junior and why his bid is a quote headache for Joe Biden. So Biden, apparently quote is on cruise control until the
heat of the twenty twenty four election. All the nation's top Democrats are behind him, but he is now facing his own version of a primary, a campaign to shore up his support amongst skeptical Democratic voters. Currently, the rivals include Robert Kennedy Junior. They could describe him as the anti vaccine activist with a celebrated Democratic lineage who is
merged with unexpected strength in early polls. They say he is looking as high as twenty percent in some surveys, a bracing reminder of left leading voters healthy appetite for a Biden alternative, a glaring symbol of.
The president's weaknesses.
It is clear there is a softness that is borne out of a worry about electability in twenty four, says Julian Castro, who attacked Biden on the debate stage, and he says there have been areas I think people feel like he hasn't delivered what he's promising on and overall Ryan right now, what they see is a panicked team of White House advisors who did not anticipate RFK Junior's strength.
If you combine an RFK Junior with Marian Williamson, you're looking at almost thirty percent of one third of the full Democratic Party. And the overall number one objection is I just want someone else. And that's very powerful, very potent, as Bernie Sanders found out in twenty sixteen.
So what do you think?
And the very bottom of the piece references some focus grouping and polling done by this organization Way to Win that asks Democrats basically, what's your problem with Biden? When the thing that keeps coming up is, particularly among black and Hispanic voters, what has he done for me? I don't know anything that he's done for now. And so you've got all these Democrats saying the same things that they say for years. We just don't talk enough about
all of our achievements and our accomplishments. They got grant and Mayor's going to do a road show across Pennsylvania telling everybody, you know, all the wonderful.
Things that they did for them.
The problem is they need to do things that people don't need to just be told about two obvious ones they could have done, they chose not to.
One, raise the minimum wage.
Done.
Like, you raised the minimum wage, you get asked a question, what.
Did Biden and the Democrats do for you?
They raised them, talked about some four million people make a minimum wage in this.
Country, and then everybody above them that gets a raise, they're like, I wonder if I got to raise partly because the minimum wage rhy No.
Thank you, Joe Biden.
Thank you for forcing these terrible, stingy bosses to like do a little bit more. And the child Task Credit would be another example. People remembered getting two hundred and fifty three hundred dollars checks every single month to help them get through what was a difficult time.
It made inflation a.
Little bit easier to deal with if things are getting a little more expensive at the grocery store. If you've got two kids and you got a six hundred dollars check from the government, like, what is Biden?
What has Biden done for me?
Boom?
He gave me six hundred dollars every single month.
So they actively decided not to do those things, and so now they're caught in a place where, even though they have one of the most robust economies in the last say fifty years, I think because people feel precarious about it, that they're not able to really enjoy it
and reward Democrats for it. Because if you don't, if you're not sure it's going to be there a month later, if you're wondering if gas is going to go up to four bucks a gallon four fifty a gallon, if you're wondering that there's going to be some type of recession around the corner, then you're not going to reward Biden for the fact that wages are.
Going up in the economy.
I think this is a very important point because one of the things that it underscores is that if you don't feel like anybody has done anything for you, then you're just going to default to the you know, like the intangibles people, well, not intangible per se, but more than non material like age, like oh, I can't stand the way that he talks. I can't stand the way he's embarrassing. And you know RFK Junior is he ah,
he's saying some interesting stuff. Oh, the guy's a Kennedy all right, yeah, I'll take yeah, I'll take a listen.
And that's enough for a lot of people.
Maryanne Williamson as well, always been a compelling speakers. Of those two combined, I mean, one third is not nothing. In fact, it's potent enough that they very seriously from the math that I was looking at yesterday, Ryan RFK Junior could walk away with some seven to eight hundred delegates in the convention. Could you explain why it is
important for the Democrats to be serious about this? If they have a number of delegates, not a majority, but still some, what could they do with the DNC at the actual convention?
Should they actually get.
Some well, and we can put up a three because this fifty eight three please yeah.
Basically, he could.
Also get some momentum going because Biden is unlikely to be on the ballot in Iowa, because Iowa has been told you have to go after South Carolina exactly, New Hampshire's been told you have to go after South Carolina. And both of them are saying, well, no, we're going to go first, and they have all other reasons for
why they're going to continue to go first. And so as a result, Biden won't be on the ballot in either of those places, plus all those voters or prostickety about their first in the nation points, so they'll might take it out on Biden anyway, even if he is
on the bout. So then you got boom, RFK Junior winning Iowa, RFK Junior winning New Hampshire, coming into South Carolina, and then you've got Nevada Super Tuesday, And if Biden is stumbling at that point, you could you could plausibly see RFK Junior bring genuine delegates to the DNC.
Now, the DNC writes its own rules, and so.
They can screw him out of their delegates.
Yeah, especially if he has fewer than fifty percent. Yes, no, it'll it'll be a nuisance, right, and you'll have some fighting on the floor, and you also are going to have a spectacle if who are RFK Junior's delegates.
These are not your normy Democrats necessarily.
Yeah.
Maybe they demanded anti war package, anti war stance on Ukraine, or force a vote even on the or on vaccine on back any of those issues COVID or.
Which and these are not the kinds of questions that Democrats want to be grappling with.
In Chicago.
I did want to.
Raise this one piece in a portion of the New York Times Star, which is so bizarre. It says that he has a bunch of views that are Republican, and so he lists, okay, opposes an assault weapons ban.
All right, check, well, well Bernie Sanders did right.
But so we could argue that one out, but that fine, give him that one. Then he says he spreads pro Russian talking points on Ukraine.
Always pro Russian. Kind of a weird one.
He says, vaccine hesitancy in vaccine skepticism. RFK Junior has been one of these going back years. That's traditionally a left wing, left wing issue, a right wing issues become kind of coded right wing. But it started left. And then they say he suggested American presidential campaigns are rigged. What they're talking about is a big article he wrote about the two thousand and four campaign for Rolling Stone with the dominion was it dominion or deep die ball?
Yeah, die ball voting.
He was alleging that the voting machines were moving votes around in two thousand.
That's not a right wing.
Now, Hillary Clinton, he's saying Florida, the US Senate.
He's saying Bush stole the election.
Right, So all of a sudden, all of these things other than assault weapons ban that.
Are true, even the assault weapons ban, I would contest, Yeah, it wasn't. I mean, like I said, Sanders was on the record against assault weapons ban, like not that long ago, something after the NRA beat it. Yeah, that's exactly. I mean, that's something that Biden would hammer Bernie. I'd be like, he doesn't have a you know, he's now hasn't taken on the NRA in the same way I have. Let's put this pole up there on the screen. Look, the
man's support is just completely undeniable. This is from the Hill, and they say in the new Harvard Harris poll that was shared with The Hill, Kennedy received fifteen percent support amongst Democratic primary voters, twenty one percent of responders saying they have a positive view of him, and overall, like what you are saying is that this is a June
fourteenth and fifteen poll. He still continues to double digit support in the Democratic primary, and I mean, he has a credible case to try and get on the debate stage. And so does mary An Williams as well, pulling over five percent, So the two of them really should be miffed that the primary is being so rigged by the
party to keep them off the debate stage. And also from the media perspective, I mean, the only mainstream media organization to my knowledge so far or too have interviewed RFK junior one was CNN with Michael Smerconish and that was, you know, on their Sunday program, and they didn't hype it as well. And then of course ABC News which quite literally edited out what he said. And you know, look,
that is just simply unacceptable. Like we even told him, you know before whenever we had our first year, I said, hey, man, like no matter what, you know, like you know, people get mad whatever, but like this whole thing is going up as it should be. You know, you cannot be in this position of censorship. So look, overall, I think the way the media is handling it is very foolish. And I think that the Democrats biden their headaches over RFK.
I mean, listen, like that, you only have yourself to blame. They're not doing an affirmative enough case of convincing people, So don't get mad at them when they have a wandering eye and they're looking elsewhere.
Yeah, and he just had his interview with Jordan Peterson getting nuked. Yes, okay, all right, let's talk about that.
We wanted to make sure that we, you know, talked a little bit about this because it's been like an ongoing trend.
Let's put this up there on the screen, guys.
So right now, the June fifth episode of the Jordan Peterson podcast, which is hosted by The Daily Wire, called Rekindling the Spirit of the Classic Democrat, episode three sixty three, has actually been taken off YouTube. The entire ninety five minute the entire ninety five minute podcast. Now, RFK Junior put this out there. Obviously, since we both are you show on YouTube, We're not going to play the clip, but if you are interested in watching it, it is on Twitter.
You can go. We'll put a link in the description. You can go watch it for yourself.
And so what they say is should social media platform censor presidenters wi candidate my conversation with Jordan Peterson. It was deleted by YouTube. Luckily you can watch you hear on Twitter. What's really troubling about this is that they didn't actually list a reason as to why it was
taken off. There's some skepticism and there is some how would I say, there is some like theorizing that it might have been something he was talking about with regard to environmental contaminants and water and possibly having an effect on sex change and gender identity. I don't know enough about the issue to to be able to comment on all.
That's something. It's like something about.
Sometimes he goes around the bend.
Listen and okay that a lot of people go around the bed on YouTube.
And you know, what I don't understand is the capricious nature in the way that they're handling this because for example, you know, we've interviewed the man twice, he said multiple I mean, our videos were never taken down off of YouTube too. I mean, you know, whenever he was on our show, like he said things similarly whenever he was on past podcast as well. There's a very strange way that they have decided to go back and retroactively police
the content. So for example, there was a episode of the THEO vonn podcast from twenty twenty that was also taken down off you but it was taken down now, it was taken down recently and in it I mean, I actually I haven't even watched the full thing.
Again, there's no reason given. Whenever these things.
Are taken down, they just say it's a violation of content policy. And Ryan, you and I we have both been outspoken against this issue because we covered these issues for a living and we know how blurry the line gets. So I mean, maybe you can tell people about when you were over at Rising, like the ridiculous standard that was imposed on your channel, which we have fought against vigorously here for that standard specifically because of what happened to you.
And Emily was on that day too.
It was me Emily and Robbi Suave, and we were talking about an interview that Trump had given maybe it was Brett with Brettbager again one of his and he said something like, you know, Putin never wouldn't have invaded if not for the rigged election. Yeah, And then we went on and then we made fun of Trump. I called him a maniac, and then we debated the point
would Putin have invaded if Trump had won reelection? But what we didn't do is go back and say, dear YouTube sensors and dear audience, Like even though Trump said there was a rigged election in twenty twenty, in fact, it was not rigged.
And he lost far and square.
And that whole thing, to me is so funny because it's like, who is the person out there who is going to be influenced by hearing Trump say this rigged election?
And they're like, oh, it's a rigged election.
And then Ryan Grim gets on the YouTube and says, in fact, it was not stolen, and they're like, oh, I was about to believe Trump, but now that.
Ryan says that it wasn't stolen.
So yeah, So they nuked the channel for a week, for a week, took the whole channel down, and the channel was salted. They salted the earth of that channel. You know, it was doing numbers that are like around a million a day. Yeah, yeah, and it was when it came back a week later two hundred and three hundred.
Wow.
Yeah, where we left. That's about what it was doing.
But you know, and look, we we always had the same I told them multiple times to your face, I said, this is a ridiculous policy. How are we supposed to cover the news if if Biden plays it says something crazy, which he does all the time, you know what we do? We play the clip that's it. You play the clip. We could talk about it, but I wonder what obligation am I to quote unquote fact check everything that the
man says, or Trump or any politician. I have enough trust in the people who watch and who listen to this show.
For them to make up their minds for themselves.
And yeah, if you think that the election was stolen at this point, nothing I say is going to have any impact on you.
But it wasn't.
Yeah, but it was okay, Yeah, thank you Ryan. Actually they did repeal the policy. Look really, yeah, we applauded that. Thank you YouTube actually for listening to us and for so many other creators who told you how stupid this was. I've been outspoken about it. We talked about on the Rogan Pot. I talk about it.
Every chance I can.
Because if you think about this too, it's a huge advantage for cable news because they don't have censors. They don't have any I mean technically I guess the FCC, but like that's not, you know, not really insane. Especially when you're on cable news, not on network television. You can basically say everything you want. It's more advertiser pressure, which is a whole private censorship, But nobody's gonna take your channel off the air, you know, for having an
interview or something like that with RFK Junior. So look, I mean, the entire policy is ludicrous and comparents they continue to do this to his candidacy, and of course what's happening. It's a streisand effect. More and more people are hearing about him. They're like, hey, what is the censorship? You know, Jordan Peterson that clip? Let me go ahead and take a look here. How how many views now
does the clip have after it has got ahead? And yeah, I mean look, look a four point three million, Yeah, four point three million views now. Now, of course, look four point three million Twitter views doesn't mean four point three million watch it. But I can guarantee you a hell of a lot of people are gonna watch it. And yeah, I'm sitting here and talking about it. Probably wouldn't have talked about it otherwise if they hadn't done it.
So look, Americans aren't dumb, and you know other tech companies. I never thought i'd be in this position. Facebook, Instagram. They reinstated RFK Junior's Instagram account, even though they said that he had violated their policies because they're like, hey, you know, he's an active candidate for president, Like, we can't be in this business of trying to censor these things.
And just like people should know what Trump is saying about the election, Yes, people should know what RFK Jr. Is saying about different things. You had a case yesterday where on Rogan he was talking about how Wi fi causing all sorts of problems, et cetera. Without waiting into the details of it. I saw some you know, very like blue no matter who partisan Democrats clipping and sharing him Rfkjunior talking about how wi fi and.
The blood brain barrier, and they were using as a presex not vote for him.
Right, that's fine, they're saying, look at this, look what he says. It's so obset or you should not consider this serious person, you shouldn't. But what if you weren't allowed to share that, then how would those people be able to make their.
Case exact against him? Exactly right. I mean We've made this point a myriad million times. I tried to tell this to YouTube, which was like, hey, guys, the number one thing of why people hate Trump, especially in the midterms, was stop the steal. So wouldn't you. Let's say you hate Trump, right, you should be playing him saying the election stone all day long. Drives quite crazy. Yeah, that's what Democrats do. What do you think they're playing on
cable TV. So look, anyway, it's a very foolish, a very stupid policy. And uh yeah, I mean, look, I guess we're always on the lookout. Maybe they'll knwke our interview with him. Luckily we have backups that are available. But you know, this isn't going to deter people from interviewing, nor should it. You know, really it's in the public interest to get the stuff out there. Let's go to the next part here, speaking of danger from YouTube and all this. You never know with some of these clips.
So I guess let me preface this by saying, this is not an endorsement. This is simply trying to get the news to the public about something which is potentially of the interest to you, about how to think about the war in Ukraine. And this is a clip that has come out from Russian state television. Again I'm being clear, it's from Russian state television. I would get it from somewhere else. But guess what, Ryan, there is no free
media and Russia. So you know, sometimes whenever you play President Trump or Biden, you have to get it from c SPAN or Public Access because that's.
The only feed.
So it's not because we went out of our way that we are simply trying to show you the words of President Putin. Now, let's go ahead and put this up there. I'm going to read a translation of President Putin. He says, Russia has never rejected negotiations. He says, I want to draw your attention to this that, with the assistance of President Erdowan of Turkey, as you know, Turkey hosted a whole series of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to develop. Here is the document. It is initial old
by the Kiev delegation. The signature is there well after we as promised, with drew troops from Kiev Keiv authorities. In the same way owners usually do, threw it all away to the garbage dump of history. What he is talking about there and alleging is a previously unpublished document of which we are unable to verify, of which it
has not been released. That was during a meeting with the South African president, in which he said that Ukraine and Russia in the spring of twenty twenty two had initialed and signed this alleged peace agreement which would have
ended the conflict. Now, the reason why this is of interest is because it matches previous reporting that we have brought to everybody from August of twenty twenty two, not by an independent journalist by Fiona Hill, who is a you know, how would you best describer for diplomat Ukraine? You know, well within established in the effort, remember the Washington establishment on this vide who would know inside of foreign affairs. Let's go ahead and put this up there
please on the screen. I have the article here in front of me. It's called the World Putin Wants How distortions about the past delusions about There we go, all so let me just pretend I'll put this up all three two one. It's called the World Putin Wants how distortions about the past feed delusions about the future. And in it Ryan she specifically says that Boris Johnson traveled to Kiev in twenty twenty two specifically to try and
stop a Ukraine and a Russia peace deal. And we also know that because this actually came out in September
of twenty twenty two. Let's put this please up on the screen from the BBC News that Boris Johnson had publicly warned against the Ukraine and a Russian peace deal, and not only that, actually Ukrainian media and sources at the time also said that they had not supported a Ukraine and Russian peace steal, and that Boris Johnson specifically was one of the NATO ambassadors to come there and to tell them that wasn't a good idea.
So we are not cherry picking.
We are simply looking at this clip in interest to say, wow, okay, this is something that President Putin and the Russians had long been talking about. There's no evidence he's alleging it in this meeting with the South African president. Is he lying or not? I mean, listen, what are we doing. We're calling on the Russian government released the document. I would love to read it and to hear exactly what
it is. It's possibly he's lying, right, It's possible that the document was some sort of like quasi ceasefire around Kiev, you know, in terms of withdrawing tubes.
It wasn't a full blown piece deal. If it was, then.
They you know, that actually would bolster what the Ukrainians have said, which is that they're liars and false negotiators. But at the very least something went down with Ukraine and Russian Spring of twenty twenty two, and Boris Johnson came and was very upset with it on behalf of NATO.
So that's what we know.
Right now, and the reporting on that document fairly matches the reporting from what was coming out at the time and the deal as it was being constructed. Now we're gathering this from both sides at this point. Is that Russia would retreat back to the February twenty third, twenty twenty two lines.
That's what Fiona Hill says.
Basically, Donbas and Crimea would become Russian territory and in exchange, the war would be over. Ukraine would agree not to pursue NATO membership, but would cut security agreements with countries like Germany in the United States, which gives you as much comfort in a situation as being in NATO, because if the United States is going to back you in it. Yeah, that's why Saudi's not trying to get into NATO.
Saudi wants a US security Garan.
You don't need NATO they're like, what NATO would look, we don't need that. Here's the irony Rye. What you just described is very likely what is going to happen anyway that Crimea and the Dunboss or at least part
of the eastern Dunbas region remains part of Russia. That you're going to get a security guarantee, but it's not going to be part of NATO because guess what, Hungary Turkey always but there's no way they're going to allow to Ukraine into NATO, no matter what the polls and the Latvians and the Lithuanians, all of them say, it's not going to happen.
Worse than that if they don't take back a lot of territory during this counter offensive. We're going to talk about that soon. It'll actually be significantly more than just.
Don't bost in Crimea exactly.
Yeah, And hundreds of thousands of people are maimed, wounded, you know, tens of thousands of people are dead on
both sides. And if that was what you're going to get anyways, and yeah, history will look upon that as literally as they do upon those Remember those secret agreements from the First World War when they had like territorial and you'll look at some of the initial proposals from August, not August like a few months into the war in nineteen fourteen, and it ends up that the deals that ended up being cut were way worse than that, after millions of people were dead. It's basically what we've been
saying here from the very beginning. So look once again, you know, we are not saying that this is necessarily true. I would love for the Russian government to release it, or Ukrainian government, if they believe the Putin's lying, you release it too. You know, you are welcome to release this because it is a great matter of public interest. Boris Johnson specifically, their allegation here has already been made. And remember this too, I believe that you guys talked
about it. The Israelly Prime Minister enough Tolly Bennett, after he left office, was on that podcast in Israel where he also confirmed that NATO and the West came in and specifically targeted and shot down this piece deal. So there are multiple pieces of corroborating evidence to back this up.
And according to the reporting, the reason that the Ukrainians didn't have a choice in whether or not to make this deal? Was that and this is what the reporting about. Boris Johnson says that you may want a security agreement with US.
But according to this deal.
Okay, you're saying you won't join NATO, but the US and UK and Germany will back you in a security deal in order to end this war.
We won't.
And so therefore Ukraine can't go to Russia and accept the terms because they can't force the United States or UK or Germany is to agree to it, which goes back to if you remember this question that I asked Jensaki back here March of twenty twenty two, what is the United States doing to push peace negotiations forward? And is ze Lenski empowered to you know, if he reaches a deal but.
The United States will back a deal.
Shouldn't really answer that question, and it seems that we know the answer at this point, which is no. That the US felt and the UK and others in NATO felt that this was.
A chance to punch Putin in the nose.
That his military looked weaker than they expected, so they were going to draw some blood.
They literally were going to draw a lot of blood.
And so they decided it was in the national interests of the NATO countries to continue the war regardless of what the Ukrainians might want to do at that point.
Well, well, we'll find out whether that was the right gambler or not. Personally, have never thought so specifically, not worth the risk relative to any potential reward. Okay, let's go to the next one here, and this actually underscores what you're talking about. Let's put this up there on the screen, the new dispatches from journalists on the frontline in Ukraine. Wall Street Journal quote why Ukraine's offensive likely
will be a slow and a costly grind. Kiev and Moscow have spent months preparing for along a vast front line, And specifically what they talk about here is that Ukraine has not had the option because they have not been able to have overwhelming ground assault flying beneath gunships blasting
open on a path. Right now, Kiev troops are running into Russian air superiority along the front line, which has been unable to give them the offensive advantage of combined tactics that basically be in a feature of advancing warfare ever since the Second World War. What they point to also is that quote. It was they have been preparing
for a long time. They have learned from some of their mistakes in Kharkiv, but that the fighting unfolding now, which is effectively just a slug fest on the battlefield, is fundamentally a battle of readiness both sides since the middle of last year, mustering weapons, troops, and defensive positions for what they knew would be a pivotal moment. Unfortunately for them, despite amassing, you know, billions and billions of dollars, Moscow still has called up over two hundred thousand soldiers.
They have dug trenches, they've prepared fighting firing positions to stop the ukra Aranians, and they have spent spread quote millions of land mines in placed by minds viewing rockets fired from mobile launchers. The Ukrainian unit which was driving these advanced equipment earlier, which drove into those was incapacitated. Several tanks and armored fighting vehicles, and other units have faced multiple aerial attacks from helicopter gunships, missiles launched from
both the air and the ground. All of these defensive capabilities of the Russians are making it more difficult than the original Spring offensive for the Ukrainians. Because frankly, the Russians had a long time to prepare for it. They had just as long and mobilization they had the mobilization.
It also gets to something we pointed out here which a lot of people didn't want to hear, but clearly the Russian or the Ukrainian effort to waste tens of billions of dollars in their latest campaign effectively in a complete battle of attrition street by street of which they ultimately lost after being pushed out of the city, was obviously a colossal miss because that's exactly what US generals
told them not to do repeatedly. They said, hey, you need to save all this AMMO and all these men and all these weapons for the actual coming counter offensive. And instead they spent somewhere upwards of ten to fifteen billion, you know, simply on the defense of a city that they ultimately completely lost, which was tactically a massive or strategically a massive mistake. They said they were bleeding the
Russians dry. It's like, well, the Russians have more troops, you know, they have an unlimited number of men, they have an industrial base, they have a real military that they're able to resupply and able to manufacture. They have all of the defensive capabilities of real nation state. You're a nation being literally invaded, you know right now, it's very difficult.
For you, right Ukraine can't win a war of attrition against Russia for the reasons that you pointed out. One just the immense population advantage that Russia has and its willingness to kind of grab people and throw them into the meat grinder of the front lines, as well as as you said, the Ukrainian economy is absolutely destroyed because they are currently the scene of a gruesome war. Russia is not Russia. There was a fire in Moscow yesterday that was making news.
Uh.
There have been you know, sporadic kind of attacks across the border by you know, Ukrainian linked, independent pro Russian anti Russian groups or whatever.
But that's it.
They're not they're not facing a full scale war.
So the same thing as your capital being literally bombed most times over constantly thousands while at front line.
So yes, so as a result, they need big sweeping victories like they had with that surprise counter offensive, and there just isn't the space for a surprise.
Now we're early. You can put up this next.
Yeah, let's put the element which is saying which is just brutal news for the Ukrainian forces here, saying that they're going to be pausing and reevalued possibly pausing. Now,
so there's two possible plies here. One is that this is kind of could be a faint active disinformation from one of from basically the most loyal news outlet to the Ukrainian forces in Kiev that is trying to convince the Russians that what you're seeing is true or it is true and they are actually pausing and reevaluating based
on just the structural disadvantages that you mentioned. For one hundred and fifty years, this has been warfare that the dug in side, the defensive side, has a massive advantage over the side that is having to leave their trench.
Yeah, I mean, look right now, Look, the best case for the Ukrainians is the Russian I laid this out previously why I thought it was wrong. But here's a good case, which is Russia spent also billions of dollars and exhausted a lot of.
Men's special forces in Bakhma.
All these guys got blasted to death for basically, you know, a smoking scrap of ground. Their forces are very tired after having gone through this advance. They were the attacking force and now they're on the back foot while it is easier to defend where lack of their lack of morale, being tired watching their friends die, they're not gonna want to be the fight. They don't want to be the Yeah, I mean, they literally don't want to be there, most
of them. Can you imagine being put in that situation, and so they're the ones who are more likely to flee.
And all it takes is won. You just need one breakthrough.
The pushback that I've seen to that is just simply that given the defensive capabilities of the Russians and their current air superiority on the front line, that it's just very, very difficult for them to be able to push through. Part of why the Ukrainians what do they want more than anything F sixteen specifically to try and challenge this air superiority. But of course, you know they claim they won't use it inside of Russia, right Ryan, we just totally believe that.
Let's go and put this final one up.
There on the screen just to show you the you know, the expanding consequences of this. The New York Times put together a story where you can believe it if you want, saying why the evidence suggests Russia has blown up the Kakovia Dam. The dam in Ukraine was designed to withstand almost any attack imaginable from the outside. Evidence suggests right
now that Russia blew it up from within. They use some you know, defense, They used some forensic analysis and analysis of what the quote unquote Achilles heel inside of the dam was that was built during Soviet times. Because Moscow had the engineering drawings and knew the exact place where to blow up the dam, they say it was more likely that they did it, and because they had control of the dam at the time, that it was obviously going to be easier for them to be abble
to plant in internal device, you know. At the same time, it's not like the Ukrainians had an ad control of the dam, so they possibly also had access to that. And it's also not like blowing up infrastructure by infiltrating it through spyplots like as in the case of the Crimean bridge, that they have done that before or mounted
attacks inside of Russia. So look, the evidence they say was it was likely crippled set off an explosion by the side that controls it, but of course they haven't proven it by any any definitive way.
Yeah, and it's difficult to know what and when and how to believe the media in normal times. When it comes to wartime, there's so much propaganda that that you have to sift through to try to get to the truth.
But I do encourage.
People to read this piece because you know, we don't know.
It's information is good.
Yeah, I learned a lot about the dam I was like, all right, that's interesting, Well, whoever did it? I was like, all right, well, the damn clearly blew ou from means very likely blow up from means.
The argument does seem strong that in order for this damn to get blown up, because its Soviet era, you know, intended to be able to withstand an attack from the United States basically or from Germany, that there was only one way to blow it up, and that's with massive amounts of explosives, you know, put inside the damn way down below. Then they have some corroborating evidence that there are massive explosions if you believe that corroborating evidence, and
maybe the most telling detail is that there. You ought to have been able to see the foundation all the way across it if the foundation wasn't blown. But there's this area where you can see that the foundation is missing. And so it does seem somebody blew that. How Ukraine would get in there is difficult to imagine how they could possibly get like so it to me the logic and the evidence does point in that direction, but we're still too early in the fog awar be able to say definitively.
I can't say definitively. It was a disaster for a lot of millions, billions of people. They got flooded out of their homes. They think disease is now going to proliferate, and you know, war's hell.
It truly is.
All right, let's go to the next part here. We're going to talk about Trump and this new interview. We did our best here. Trump did a one hour interview on the Fox Nearest channel that aired last night, and there are so many good moments. We will start with the newsier elements, then we will play our personal favorite clip.
Ryan.
Let's start with the news asked about the documents case, of which he certainly is not doing himself. Any favors in this, some politics and more. Here's what he had to say.
That you had a document to ten billing a plan attack on another country that was prepared by the US military for you when you were president, the Iran attack plan. You remember that ready, you were a recording.
It was a a document. I had lots of paper. I had copies of newspaper articles, I had copies of magazine spread There was no document that was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn't have a document per se.
The suggestion was that you wanted this as evidence that the military, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Milli, had preemptively sent you plans for a possible attack on Iran, and that you didn't order that to happen.
That's the suggect. I never ordered it to happen.
No, but that's why you wanted the document.
I don't think I've ever seen a document from Milli, frankly, was incompetent. The last one I'd want to attack with as my leader would be Milli. Continuation.
More independent voters watch Fox News than any other TV source.
At Lesson used to watch it a lot less. Right, We couldn't help but put that out there. It's just too good for him to go after him. Yes, a lot less than you think. I mean, hey, he's right. Trump is certainly right.
Let's talk about that documents thing, though, what did he He did not do himself any favors Ryan, because he both admitted having possession of classified information and then withholding it from the grand jury, which I don't think a lot of people are understanding this. Trump is being charged with a process crime, like he's being charged specifically with the set of facts where they're like.
We asked for it, he didn't give it all to us.
He's on tape saying that he knew it was classified, not declassified properly, and that he didn't do it.
That's it. I mean, they don't they don't have to litigate the political nature.
They don't even have to re litigate what's in the document at all. It's literally like did you do it or not? It's very narrowly defined as an offense.
And what they have now is basically his explanation. Yeah, now believe it or not. But his explanation for why he was withholding the documents was that he wanted to go through it himself and he didn't want to be rushed.
He's very busy and as he says, there's t.
Shirts and other golfing memorabilia that are in all these boxes, and he wants to take his time and you know, sift through these documents, make sure he doesn't accidentally turn some some golf trophies, you know, back to Nara.
And you know, because he you know, he worked hard for that.
He cheat, he cheated hard for those golf tournaments, yes, trophies, and so therefore, uh, he then you know, kind of stalled, like that's basically what he's saying, and you can't.
You can't do that now because.
That's not a legal defense for why exactly this is what I keep trying to say.
He says, write a letter back to them and say, I want to go through the documents myself.
You relax.
Is that okay, you will get your stuff.
When you get your stuff, I have it.
Yes, just chill.
That would have been a defense that he could make. Instead, he lied and said we've given you everything. There is nothing left. Hey, go go hide everything over here. Uh, and then because he's incompetent, a bad criminal, they learn about this and then they raid.
Look, I mean people should know this.
You've been watching us for years, Like you're not looking at people who ever trumped up Russia Gate claims, who think most of the stuff brought against Trump was bs and not or at the very least did not rise to the proper way that he should have been impeached. And I'm telling you right now this is a serious one simply because of the way that it is narrowly defined as an offense, and that the facts that the government presented thus far have not been refuted on the
actual facts themselves. That is going to fly in a court of law. Politically, you can make all the cases you want about selective prosecute, of which, by the way, I think is true. You know, I think hill Rick Clinton should have been prosecuted. I think that there is a double standard. I think this is political in nature. All of that is true, but that's not gonna fly in a court of law. In a court of law, you have to argue on the merits themselves, and once the case was brought.
It's a tough one.
Ryan, It really is a tough one politically. There was a hilarious moment everyone where Brett I have no idea how Trump actually let Brett Bayer get through all of this. Bear reads off lists of all these people who used to work for Trump who now say that he should not be president again.
It literally goes on for almost.
A minute, and it is one of the most hilarious montages of television I have ever seen, including Trump's response, Let's take a listen.
Okay, in twenty sixteen, you said that I'm going to surround myself with only the best and most serious people.
Well I did do that this time tremendous. Look, we had the best economy we've ever had. This time has ever seen.
Your Vice President, Mike Pence is running against you. You're Ambassador of the United Nations. Nikki Haley, she's running against you. Your former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said he's not supporting you. You mentioned National Security Advisor John Bolton, he's not supporting you either. You mentioned Attorney General Bill Barr says you shouldn't be president again. It calls you the consummate narcissist and troubled man you recently called a bar
a gutlass pig. Your second Defense secretary is not supporting you called you irresponsible. This week, you and your White House called your White House Chief of Staff John Kelly weak and ineffective and born with a very small brain. You called your acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney a born loser. You called your first Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, dumb as a rock, and your first Defense Secretary of James mattis the world's most overrated general.
You called your White House Press Secretary of Kather Nanny Milk toast, and multiple times you've referred to your Transportation Secretary Elaine Choo as Mitch McConnell's China loving wife. So why did you hire all of them?
How good is that? And he's like, so that, why did you hire? Why did you?
And what I love about Trump is he's just asserted, like nods along.
He's like, yeah, you said that, a small brain.
He's like admiring his work. He's like, that's good material.
I always say this to the people who you know, we had on a Trump guy here on the show with during the panel with Ryan Gerdusky, and I was like, man, look, why do you have confidence is going to be different this time around. You know, he doesn't care. Like, at what point are people just going to at that through their heads?
You know.
I've told this story before. I interviewed Trump several times. He literally acts like a child, you know, whenever you're in the Oval office. I remember I was asking him a question and he was sitting there. He literally got distracted by a piece of paper on his desk and he like picked it up in a tactile way that, you know, like a child would, and just was like mystified, like what this certificate.
Was that he had to sign as president.
And I'm like asking him about Kuwait or so, you know, like bases in Bahrain or something like.
And I was like, wow, dude, I was like, you know, you don't care about this at all.
I mean, maybe that's my fault, you know, like I should have been engaging him whenever I was talking to him. Certainly I believe that you should try and do that, but more so in terms of his personal character, like that's who he is, that he doesn't care about staff and governing in the moment. As long as you're willing to kiss his ass, he'll hire you. Happily, you know, con and then the moment you depart, it's like, oh, he was always a loser, you know, And it's just
but at the same time, who are we Ryan? People don't care? At this point seven years, everybody knows what they're buying. Everybody knows what they're getting, and the Republican base has made clear we love Trump, we don't care about that. And I just think a lot of people don't need to be honest when they're like, oh, he's going to select the best people and he's really going to get done.
What he says.
I'm just like, okay, you know, I mean, if that makes you sleep better at night, that's fine, but you know, it's just not true. I get what they're really saying is, well, the one thing he promised me is to make libs mad, and guess what, he's very successful at that.
Yeah. Yeah.
And the other element of his answer is that, well, ten of the people that I hired were good for every one bozo and the result is this incredible Economy's like basically just listed all of your tough people over the course of four years. But again, like, yeah, people, if you're a Trump supporter, you're like who cares.
He's right about it. He's right, he's the guy.
He does have a small brain, right, the guy is like the worst general, most overrated general ever.
Whatever.
Yeah, I mean you know, over and over again you see what Trump He's like, I believe in X. And we'd be like, well, okay, well why are you hiring people that don't believe that? And he'd be like, well, you know they're working against me. I'm like, yeah, but you hired that. We're not talking about permanent people in the bureaucracy, right, like, we're talking about people you literally hired.
Why did you do that?
And it just it never has a good answer. You blame it on us, someding like, oh that was Ryan's previouses. Guy, I'm like, yeah, but you're the president, dude, Like you can decide whether you want to hire somebody or not. And I love too. He's got all these Twitter videos that are coming out now. He's like we need space travel and flying cars and all. I'm like, dude, you're just talking like you were the president. Man, like you
are you. We know exactly what you're gonna do. The one piece of good news for if he does potentially win the presidency. Guys, can we put this up there on the screen? This is the best news for the country I've ever seen. Would you want Jared and Ivanka to serve in a sucking Trump administration?
No?
I said, that's enough for the family. You know why.
It's too painful for the family. My family has been through a lot. So he's not firing Jared and Ivanka for the right reason. But you know what, I think we're all better off than little boy Wonder playing diplomat, playing criminal justice reform, and playing whatever the hell else he was supposed to be doing in the White House at the time. Genuinely one of the most unimpressive people to ever have it the residents of the White House.
He'll find a way to cash in. Yeah, I'm sure you're right. He's already cash in. What are you talking about.
He's got two billion dollars from Saudi Arabia, So yeah, you're right.
Why should he come back?
He got exactly what he needed. All right, let's go to the next one. This is a very interesting I want to spend some time on this, guys. QUI put this up there on the screen, please. JP Morgan's internal report about its ties to Jeffrey Epstein actually just leaked out yesterday. This was the twenty nineteen report that was compiled around the time of the Epsteine arrest and whenever he died in prison a note I said, died in prison, not committed suicide in prison. And in that report they
reviewed its ties to Jeffrey Epstein. They found quote that he had regularly given business advice to the one time JP Morgan executive Jess Staley and invited him to meetings with senior officials in foreign governments. So that's why I wanted to spend time on this anytime we get lee. I mean, of course, you know Staley's disgusting behavior. I've talked to you about before. He sent Epstein an email after he left the island and he said that was
fun say hi to snow White for me. Okay, disgusting And you know what, Epstein replied, He said, which character would you like to try out? And it's just like it makes me want to throw up. But importantly, is not just the crimes, the heinous crimes that were competed against these young girls and some of these women, is the level of penetration that he had with not only our business elites, but our foreign.
Governments and possible intelligence services.
And actually we got some of the names of these government officials of which had come out here. I'm going to go ahead and shave some of them here for you. So they include the Dubai Sulkan Ahmed bin Suleiman so a senior member of the Emarati royal family. The British politician Peter Mendelssohn, so Are Mandelssohn. Mandelssohn importantly is not just a member of the House of Lords, actually very wealthy businessman. And Epstein was trying to connect associates for
the bank and Internet to finance international expansion. He wrote emails actually to Bin Suleiman and to Staley to set up meetings between them and advised him Staley the banker, on how to conduct himself, what to expect from him, And in one email he said that the Sultan is laying the groundwork for you to establish a serious presidence. They need your reputation in the region right now is poor. So Bin Suleiman importantly is the port operator for one
of the largest companies in the Emirates. End quote had several visits scheduled to the Epstein townhouse between twenty eleven and and fourteen, and after his conviction after I mean, of course, all of this happened after the conviction, after he was a registered sex offender. When it comes to the House of Lords Member two, he says, I very much regret ever.
Being introduced to him. That's what they always say.
He never had any but I never had any business or professional relationship. But they say and actually show emails private bankers advise Epstein's on how to structure a deal for an unnamed client to actually buy a painting from
the lord. That client was actually Leon Black, who was the member of the head of Apollo Management, who was one of the wealthiest financiers in the entire world and a great fan of Jeffrey Epstein, who had funneled some hundred billion dollars one hundred million dollars or so to him for quote unquote tax advice, which I'm sure that's what he needed from him. And look, I mean, I just think that this is really this is pure speculation.
It's not a confirmation.
But you know, his benefit to foreign intelligent services and his ability here to clearly to not only connect business elites and financial elites with foreign governments does show you that there was something going on else behind the scenes, because of course foreign intelligence service would have a tremendous interest in the comings and goings of the members of the House of Lords of you know, Emarati princes and
their business dealings, things like that. And then even more so Ryan, what we would see is that his ability to connect into influence the said policy through money and all that would of course also be of great.
Interest to them. Right, And we should never forget a couple of things.
One that the prosecutor who went soft on him said, I was told that he was intelligence, so therefore I.
Should go soft on him.
We have a remarkable number of just on the record, you know, confessions around this.
And then there was that critical.
Reporting from when his townhouse was rated that the FBI had told CNN or somebody else that they had gotten a safe that was filled with CDs that had name of high profile person and then girl and age. And so they found his compromot, they found his blackmail. They we already knew that it was the most wired up townhouse ever. You can imagine that his plane, boat's eye, all these other venues are also completely wired with you know, video and audio, and so then we know that there are these CDs.
Where are those CDs?
Like?
What what happened with that?
Like that? That was like, if you're a credible law.
Enforcement agency that is actually trying to unravel this child sex ring, you just opened a safe and found all of the evidence that you need to round everybody up. Not one single person gets rounded up as a result of all of those leads.
My bet is that whatever that CD is doesn't exist anymore, probably was set.
There's a fire or a flood or something.
Real, really crazy stuff happens in some of these evidence rooms. Shocking, you know, you know, don't they have disaster plans something going on, like with Trump when they fake flood something they actually followed that is confirm right, They never confirmed that they flooded that. And also it turns out I didn't even do anything fundily enough, So I guess they're even you know, bad at covering it enough. But listen, that's the latest from the report inside of JP Morgan.
I think it just confirms multiple things. They knew exactly
was a sex offender. They kept doing business with them for existence and ties to foreign clients, but the foreign government piece, to me is the single most important one because that shows you a much higher level of involvement, not just of corruption amongst the high financiers and the highest elite on Wall Street, but of direct ties to very very senior government officials, former presidents of the United States like Bill Clinton, and more impossible compromising information.
So the more that we get on that.
We'll keep everybody updated. It remains one of the most important stories in the entire country. Okay, next part this. I cannot tell you Ryan, how obsessed I am with this.
Guys. Let's put this up on the screen please.
Pod News Industry Trade Journal gives us a little bit of the scoop on Megan Markle and her breakup with Spotify. So, for those who don't know, the Duke and Duchess as they style themselves, have a podcast company. It was called Archiwell they are not their contract renewed from Spotify. Not only that, they may not actually actually even get the full twenty million dollars full of the contract because they did not meet their productivity clauses.
What they now say is.
One of the most insane things I've ever heard, Ryan. This woman was paid twenty million for twelve episodes, even that she could not do the work in the correct way. Pod News has heard from multiple sources that some interviews on her show were done by other staffers with her questions edited in afterwards. So mechanically, let's explain this, everybody. It would be as if there were only two shots in this show, one of you and one of me.
You talk, you know, you give answers and all that, and somebody, one of our producers, let's say Griffin is standing in here for me, and then they were I, because my schedule is so important, I would come in later after I got my beauty sleep, and then I would sit here like I am right now, and I'm like, yes, run, I'd be looking at you, and nobody would be People would be numb the wiser, right, especially if we're only
doing a audio. I mean, what is this an animated movie? Like, like, what are we doing?
We're doing a podcast. You don't have an hour to sit down and to interview somebody. And here's the thing. It wasn't even good. It didn't even chart your questions. Yeah, somebody will write question.
When you're this rich and you're famous and you're doing twenty million, you know, for some BS deal plus a Netflix deal and also the nonsense you could pay people.
All you've got to do is sit down in the chair. You don't do anything. Put a prompter up in front of you.
We do so much work over here, and I just want to know, Ryan, how do I get paid twenty million dollars to not to not do anything?
You got to know what is happening. You got to be former royalty. You're right, I have to be a divorce who breaks up the royal family.
But this is this is going to be very difficult news. I think the Breaking Points community because you know, you can go into the back end and see, you know which shows your audience also listens to. That's right, And there's about one hundred sent overlap, oh with the Megan Markle. So all of you out there, we know, we know how that you actually loved all twelve of these episodes, five stars across the you know.
I will tell you I love looking at our also listens to. It is all over the map.
Man, It's like Ben Shapiro and like some you know, crazy leftist channel I literally had never heard of, and I was like, man, I bet you there's no other YouTube channel on Earth that the mega Markele.
Yeah, and then Meghan Markle. Of course.
Look, the reason why this is so hilarious is that it has been an open secret inside of the company, apparently now for months about how much of a grifter this woman is. Enough for Bill Simmons over at The Ringer Podcast, which was acquired by Spotify, to call Harry and Megan quote a fucking grifter on his latest podcast.
Here's what he had to say.
I wish I had been involved in the Megan and Harry leave Spotify negotiation.
The grifters. That's the podcast we should have launched with them.
So Bail actually reveals that not only did he all of that, he reveals that he did a private zoom call with Harry about ideas.
For how their podcast could go.
And Ryan, this is the late you know, just this the latest in a series of in I don't understand how these people get these deals, like Bruce Springsteen and Obama. Nobody listen, guess what, guys. Obama, he's never gonna let his hair down. He's got way too much.
Riding on this.
He got Obama, he's a multimillion dollar enterprise. He can't be talking, you know, for real, because he's not a man, he's a brand. Him and Michelle becoming you know, the tour and all of that. All right, So that's Obama and Springsteen. I just saw this morning Trevor Noa was getting a big Spotify deal. He literally flamed out and failed on The Daily Show, one of the great platforms that exists in comedy, and now apparently it gets a great big deal. This isn't even necessarily out of envy. Look,
it's fine. You know, we love our business. Yeah, I mean a little bit.
I mean, here's the thing.
We work very hard here over at breaking points. Okay, we you know, our business pro our premium program, we're constantly monitoring and you know, very proud of the fact they were built this set one hundred percent with a dollar a premium subscriber dollars.
Yeah, it's for real though. I mean, you know, it never ends.
Here for us, Like we take it very seriously, and we take our customers and we you know, we look at them. You know, every time somebody has a complaint or a connection issue or something. We're always doing our best in order to make sure that it gets resolved.
And then I watch these.
People printing you know, tens of millions of dollars doing no work.
And you know, we see and it's not just us.
I see so many different independent podcasts in the top ten, especially on Spotify. Our show is very popular on Spotify in the News and Politics category.
And you know, I'll.
Watch these people rate at number fifty five and all that. But we know what they're getting paid.
You don't think Mac and Markle's taking the ticket requests and.
Yeah, try to help people exactly, thank you. Yeah, it's like you know me, we personally are running down and be like, hey, why is this person's.
Premium feed not because oh man, you know we sent our.
Email eleven eighteen Pam And I'm like me and you you know, I'm riding the step and like, all right, guys, we gotta get this out at eleven a m. This is what people are promised for. But apparently now that's not the great.
Line of work.
What I need to do is move to the UK Mary Princess, get them to divorce or prance.
Yeah.
Maybe, honestly, you're right, you know, interracial couple, interracial gay couple who leaves.
You're probably right, that would be even better.
Branding fake a poparazzi, chase and claim a near death experience and then sign a twenty million dollar deal. So look, I don't even know what else to say, because the crazy thing to me is that this era has not ended. You know, you would think that this would be some zero interest rate phenomenon. We're actually in the middle of
an ad of recession apocalypse. You know, if you look at the way that ad rates have plunged, this is why the news media, which is generally you know, other than us, who is predominantly reliant on advertising revenue, they're making a hell of a lot less money right now. Where we lost more media jobs in twenty twenty three than we did in all of twenty twenty two already, it's only half the year.
Hundreds of people, thousands of people actually lost their jobs in the industry. And yet people like this always.
Seem to be able to squeeze money out of executives at big companies, and it has nothing to do with whether people like it or not.
It's stunning. It really is.
Just do your own podcast if you're gonna get twenty million dollars.
Yeah right, I don't even know even ask you to write the question. Yeah, all right, so be there when it's happening.
That's our Meghan Marko update. Our next podcast should be called We Want Privacy?
What about Harry here?
What's Is this a Harry podcast too? Or is this just supposed to be? I don't know, actually I think it was a Megan Markele podcast.
I'm sure he had some Our audience knows, because there are you guys follow this podcast.
Comment let us know how Prince Harry did in his in his podcasting journey Creator journey?
Isn't that what they call it? There? Online? Breaking news, everybody.
Just as I was about to do my monologue, this came across the wire. Let's put this up there on the screen. Hunter Biden pleading guilty to three federal charges.
So I have the charges here in front of me.
The information charge, which is the defendant with tax offenses, namely two counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax and violation of twenty six USC. Seventy two oh three. The defendant has agreed to plead guilty to both counts of tax information. The second information charges the defendant with the firearm offence, namely one count of possession by a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance in violation of eighteen Usc.
Nine to twenty two G three and nine twenty four A two twenty eighteen. This defendant has agreed to enter pre trial diversion agreement with respect to the firearm information. The parties jointly request the court schedule a consolidated in appearance on the firearm and initial appearance on the charge the plea hearing of the tax information charges. Ryan, can you break this down for us? What are the specific charges that we should remember and relate to here.
So, in the midst of Hunter Biden's bender, he went and bought a firearm, Yes, since when he bought the firearm there was a form that he was required to fill out that asks if he was a drug user?
Base Oka, was he using drugs?
Right?
He checked? No.
He has said in interviews he left crack pipe at a rental car. Well, we have multiple pikes. There's no questions. It's all over the laptop.
Yeah, there's no.
Question that he was using drugs and so boom, he lied and that is the felony gun charge because by lying, he then becomes an illegal possessor of firearms. Yes, they've agreed, they've allowed they are going to allow him to enter into pre trial diversion, which is which basically says, look, you're going to take some courses, You're going to do some probably some community service or some probation, some other things. And if you successfully complete all of these tax tasks
for you, you stay sober. You you know, sometimes you have to go to AA or ANA as a result of is then the charges might not ever actually be filed. Then there's the two tax charges, which are misdemeanors, which are willful failure to pay taxes, which suggests that it's not just as a result of his vendor that he had somebody.
This tax investigation is one of the most insane things that I've ever read, because I remember covering this. At the time, Hunter had two million dollars. Do you know how much money you have to make to pay two million in income tax? That's thirty percent of your income. So you guys do the math here, and that was just over two years. That's a hell of a lot of money here that Hunter found himself. It's good work
if you can get it, isn't it. Ryan, Yeah, just to buy yourself a little Malibu mansion with your latest female love interest.
You know.
The craziest part, too, is how shady this all was, because all of the tax was paid was paid back delinquent taxes not by him by a Hollywood lawyer who apparently was just a friend and supporter of President Biden and decided the entertainment attorney his name is Kevin Morris, novelist who earned a fortune representing the creators of South Park and the Book of Mormon, decided to pay the overdue taxes totaling over two million dollars for Hunter Biden
the previous The problem for him, though, is it seems that the irs was able to basically prove or at the very least, was able to show you that you that they were able to show Ryan that they had made they that he had willfully not paid that tax. So you knew it wasn't just a matter of I
forgot to pay the tax. That he knew he hadn't paid the taxesn't only after that he needed to pay it that he had to come forward and to find this two million, you know, miraculously somewhere, I mean, who, what is this is the sweetest gig on the planet Earth. You get to make millions of dollar, even make so much money, you got to pay two million dollars in federal taxes. And then when you don't pay your tax because you spend all the money, you go to one
of your rich friends. He's a supporter of your dad as the president, and he pays your tax bill for you, and presumably you'll eventually pay him back, but you never ever have to. I mean, Kate, what a good fortune that this man is fine.
He's doing better than me and Markle.
Yeah, but what's as important as what's being charged here as what's not being charged. Yeah, And this this is coming after all the heat around the confidential human source.
It was relaying to the FBI back in June twenty twenty that a Bearisma executive that's said to be the CEO, was claiming that Hunter Biden was splitting a ten million dollars bribe with his father, Vice President Biden, and Republicans have been asking the question, where is this, And the FBI has been saying, well, this is part of an active ongoing investigation, so therefore we can't comment on it. So clearly they did not charge in connection with this
bribery scandal that's been alleged. It also suggests that now they should be able to comment on it, that they can no longer say that there's an active ongoing investigation unless there is another one that they're going to say that they have going on, but I doubt it.
And here's the other thing, in terms of the plea agreement and all of that. I mean, can you imagine what what did Wesley Snipes do. Let's let's go ahead and get this up there right, Like Wesley Snipes tech, I believe he actually did serve a sentence here. So they charged at Snipes had spent fictitious bills of exchange for fourteen millions of dollars to the irs. The government charged at Snipes failed to file tax returns for the years nineteen ninety nine through two thousand and four. The
government charged him with this crime. He responded to this indictment in two thousand and six saying that he actually wasn't a citizen, that was all this other stuff. He was sentenced to three years in prison for willful failure to file federal income tax. Now, obviously it does look like he went out of his way to you know, make sure that he didn't pay his taxes. And it was a little bit of different situation because he didn't actually plead guilty was found guilty as a result of this.
But at a very basic level, you and I, you know, I was just a gun show this weekend. You go into the if I walked into there and I filled out that form and I lied, and I also didn't pay you know, if I didn't even pay a fraction of my income tax, you know whatever, and all of that to the no way, and then I went to some shady character and had them pay the bill for me. You think the Feds aren't going to lock me up?
Of course they are. Any normal person who doesn't have this level of any normal person who doesn't have this level of connection to the elite that people in power wouldn't be getting.
Off scott free. So if he doesn't serve a day in jail, I would say it's a complete injustice.
But it also shows how easy it is to get away with a lot of this stuff too, because if it weren't for the attention that was brought.
About by every what happened is right.
If his father didn't run for election in twenty twenty eight, and he just continued doing what he was doing.
Yeah, the chance that.
They actually, I mean, maybe the algorithm catches that he didn't pay his taxes, but because he's got so many different bank accounts and income from so many different countries that probably the IRS is not catching.
Oh I bet you're exactly right.
Which is the more complicated your taxes are, the less likely you are to get audited because the IRS they instead they audit poor people who make less than twenty five thousand.
Dollars a year. It's five times the rate.
Yeah, exactly, cashing in on They're like, oh, you're falsely cash in on the EITC. This guy can't pay two million dollars and he doesn't even get caught until years later. So look, I mean, we'll stop talking. We'll just let you digest the news. I guess for yourself, but it certainly look we'll find out whether he actually serves any time in jail or no.
That's what we know so far. We'll see you guys later.
The Internet is a flame right now in debate discourse after OURFK Junior's recent appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast. Not from the podcast itself, but from the fallout of a previous JI guest their criticism of the RFK interview. The previous guests, as you've probably heard by now, doctor Peter Hotez at one point appeared on the JRE to publicize his book refuting claims that vaccines cause autism. Since though it has morphed into a full fledged warrior for
the establishment view on COVID. Now, Hotz, despite his previous appearance on the JRE, has criticized Rogan vociferously for airing a different view on COVID and now platforming RFK Junior himself. Hot has reacted to the interview by advocating for censorship by quoting a Vice article saying, quote Spotify has stopped even sort of trying to stem Joe Rogan's vaccine misinformation, to which Rogan lit the flame with the response I've
rarely seen him engage with someone else on Twitter. He responded, quote, Peter, if you claim what RFK Junior is saying is misinformation, I'm offering you one hundred thousand dollars to the charity of your choice if you're willing to debate him on my show with no time limit. The offer was then increased by subsequent offers from billionaire hedgehunder, Bill Ackman, venture capitalists and others, nearing some six hundred thousand dollars to charity.
So the question is will hots do it? Should he do it? Two questions?
Those are what everyone's talking about right now, and it raises a lot of interesting questions. First and foremost, will he do it? The answer appears to be no. Hotess has offered himself up on Rogan's show, but it only seems as a singular guest. He doesn't want to do a debate. He explained himself on MSNBC to Meddie Hassen on Sunday Night. Let's take a listen to what he said.
That's why we have to have that discussion. And I offered to come and talk to Go Gone Joe Rogan again. I've been on a couple of times and have that discussion with it, but not to turn it into the Jerry Springer Show with having RFK Junior on.
So Hotest says going on with Rogan's podcast with rf K Junior would be like Jerry Springer. I'm assuming because he thinks that the format wouldn't be right now as a debate.
The issues are a few.
Number one, Rogan has already hosted multiple debates that were fair. They have borne fruit and actually show him offering grace to those that he disagrees with. The one that really comes to mind is the twenty nineteen debate on marijuana and whether it is dangerous or not That included Alex Berenson and a doctor who advocates for cannabis use. Joe obviously an avid cannabis user, but he gave Berenson the time to talk to air his views. In some cases
he even agreed with him. Not that narrative that most people would think going into that. Now, Joe is all ready offered to go as long as he needs for the debate, so there's no problem in terms of timing. As an RFK appeared on our show, for example, he had a set time that he had to go. That's a mechanical objection. But now what about the moral one. This is where things get interesting and actually very very revealing.
The elites who back ho tests are united in their view that he should not deign to debate RFK Junior, the so called experts should not do so. This view was now best shown by Tom Nichols of Resistance fame. He says, quote, no medical professional should ever agree to do this, never it elevates the conspiracy guy. It demeans the medical professional will only convince the kooks out there. RFK Junior is right because a real doctor took the
time to debate him. Interesting, no medical professor professional should ever agree to do this because it elevates RFK Junior. First of all, RFK is pulling at some twenty percent in the Democratic primary. He's got one of the most famous last names in American history. He is a bona fide political candidate no matter what they do. He doesn't
need HOTS to elevate him or anyone else. But more so, it gets to the fundamental hypocrisy of Hotez and the other vaccine scientists who are refusing to debate RFK Junior. In one breath, they say that the science does not happen by debates. It happens by peer review and by journals, and thus debating that person would be inappropriate. It's not
the way that science is done. But then in the same breath, these people are appearing on public shows like Mehdi Hassen on MSNBC or Hots in the past on rogan to push a specific line of argumentation and.
Talk to the public in public policy debate.
Hotez not only has been a vocal opponent of claims of vaccines cause autism, but he has literally been going on TV now for three years constantly advocating for the establishment of view of COVID. He defended lockdowns, he defended masters for children. He pushed booster shots on kids and COVID vaccines with underlying claims that have turned out to
be flat out false. Whenever it comes to efficacy, he cannot use his so called secret none knowledge of science to advocate for public policy and effectively enter the public square, then take his toys and go home when he's challenged by someone else who wants to talk in that square. It is that view of the scientific establishment right now that when it's time to debate, oh then they're scientists.
But when they're just scientists, they're doing review. But when it comes to advocacy for something that they agree with, oh forget.
The scientific method.
I'll end with this. Vene Persod observed this nearly two years ago. The scientific establishment has nobody but themselves to blame for vaccine skepticism. Today, people like cot Has use their credentials to push childhood masking and lied about efficacy, and they justify their lockdowns, all of which were anti science policies.
Though don't be surprised.
A few years later there's a huge proliferation of questions around vaccines and about the approval process for drugs. Generally, if someone has told you a lie once, the odds are they've probably lied to you before. That's a natural human judgment, and if they want to see their trust restored in their authority, they owe it to the public make their case with one of their opponents. If you can't, well, it tells a hell of a lot about them. And Ryan, Ryan, what are you taking a look at?
So when Daniel Ellsberg made the decision to leak the Pentagon papers, he did so believing that he would spend decades, if not the rest of his life in prison, and one man did everything he could to make sure that happened, and ironically, in the process accidentally assured that he remained free.
That man, of course, was Richard Nixon.
And because he recorded everything he did in the Oval Office, we actually have tape of him first learning of the leak in nineteen seventy one. Here's Richard Nixon being briefed by General Alexander Haig.
Nothing else of that in the world, and they are very significant. This goddamn New York Times expose of the most highly classified documents of the war.
All that I see that, I didn't read the story. But do you mean that that was leaked out of the Pentagon, Sarah.
The whole study that was done for McNamara and then carried on after McNamara left by Clifford and the peace nakes over there. This is a devastating security breach of the greatest magnitude of anything.
Ill, Well, what what's being done about it? Then? I mean, I didn't Did we know this was coming out?
No, we did not. Sure there are just a few copies of this.
So what about the volume report? But what about the Let me ask you this though, what about the What about Lard? What's he going to do about it?
Is?
Well, I did not.
I just start right at the top and fire some people. I mean, whoever whatever department came out about fire the top guy?
He said, well, I'm sure it came from Defense, and I'm sure it was stolen. It at the time of the turnover of the administration. It's two years old, I'm sure it is, and they've been holding it for a juicy time, and I think they've thrown it out to effect hatfield of government. That's my own astimate, but it's it's something that it's a mixed bag. It's a tough attack on Kennedy. It shows that the genesis of the war really occurred during how sixty one.
Yeah, that's Clifford, I see.
And it's brutal on President Johnson. They're going to end up in a massive gut fight in the Democratic Party on this thing, are they. There's some very but also massive against the war, against the war.
It's a Pentagon study, huh.
So, after The New York Times was briefly blocked from publishing the Pentagon papers, Elsburg managed to get them to the Washington Post, which pushed ahead in the face of the White House demand that newspapers ceased publication. From there, Ellsburg went to the Saint Louis Post, Dispatch and elsewhere, making sure that no matter how successful the administration could be against an individual paper, that somebody could keep pumping them out.
Eventually, he turned himself in.
In the fall in nineteen sixty nine, I took the responsibility on my own initiatives, of delivering to the Chairman the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate O R. The information contained in the so called Pentagon papers, including the several studies on negotiations, which.
Have not been given to any newspapers.
I could only wrote that that I had not at that same time release that information to the American public through the newspapers.
I have now done, so I can no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public.
I could no longer participate in concealing this information from the American public. I want to pause on that last point, because it often said of whistleblowers that they deserve prosecution because they didn't take legal avenues available to them to disclose the information. If you remember that was said repeatedly about Snowden, that he should have gone to Congress or to the inspector General or some such But Ellsberg tried everything, and all those institutions did is sit on what he
gave them. That's worth remembering the next time a senator asks why somebody didn't come to them first.
Now, when asked why he finally.
Decided to go to the press, Elsberg pointed to a factor not many people may remember. While his ultimate goal was indeed to end the war, his real fear was the cycle of escalation Nixon had ratcheted up.
Why did I put it out at all, because by the spring of nineteen seventy one, I was feeling that with the attack, actually from the fall of nineteen seventy with the Sante raid, I saw the escalation which had been foreshadowed in Cambodia as speeding up and moving toward probably an all out escalation, which I wanted to avoid at all costs.
Ask if he regretted his decision, Ellsberg offered what has become the model answer for whistleblowers.
Yeah, having any second thoughts about your action there, Sara, Oh, certainly not.
I'vesberg at a recent press conference, you said you were willing to accept any responsibility or anything that came to your part of the Pentagon papers. The latest indictment says one hundred and fifteen year of prison term and one hundred and twenty thousand dollars fine for maximum Are your thoughts still the same that you're willing to accept any consequences.
I have two thoughts about that. I go back to my earlier answer, how can you measure the jeopardy that I'm in, whether it's ten years, twenty years, one hundred and fifteen years, or other ludicrous months like that, to the penalty that has been paid already by fifty thousand American families here and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese families. It would be absolutely presumptuous of me to pity myself in that context. Then I certainly don't, and I'd be ashamed of myself.
And meanwhile, he never forgot two things, First, the extreme nature of the threat that he faced from the Nixon White House, which broke the laws so severely in its pursuit of him that the federal courts threw out his charges. And also that systematically things have gotten much worse for whistleblowers since then.
Caught there, But I'm saying I was the subject of a White House hit squad and effect. And when I asked their prosecutor later, what do those words mean to kill me? And he said, well, the words were to incapacitate you totally. But he said, these guys never used the word kill. They all worked for the CIA. They used euphemisms neutralize, incapacitate, terminate, with extreme prejudice. That was one term. They don't like the word kill. He thought
that the intent was to kill me. So my judgment in short, that Snowden or Manning, had she been not arrested right away, She's probably safer being arrested than simp being eliminated. I think if Snowden went back to the United States, the idea that he'd be free to speak to the public. As I was out on bond for almost two years before my trial, my charges were dismissed. I was able to speak freely at rallies everywhere else.
Manning was held in isolation for ten and a half months until a public protest got her into a general prison population. I think Snowden would be in isolation for the rest of his life.
Very interesting stuff. Thank you, Ryan, appreciate it, and thanks for sitting in today. We had a lot of fun.
We had the Hunter Biden news break during the show. It's always fun to do breaking news together. We will have counterpoints. You guys will be in the desk tomorrow and then Crystal and I will be back on Thursday.
We'll see you then