Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Come see Aaron speak tonight (March 30) at a panel in Montreal: "The Struggle Continues: The Fight For Palestine Across Borders"Katie and Aaron watched the worst people on the corporate Sunday news shows. They picked out the worst moments from the worst people. And then they watched them all live.It’s a jam-packed episode making fun of Marco Rubio, Jake Tapper, Tom Cotton, and more unhinged warmongers. Subscribe to join our community and get full episodes, Friday Free-for-Alls, and bonus content.Thanks for supporting independent media!Your support makes a huge difference! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Click here to join Katie and Aaron LIVE at 3:15pm est:If you enjoy Useful Idiots, please support the work we do here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This morning President Trump told Fox News that Iran “wants to make a deal badly,” and that the most recent talks happened last night with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and their counterparts.Awkwardly, the Iranians claim that no talks have happened. So who’s lying?Are the Iranians misleading the media? Is Trump boasting a deal he’s unable to make? Or is this a repeat of what happened in Cuba, where Marco Rubio lied to Trump about fake negotiations in order to convince him that war was the only possible option? Did Witkoff and Kushner fake these talks to Trump?Aaron and special guest Sana Saeed unravel the story and react to the varying degrees of warmongering responses given on social media. It’s an hour and 45 minutes jam-packed with liars, sycophants, warmongers, and corporate tools. You won’t want to miss it.During all this, Katie’s on a mission to Cuba with CodePink, Jeremy Corbyn, and other brave journalists to end the murderous siege on the country. Your support for Useful Idiots helps fund the journalism we do!Support independent media here! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:This week we’re speaking with Iranian Professor Behrooz Ghamari, whose unique history gives him an important perspective that challenges Trump’s regime-change war-of-choice in ways few others can.In the 1980’s, Ghamari was sentenced to death by the Iranian government for being part of a Marxist group trying to overthrow the Islamic Republic. He was held in Evin Prison’s death row, where countless political prisoners have been tortured, and was denied cancer treatment for his worsening lymphoma.But, Ghamari explains in his excellent new book, The Long War On Iran, four decades after getting freed from a place he never thought he’d outlive, Israeli airstrikes hit the prison, along with over 17,000 other civilian sites. Ghamari “had this feeling as if my home was attacked.”Today, we’re asking him why, after the horrible treatment he endured, does he still reject US regime change of a government he fought to oppose.Useful Idiots: It’s fascinating that you were literally scheduled to be executed, you were on death row, you were deprived of cancer treatment, and yet your analysis is so clear-eyed. You are able to criticize regime change. You are even able to give credit to this government that wanted you to be killed.Behrooz Ghamari: A political project cannot be the extension of your own trauma. We need to transcend that trauma in order to advance a political project. Unfortunately, I see a lot of people who are celebrating these military attacks. They’re supporting Israel bombing Iran, supporting President Trump bombing Iran. There are actually people who use the trauma of others to justify their own celebration, which is a very bizarre kind of logic. But I think it’s a sign of political maturity if one tries to transcend these things and understand: what price are we willing to pay? Because that’s the main question. People always cite Immanuel Kant, saying ‘dare to know and speak truth to power.’ But people usually forget the second part of it: ‘Speak the truth to power and be willing to lose your head for it.’ And so I challenge those people who are celebrating in the US, if they’re willing to speak the truth and also willing to lose their head for it. Because they stand at a distance and are quite ambivalent about loss of life in Iran.Subscribe to hear our full discussion with Professor Ghamari where we ask him to respond to the Iranian diaspora claims about foreign regime change, Iran’s treatment of its own people, and why Iranians should have to “pay the price for Palestine.”Plus, don’t miss our Friday Free-For-All: Jake Tapper: Iran Wants Us to Bomb Them!Thanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to watch the full episode here:

In the lead-up to the Iraq War, the Bush Administration, with the help of Democrats and corporate journalists, stuck firmly to coordinated lies, talking points, and fabrications to trick the American people into supporting of a war of aggression in the Middle East, using WMD and Saddam Hussein lies all in concert to make a single, cohesive story.This time around in Iran, they’re trying to do the same thing. But they’re doing it so much stupider.They’ve messed up talking points of how long we’ve “been engaged in war with Iran,” how long they expect this new war to last, whether or not we’re even at war, and so many more flubs. Katie and Aaron spend a mega 2-hour Monday Mourning debunking all the craziest and sloppiest lies from Lindsey Graham, Jake Tapper, Mike Waltz, Israeli ambassadors, and more.It’s a nicemare nightmare out there – watch with Katie and Aaron so you can laugh instead of cry at it all.Thanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to join the Useful Idiots community here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This week’s interview and Friday Free-for-All have combined into one mega LIVE episode. We speak with Iran experts Negar Mortazavi and Trita Parsi about what is currently happening in the US and Israel’s war on Iran.But first, Katie and Aaron run a recap of the biggest lies and craziest takes from this week in corporate media, from Jake Tapper and Jon Stewart to Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer.It’s all insane – watch with Aaron and Katie to laugh instead of cry at it all.And please subscribe to the show to support independent media and get bonus content! Useful Idiots Forever This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

After striking Iran in the middle of peace negotiations, murdering its leader, massacring over 100 young girls in an elementary school, bombing a hospital, and targeting civilian populations, Israel and the US took to Western media to accuse Iran of unprovoked attacks on US bases when they retaliated.From propaganda-soaked leading questions by news anchors from CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox News, to the warmongering lies of politicians and government officials in both political parties, this weekend’s Sunday news shows were a rat-infested cesspool of corporate scams.Don’t watch them without Katie and Aaron and the Useful Idiots community. It’s just too awful.It’s as big of a lie as we’ve ever taken on here at Useful Idiots. Which means this Monday Mourning is an EXTENDED episode! Watch it here so you can laugh instead of cry at it all.Thanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to Useful Idiots to beat the corporate elites: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:The big question hanging over the world right now is whether Trump, the guy who campaigned against endless wars, especially in the Middle East, is about to launch another endless war in the Middle East, assembling the largest military deployment there since the Iraq War and threatening to bomb Iran.There have been indirect talks in Geneva between the US and Iran, but the Trump Administration is still talking as if it wants to go to war because it sounds a lot like the Bush Administration when they were making the case to go to war with Iraq.Just this week, Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff claimed, without evidence, that Iran is a week away from having enough uranium for a nuclear weapon. Which means the WMD hoax is back in full swing.To understand all this, we spoke with Iranian journalist Ali Alizadeh, host of the excellent YouTube show Jedaal.Useful Idiots: There has just been a third round of indirect talks held between the US and Iran in Geneva. Based on what you’ve heard so far, what is your assessment of these talks?Ali Alizadeh: Americans have claimed they don’t want Iran to ever reach nuclear weapons, and Iranians have provided something which can give them such guarantee.But then if you just listen to the Americans, just before the two sides were supposed to sit at the negotiation table, it seems that they are cheating. Vance talked about the fact that the president has all the options on the table, and again threatened Iran militarily. Marco Rubio suddenly said Iran’s missiles and navy are a threat to the peace and security of America.Since when has Iran’s navy has been a threat? Iran has a navy in its own waters, which is called the Persian Gulf, and it’s been called that since 2,500 years ago.And then your navy and your aircraft carriers have come from 15,000 kilometers away to their land. So how can the Iranian Navy be a threat to your security? And so they are constantly adding pressure and trying to squeeze other things into the negotiation, which in my opinion can sabotage the deal.Useful Idiots: Do you think there’s a chance of an actual deal being reached?Ali Alizadeh: If Iran and America were sitting at a negotiation table, I think Iran could have given Trump something which was stronger than the JCPOA and would send him home happy so he could sell it to his people that he did something better than Obama.But is Iran negotiating with the United States? Or is it negotiating with Israel? Who is Steve Witkoff? Who is Jared Kushner? Because it seems that Israel has a completely different agenda, which is constantly pushing Trump. And now Trump, I think because of his lack of expertise in diplomacy and politics, despite what he thinks of himself, has badly cornered himself.Useful Idiots: You spoke about how you think that Trump miscalculated the strength of the Iranian government and how he’s actually strengthened the government, because the actions of the United States and the actions of Israel, flaunting the role of foreign intervention in people’s faces, has actually rallied the masses around the government. Can you talk more about that?Subscribe to watch our full interview with Ali Alizadeh on what actual Iranians want to change about their government, Nancy Pelosi’s murderous threat to working-class Iranians, and an update on the Geneva talks from an Iranian official.Plus, don’t miss our weekly recap of the craziest moments in corporate media, the Friday Free-for-All: Let’s talk about the Democrats who gave Trump a standing ovation for bombing IranThanks for supporting independent media. Watch the full episode here:

There’s a lot of words that Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff doesn’t want to use… but will use anyway.“The president is – I don’t want to use the word frustrated – but he’s curious as to why Iran hasn’t – I don’t want to use the word capitulated – but why they haven’t capitulated.”This comes as Trump is threatening another regime change war in the Middle East, ordering the largest US military deployment since the Iraq War. “Why,” Witkoff continues, “with the amount of naval power we have over there, haven’t they come to us and said ‘We profess that we don’t want a weapon’?”In the Obama-era nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from, Iran professed they didn’t want a nuclear weapon. Last year, Tulsi Gabbard released a report showing that Iran has no current nor future intention to build a nuclear weapon. Iran’s government has a fatwa against building a nuclear weapon.With all the evidence there, it is clear Witkoff and the US don’t actually care what Iran wants. They want to instead treat Iran as their child. And if his ‘capitulation’ line wasn’t condescending enough for you, wait until you hear this one:“They’re probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material,” Witkoff lies, following his talking points from Prime Minister Netanyahu exactly. “We can’t have that. This is something that they have to stick with until they prove to us that they can behave.”Also in this Monday Mourning: Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro backs regime change in Iran, the Trump admin gets caught in a lie about tariffs, and Mike Huckabee goes on Tucker Carlson to give the most insane Biblical defense for Israeli genocide yet.It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Subscribe to our show to support independent media!We love your support! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

We’ve got two interviews for you this week: first up we’re talking about Iran.Trump is threatening another regime change war in the Middle East, ordering the largest US military deployment since the Iraq War. To get an understanding of what’s happening in Iran, we spoke with independent journalist Bushra Shaikh.Bushra went viral for a video from a recent trip to Tehran in which she walked through a rally without wearing a hijab. She explains that this is a common occurrence, and that so much of what we hear about Iran in Western media turned out to not be true.Bushra Shaikh: This picture that’s created in the West is more of a very old-school type of Iran. There is a movement in Iran that is taking shape. And it’s purposely being censored from the West.I was walking in that rally. It was such an amazing place to be because there were hundreds of thousands of people coming out in support of their government. I was there without a hijab on. And honestly, it was it was just one of those experiences that I thought I would never have. And given the propaganda in the West, I was even confused because when I got there, I was like, ‘Bushra, you’ve been propagandized.’So having that experience for myself really was an eye-opener. Useful Idiots: And what do you think is happening on the ground?Bushra Shaikh: What’s happening on the ground is you have a large community at the moment who are very worried about the prospect of a war, of being illegally attacked in their country.One of the main concerns that a lot of people spoke about were the sanctions. They told me, ‘We just want to live good lives and we want to prosper and we want to be able to enhance our economy, build good ties with other countries. And these sanctions need to be lifted.’So most of people’s real concerns were sanctions. It wasn’t changing who’s in charge of their country.For our second interview, we’re discussing the life and message of civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died this week at the age of 84. He worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He then ran for president in 1984 and 1988, pushing to cut the Pentagon budget while increasing domestic spending on education, housing, and healthcare.Jackson was also active in international struggles and campaigns, ranging from the anti-apartheid movement to supporting rights for Palestinians. Jesse Jackson also visited Palestine, and of course he was criticized for defending Palestinian rights.To hear firsthand stories of the Reverend, we spoke with Eric Easter, former press secretary to Jesse Jackson for the National Rainbow Coalition, and Albert Mokhiber, who worked on Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in 1984.Watch or listen to our full, unpaywalled interview with these great guests. Thanks for supporting independent media. If you’d like to help keep us running, please consider supporting us with a subscription.If you do, you’ll get our weekly recap, the Friday Free-For-All: We Can’t Take the Risk of Not Going to War with IranUseful Idiots is an audience-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

"Give the Ukrainians tomahawks, give them more missiles for their patriot defense systems, allow them to inflict more damage beyond the border into Russia." Kill! Kill! Kill!Hillary Clinton was at the Munich Security Conference this week imploring President Trump to send the most powerful weapons yet to Ukraine so that they could bomb Russia’s nuclear sites, a move that could challenge Russia into a nuclear war.And while this may sound like a reckless, warmongering, dangerous, and stupid tactic, we at Useful Idiots like to look at the bright side of things:After all the vitriolic name-throwing, cheating accusations, and Russiagating since the infamous 2016 election, we think that the true way to heal the divides in our nation would be for Trump to let Hillary Clinton fire the first tomahawk missile into Russia.Sure, it might start a world-ending nuclear war, but wouldn’t it be nice for all the bipartisan warmongers to just get along?Also in this Monday Mourning: Hakeem Jeffries gets humiliated on an independent media podcast for defending ICE, Border Czar Tom Homan mumbles out some really dangerous threats of what he plans to do to undocumented people, and Marco Rubio goes full global dictator at the Munich Security Conference.It’s all this, and more, on an overflowing episode of Useful Idiots. Thanks for supporting independent media, please join our community here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

Help Mohammad document settler attacks in West BankIsrael has recently announced new measures that allow it to steal more Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Check out how this was covered in Israeli media vs US media.Can you guess which is more honest in its coverage?First, Israeli media writes this:They explain that the Cabinet intends to further their annexation, or theft, of Palestinian land, which is at least honest in its intention.In contrast, here’s the New York Times:Israel gives itself more control over occupied West Bank?? We’ve never seen this euphemism for theft before. It seems the subservient New York Times has become more creative than ever in its linguistic gymnastics to avoid any legitimate coverage of Israeli crimes.Reminds us of the classic from 2014 when a missile, seemingly shot by no one, ‘found’ Gazan civilians watching the World Cup:To check in on how things are going for the Palestinians who live in the land that Israel is giving itself more control over, we’re speaking with Mohammad Hesham Huraini, an independent journalist from Masafer Yatta, the same West Bank community depicted in the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.We ask Mohammad: did winning the Oscar have any benefit for your community? With one of the directors already murdered by settlers and the rest facing constant threats of terror, his answer is depressing.Please share this interview to get Mohammad’s reporting out to the world. Thanks for supporting independent media, join our community here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comSubscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:This week we’re looking at the intensification of the decades-old US blockade of Cuba. Trump has imposed an even harsher blockade, blocking fuel to the country, leading to an even more dire humanitarian crisis.Just this week, a report showed that US sanctions are now reportedly killing children with cancer: “Amid worsening shortages, Cuba's rate of childhood cancer survival has fallen by 15% — from roughly 80% to 65% — according to data from Cuba’s Health Ministry.”And this isn’t just collateral damage of US policy: kids with cancer are the targets of the murderous US sanctions, which are aimed to harm the most vulnerable in a society.Joining us to talk about these sanctions and the history of US-Cuba relations is journalist José Luis Granados Ceja.Useful Idiots: For DropSite News, you cowrote the article: Marco Rubio Is Deliberately Blocking Trump From Cuba Talks. Can you tell us what you discovered?José Luis Granados Ceja: What we found was that these claims that Trump was making loudly to media outlets: that they are in talks with Cuba and that they’re thinking about a deal, don’t line up with what we were hearing from people both in the U.S. and in Cuba.We were able to ascertain that these claims of secret negotiations happening in Mexico were also not true. And a source was able to confirm that the official in Mexico City from the Secretary of Foreign Relations was not actually involved at all. So when you put all those pieces together, it very much looks like Marco Rubio is deliberately lying to Trump, that the State Department is not being forthcoming about what’s actually happening in terms of high-level negotiations between Cuba and the United States.And our hypothesis here is that it’s about trying to lay the groundwork for more radical action.Useful Idiots: Can you tell us how Marco Rubio’s history with Cuba might be driving this?José Luis Granados Ceja: We have to remember, Marco Rubio is obsessed with overthrowing the Cuban revolution. Apparently in his own autobiography when he was positioning himself to be a candidate for president, he wrote that he used to dream about leading an army of exiles and installing himself as president of Cuba. He’s obsessed with this idea. Obviously, he already had to concede when it comes to Venezuela. But I’m not sure that he’s willing to accept anything similar when it comes to Cuba. So he may be deliberately misleading Trump in order to say, ‘well, talks didn’t work, right? We were at the table. Nothing happened. Guess we’re going to have to invade or bomb or do something similar to what we did in Venezuela, or possibly more drastic.’Subscribe for the full interview with José Luis where he reveals the new mafia state that Rubio wants to impose on Cuba (with himself as don), how a pan-American coalition could take on the US in Latin America, and whether recent US aggression in Cuba will push China to enter the conflict.Plus, catch our weekly roundup in the Friday Free-For-All: What do John Fetterman and AI have in common? They both just threatened to kill peopleThanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to watch the full episode here:

Tune in for a joyous episode of Monday Mourning (as long as you’re a United States senator)! A bipartisan crew of senators including Dem Mark Warner and Republican Lindsey Graham are pushing Trump to bomb Iran and break free of the New Start nuclear arms treaty which caps the number of nukes a country can have.And now the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists just set the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it’s ever been. Three cheers! (if you’re a United States senator)Also in this Monday Mourning:* Putin is controlling Trump again (somehow that one’s back in full force)* Dr. Oz claims Trump is making healthcare more affordable by reinstating a part of the ACA that he himself cut in his first term* Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales feels really bad about 5-year-old Liam Ramos being kidnapped by ICE (but he gets over it very quickly)* A Republican is calling out Trump officials named in the Epstein Files* And so much more madnessWe watched the Sunday morning news shows so that you don’t have to. Watch our full recap. And thank you for supporting independent media! You can help fund our show and get bonus content here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe

*BONUS INTERVIEW*As the Trump administration turns the world into chaos, threatening to bomb Iran, killing Americans in Minnesota, kidnapping presidents in Venezuela, and gutting the nation’s already-terrible healthcare system, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has fallen out of the corporate news cycle.Our guest, Palestinian-American law student Ahmad Ibsais, joins Useful Idiots to explain that the reports from Gaza weren’t just pushed aside to get more views from higher-performing news stories, but intentionally buried for a much more pointed and, as always, nefarious reason.Useful Idiots: Why have we stopped seeing of coverage of Gaza in Western media?Ahmad Ibsais: Right before the ceasefire was a time where we saw so much public outrage that a genocide was taking place. And it wasn’t because Palestinian voices suddenly became credible in any way. It’s because the extremity of Israeli violence reached the Western consciousness in a way it could process. There were so many news stories about children starving to death, and people could conditionally recognize that Palestinians were dying in a way that was not their fault. And that’s where the ceasefire came. So now, any violation of the ceasefire or coverage of it, brings into question the fallacy that America was able to broker it. Like is America even a superpower anymore? Does the Israeli state even care what America says or does? Second, let’s keep up this illusion that America is not contributing to the genocide or that they’re in any way complicit. Coverage raises the question: Palestinians are still dying, so what are we doing and how are we enabling this? That’s why we don’t see it anymore. And they’ll wait, as they have done in the past, until Palestinians respond in a meaningful way. And that’s when the ceasefire ‘breaks.’Our full interview with Ahmad Ibsais is free to all. As an independent media team, we rely on your support to keep going, so please subscribe and join the Useful Idiots community!You’ll also get our Friday Free-For-All: Jeff Epstein, the Russian Spy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/subscribe