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

Watch our full, unpaywalled interview with Iranian-American Professor Afshin Matin-AsgariFor our recap of the week, including the new Russiagate conspiracy that Epstein was a Russian agent, subscribe to watch our Friday Free-For-All: Jeff Epstein, the Russian Spy.This week, amid volatile tensions, deadly protests, rumors of Mossad infiltration, and threats of war, the US and Iran are scheduled to have diplomatic talks, though one side pulling out would not be surprising as the US can’t seem to stop bragging about how sanctions destroyed Iran’s economy all while threatening to bomb them.For some much-needed clarity on the issue, we spoke to Professor Afshin Matin-Asgari, author of Axis of Empire, who participated in leftist protests during Iran’s 1978-79 revolution.He gives a history of Iran-US relations, mocks JD Vance’s obvious misunderstanding of how Iran’s government works, debates Aaron on which side is really responsible for the violence in recent Iranian protests, and analyzes Marco Rubio’s “unpredictable” diplomacy proposal.Useful Idiots: Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the terms for what he says would be ‘meaningful talks.’ Do you think that Iran will accept those terms?Afshin Matin-Asgari: To go back to the background of these talks, when Trump canceled the so-called Obama nuclear deal, he said that he did it to force a better deal on Iran. That was during his first term. And that never happened. All the pressure, sanctions, threats, and assassination of Iranian military personnel didn’t work.So he joined Israel’s war on Iran.What happens at this point? The Islamic Republic is in its weakest position it has ever been because of an accumulation of a lot of problems: it has domestic unrest, the axis of resistance, including Hezbollah in Syria, is gone, it’s more vulnerable than it ever was to military attacks. So Bahrain has accepted to come to negotiations. If Trump can make the Islamic Republic accept some of his terms, he could claim victory, impose the new deal on Iran, and kind of walk away from this, which may not be a bad thing because it at least averts a full-scale military confrontation, something that everyone knows would be a disaster. But it can’t be predicted.Our full interview with Professor Matin-Asgari 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.And stay tuned for a bonus interview tomorrow with Palestinain-American law student Ahmad Ibsais for an update on Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza. 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

It was a crazy weekend, but as Useful Idiots know, a disturbing world means an action-packed Monday Mourning. Here’s what we cover:– A seemingly drunk Lindsey Graham begs Trump to bomb Iran– Mike Pompeo can’t stop bragging about Mossad’s covert plants in the Iran protests– Republicans are flailing to defend ICE’s murder of ICU nurse Alex Pretti– Karoline Leavitt parrots Nancy Pelosi’s paid protester line (with not even a thought about giving evidence of who’s paying them)– TRUMP EPSTEIN FILES– CLINTON EPSTEIN FILES– CBS’s anti-Maduro propaganda– And so much more ridiculousness. Mock it all with Katie and AaronPlus, catch last week’s Friday Free-For-All: Smug Man Accidentally Admits He’s MAGA NowAnd our interview with a civil rights attorney who exposes Dems’ complicity in ICE’s rise to power: Dems EXPOSED for Secret ICE FundingThanks for supporting independent media, 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 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:While the DHS is sending masked ICE agents into cities, rounding up immigrants and citizens alike, killing protesters, and creating chaos, Democrats are making a big show of being anti-ICE. They’re calling for reforms, body cams, accountability, and training.This sounds great, but civil rights attorney and Copaganda author Alec Karakatsanis reveals it’s actually “extremely dangerous.” Under the guise of reform, the Democrats are playing a key role in a centuries-old strategy of building an oppressive, high-surveillance police state used to target the most vulnerable communities in the country.And it’s all a plot.Useful Idiots: What are the most dangerous reforms being pushed by the Democrats and why are they dangerous?Alec Karakatsanis: One of the most important ones that you hear constantly from Democratic Party leadership right now is body cameras. Now, aside from how silly that is in this context, the officer who shot and killed Renee Goode literally filmed himself doing it, it’s actually much deeper.The evidence is overwhelming that body cameras do not make police less violent and they do not reduce police misconduct. So you have to ask yourself, why are Democrats proposing something that everybody agrees does not make police more accountable? And the history of this is that police agencies wanted body cameras for many, many years, but they couldn’t get the billions of dollars of funding for them.What they wanted is to link all this new footage and data into algorithms that train AI into massive databases. That’s why you see ICE with cameras. They scan people’s faces. Prosecutors also wanted body cameras so they could get guilty pleas really quickly, like trespassing charges against unhoused people and drug possession cases.So they had this problem: the industry wanted to make billions of dollars in contracts. The police wanted them for surveillance and to connect people to AI. But they couldn’t afford it.And then what happened was after Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, the Obama administration worked with local Democratic Party officials and the policing surveillance industry to just remarket body cams, not as police surveillance but as accountability and transparency for well-meaning liberals who were desperate for something to be done.That resulted in the greatest expansion of policing surveillance technology in modern history.Useful Idiots: So the Democrats’ current stance is that they’re threatening to block the funding of the Department of Homeland Security, where ICE is a component, unless there are certain reforms?Alec Karakatsanis: What the Democrats are basically saying is ICE needs to spend even more money on surveillance technology like body cameras and on so-called training.Anybody who knows what the police and military training industry is in the United States would not support more money going to that. It’s one of the most dark, violent, and fascist corners of our society.These training programs are where they learn to do the stuff that you’re seeing in these videos. That’s why in 2020 there were thousands of videos of police committing intentional, brutal crimes and violence, and it looked the same in hundreds and hundreds of cities. It wasn’t some one off mistake. This is what police are trained to do.The Democrats are saying, ‘if you do those reforms,’ which the police want anyway, because there’s huge industries behind them, ‘we will then give you this entire budget.’The main leverage Democrats actually have is reducing the ICE budget, but they’re starting the negotiation by saying we’ll give you everything you want. It’s really, really insidious.Subscribe to watch the full interview with Alec on why AOC and other Dems calling for the National Guard and police agencies to stop ICE is exactly what the police state wants, and why those videos of police playing basketball or handing out donuts evolve from colonialist tactics used by the French against Algerians.Plus, catch this week’s Friday Free-For-All: Smug Man Accidentally Admits He’s MAGA NowThanks for supporting independent media, subscribe to watch the full episode here:

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This weekend Border Patrol in Minneapolis murdered another peaceful protester, ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Trump officials are having such a horrible time trying to cover for this one that they’re resorting to the cancel-culture lingo they mocked for years:“It feels as though you’re blaming the victim here,” says CNN’s Dana Bash.Senior Border Patrol Official Greg Bovino whines back, “The victims?? The victims are the border patrol agents! I’m not blaming the border patrol agents! The victim are the border patrol agents! The suspect put himself in that situation.” And then one more time for good measure: “The victims are the border patrol agents!”Then deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche uses the word he learned from woke culture, complaining that the media needs to stop “gaslighting the administration about what happened.” What happened was seen by the entire country in footage filmed by protesters. It is not gaslighting to watch the video.And just to ratchet up the hypocrisy even more, they begin claiming that Pretti acted illegally by bringing a gun to the protest. Pretti had a legal permit to carry a gun. But that doesn’t matter:“You cannot bring a firearm to any sort of protest that you want,” says FBI Director Kash Patel.“He brought a gun!” adds Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “I’ve been to a protest. Guess what, I didn’t bring a gun. I brought a billboard!”So now these guys, the same people who lionized Kyle Rittenhouse for bringing an assault rifle to police-violence protests, are against the Second Amendment? And pro-woke culture? It’s hard to be surprised anymore, but this one’s a lot to take in.Join Katie and Aaron for all this, and so much more, on a wild episode of Monday Mourning.Watch the full episode for free and please subscribe to us here on Substack and for free on YouTube, your support keeps us going! 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

Kristi Noem did not do well on her Face the Nation appearance this weekend. And Katie and Aaron did not miss the opportunity to make fun of it.From accidentally calling her own agency’s statistics a fake news lie, to contradicting her claim that ICE agents aren’t using chemical weapons against protesters, to admitting the First Amendment no longer exists when it comes to ICE, to claiming that even mentioning the public case of ICE officer and alleged murderer Jonathan Ross is the same as doxxing, she dug herself into hole after hole.We feel bad making fun of someone so…intellectually challenged, but she’s currently in power running what this week’s guest Craig Mokhiber called “the modern day Brown Shirts,” so we’ve got no choice but to do our part in mockery.Also in this Monday Mourning: Republicans are tripping over themselves over the stupidity of Trump’s Greenland takeover plans, Democrats continue to only call out Trump’s regime change operations for being unsuccessful, mentioning nothing about their moral implications, and Israeli mega-donors Miriam Adelson and Haim Saban accidentally get outed by their own moderator.It’s Monday Mourning! Subscribe to Useful Idiots to support us and independent media! 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

In October 2023, Craig Mokhiber resigned as director of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights over the UN’s failure to act to stop the genocide in Gaza. Since then, he has been writing and speaking out about Israel’s crimes in Gaza as well as the other wars launched by the US-Israel Axis. This week, we’re focusing on Israel’s secret role in destabilizing Latin America, the Maduro government in Venezuela in particular, and in training ICE.Useful Idiots: Can you talk about the Israeli regime’s nefarious role in Latin America?Craig Mokhiber: It’s a long story, the history of the Israeli regime supporting far-right governments and death squads in Latin America and attacking or supporting attacks on progressive governments and movements in the region. And that’s why in her first address after the U.S. attacked Venezuela, the vice president, who’s now the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, said that the attack on the country had “Zionist undertones.”People of the region are well aware that the hand of the Israeli regime in destabilizing progressive governments has been going on forever. We’re talking about Israeli weapons, Israeli equipment, Israeli surveillance technology, Israeli intelligence cooperation, spying on opposition, and so on. But what’s really sometimes missed in these conversations is that the Israeli regime has been exporting not just weapons and technology and tactics, but it also exports a kind of violent and racist ideology. Ideas that are very right-wing, very Zionist, very militarist, very anti-human rights, obviously deeply anti-Muslim and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian and anti-left, and this general idea that tries to frame law enforcement as equivalent to military.That has been a big part of it. And that’s why, after the attack by the US on Venezuela, Israeli regime leaders were absolutely giddy celebrating the attacks on Venezuela and the abduction of the Venezuelan president.Useful Idiots: What about Israel’s role in U.S. crackdowns against its own citizens?Craig Mokhiber: This is what I refer to as the Zionist boomerang. This support for Zionism, fascism, apartheid, all of the crimes of the Israeli regime in Palestine, now it’s come back to our own cities. We’re talking about policing tactics that are entirely inconsistent with international human rights standards. You’ve got decades of the US underwriting apartheid, surveillance, repression, and genocide in Palestine. Those practices are now being brought home.We’ve seen it in the brutal persecution of student protesters. You see it in the distortion of US legislation by Israel. The official adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism as an Israeli tool to try to silence dissent about Israeli abuses. You see it in the wholesale suspension of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in the U.S. on behalf of the Israeli regime. This is blowback from support for Zionism in Western Asia and you now see it in the corruption of U.S. law enforcement with this continuous structured flow of Israeli weapons and equipment and surveillance technology. A lot of these things come out of Israel’s so-called counterterrorism tactics. And whenever you hear that word counterterrorism, I think we’ve all learned, human rights runs for cover. It’s surveillance, it’s brutal crowd control techniques, racial profiling, intrusive intelligence gathering that’s now touching all of us.That is a product of this Zionist boomerang. And that alone should terrify everybody who lives in the United States.Watch and share our full, unpaywalled interview with Craig Mokhiber.And don’t miss this week’s Friday Free-For-All: GOP Senator Accidentally Blows Iran SecretDown with corporate media. 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

“F***ing b****!”New bodycam footage shows that a male voice, allegedly the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good in Minnesota this week, yelled this out after the deadly shots were fired. When confronted with this thorn in the MAGA story that this was a scared ICE officer fearing for his life, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unravels.In the days since the shooting, Noem, as well as Vice President JD Vance and Border Czar Tom Homan, have been attacking and blaming Good for her own murder, labeling her a domestic terrorist. As more and more footage of the incident comes out, showing that the car was not being “rammed” into the officer, audio of Good and her partner saying they were leaving the site, and now this, the domestic terrorist accusations are growing thinner and thinner.MAGA’s getting desperate.Katie and Aaron analyze this, as well as the unfolding chaos in Iran, where anti-government protests have erupted over a failing economy. MAGA senators like Lindsey Graham and John Fetterman are using this as an opportunity to push for strikes and sanctions against the Iranian people.And one comment by Mike Pompeo leaks that Israel’s Mossad may be involved in the protests.It’s a jam-packed Monday Mourning, laugh and cry at it all with Useful Idiots. 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

Breaking News: it was just announced that for the first time ever, the 2026 winner of the Israel Prize will not be an Israeli. It will instead be Donald Trump.Netanyahu visited the Israel-firster this week to shower him with praise, and in response, Trump bent the knee to proclaim that Israel can have as many second chances as they’d like to prove they’re not committing genocide. In the same speech, Trump kind of lets slip that he’s maybe thinking of shooting missiles into Iran on behalf of Israel, but hey, the whole second chances thing, right?Katie and Aaron are covering everything happening in Israel-Palestine for one last blowout show of 2025 – but that’s not all we’re watching: a new right-wing childcare conspiracy has erupted in Minnesota after a YouTube prankster banged on daycare center doors, shouting “Where are the kids??” Somehow, this strategy led to people shutting doors in his face, which he, and GOP politicians, took to mean the daycare centers are all frauds. Now they’re cutting childcare funding in the state. Plus, Fox News’ Tomi Lahren gives a psychotherapy session on who you should really be looking to for personal inspiration.It’s all this, and so much more madness, on the Useful Idiots News Year’s Mockin’ Eve. Thanks for joining us for a wild 2025, we’ll see you in the next one. 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

Get extended episodes, Friday Free-For-Alls, and TWO MONTHS of Useful Idiots FREE.The Epstein files are out…mostly. The Trump Admin seemed to think it could get away with yet another partial dump, but one of their redactions got leaked when a photo of a desk drawer filled with photos of Trump and young women went public.What was that about?Katie and Aaron analyze Deputy AG Todd Blanche’s Epstein performance on Meet the Press and debunk the lies after lies he tells.Also in this Monday Mourning: Bari Weiss has turned 60 Minutes into a propaganda joke, Lindsey Graham phones in from Tel Aviv to warmonger on not one but THREE different US wars, and Democrats Hakeem Jeffries and Jamie Raskin fail miserably in their response to the DNC refusing to release their 2024 election autopsy.The corporate politicians are running wild. Only Katie and Aaron can reel them in. Watch or listen to the full episode for free.And don’t miss last week’s Friday Free-For-All: Katie Halper & Aaron Maté React to Ridiculous ‘Melania’ Trailer 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.comGet the extended episode, Friday Free-For-All, and TWO MONTHS of Useful Idiots FREE.Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:For this week’s interview, we’re speaking with Francisco Rodríguez about the latest in Trump’s regime-change campaign in Venezuela. Rodríguez, a member of the Venezuelan opposition who formerly advised a challenger to President Nicolás Maduro, does not, like other members of the opposition, support the U.S. policy of starvation sanctions and military force to overthrow the government of Venezuela.Useful Idiots: You have warned that Trump’s naval blockade of U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of Venezuela could lead to the first major famine in the Western Hemisphere. Can you explain what you mean by that?Francisco Rodríguez: The first thing to understand is that the Venezuelan economy runs on oil revenues. Oil is more than 90% of the country’s exports. It uses its export revenue in order to pay for imports of everything, including food and essentials.The Venezuelan economy doesn’t actually produce the food that it needs to feed itself. And that’s not atypical: that’s the case for many economies that are integrated into the world economy. But not many economies get blockaded. In fact, there’s really no precedent of a sustained blockade of any economy in the Western Hemisphere.Useful Idiots: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to Trump’s blockade announcement by ordering a naval escort for tankers that are carrying oil toward Asia. This obviously raises the risk, if Trump decides to enforce his social media post, of a military confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela in the high seas.Francisco Rodríguez: The U.S. has essentially gone into this strategy of trying to scare the Venezuelan military into turning on Maduro, which is called the credible threat strategy. It’s the idea that if the US can credibly threaten that it’s going to invade, it doesn’t actually have to invade: the military is going to turn on Maduro who is going to give up power.Up until now, Maduro isn’t moving. You don’t have any sign of rebellion in the military, and this strategy has painted President Trump into a corner because now he’s almost forced to show that this threat is credible by carrying out a military attack.But on the other hand, there seems to be absolutely no appetite, at least in American public opinion and among the political leadership of both parties, for an actual war in Venezuela. So is President Trump going to pull the trigger? Is he going to go in and seize that tanker and fire on the Venezuelan ships that are escorting it? We don’t know. It’s highly unpredictable.But what we do know is that a lot of military conflicts begin this way. They begin with threats and then one side either miscalculating or believing that it has to enforce its threat in order to maintain its credibility.Subscribe for the full interview with Francisco Rodríguez for his thoughts on Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado calling regime change an “act of love.”And don’t miss this week’s Friday Free-For-All: Katie Halper & Aaron Maté React to Ridiculous ‘Melania’ TrailerWatch the full episode here:

This weekend, a mass shooting in Australia killed at least 16 people at a Hanukkah celebration. Australian lawmakers responded to the incident rationally: they’re creating new policy to tighten gun restrictions in the country. US politicians, who responded to their own mass shooting at Brown University with the usual “thoughts and prayers,” had a much more ridiculous takeaway:“My heart goes out to all of the Jewish citizens of America and around the world,” says Senator Jim Banks (R-IN). “In America we have to do more to deport terrorists out of the United States to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen in the homeland.” He then adds for good measure: “And our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected.”Instead of dealing with the problem of gun violence, or assessing that the ethno-supremacist state of Israel waging a 2-year ethnic cleansing campaign is the leading cause for the rise in antisemitism, US politicians are using this atrocity to fuel Islamophobia and deport innocent people from the country, creating even more suffering in the name of Israel.But please, when you talk about the students killed at Brown, don’t politicize it. Just say thoughts and prayers.We cover this, and so much more, in this week’s Monday Mourning. Plus, don’t miss our limited-time offer to get 2 FREE MONTHS OF USEFUL IDIOTS. 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

Time is running out: get this episode and 2 MONTHS of Useful Idiots FREE.This week we speak with Suad Abdel Aziz, a Sudanese-American lawyer and founder of the human rights advocacy organization Decolonize Sudan. The Sudan genocide is a topic we haven’t covered extensively at Useful Idiots, so Suad educates us with a history of the region, explains what’s going on now, and reveals how the US is involved.Useful Idiots: Can you give us a brief history of Sudan and how we got to where we are?Suad Abdel Aziz: Despite how mainstream media frames it, there is not an internal power struggle or civil war that’s happening in Sudan. What’s happening is a foreign-backed genocide, carried out by a militia called the Rapid Support Forces, or the RSF, as part of a colonial project to completely destabilize Sudan in order to seize land within a larger imperial scheme designed to extract resources, consolidate economic control of Sudan, and control Sudan’s foreign policy.Beginning in April of 2023, the RSF violently seized Sudan, and over the course of over two years now, destroyed and leveled the bulk of Sudan’s infrastructure and has displaced over a third of the population, which is over sixteen million people. They have waged a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing marked by mass killings, including killings of entire family lineages, sexual violence, and the deliberate starvation of entire communities.The RSF is only able to do this through the backing of the United Arab Emirates, who provide the funds, the fighters, and the weapons for this militia. In exchange, the UAE is extracting the resources of Sudan, with the main export that it’s smuggling being gold. And the UAE’s gold exports have increased by over 25% since this siege began.Useful Idiots: What is the connection between Sudan and Palestine?Suad Abdel Aziz: Sudan has historically been allied with Palestine and against Israel, which is key in understanding why the US seeks to align Sudan’s foreign policy with its own in order to serve its larger interests of domination of the Middle East. It’s very clear that if elections were to happen in Sudan, that the people would elect in anti-colonial Muslim governance. And this is a threat to US control of the Middle East and of Muslim countries.Listen to or watch our full interview with Suad Abdel Aziz, unpaywalled for all listeners. And don’t miss our limited time deal: 2 MONTHS of Useful Idiots FREE. Your support of independent media means everything.Plus, don’t miss this week’s Friday Free-For-All: Aaron Maté on Confronting Hillary ClintonGet your 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.usefulidiotspodcast.comGet the extended episode, Friday Free-For-All, and TWO MONTHS of Useful Idiots FREE.Subscribe for the full episode at the bottom of the page. Watch a free preview here:This week we’re speaking to Pulitzer-Prize winner Greg Grandin about the Trump Administration’s regime-change war in Venezuela, which now is mired in controversy not just because we’re trying to overthrow a foreign government yet again, but also because Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presided over a blatantly unconstitutional strike on a speedboat in the Caribbean.Useful Idiots: Can you walk us through what Trump is doing right now in Venezuela and what is motivating him?Greg Grandin: The big picture is the America First movement, which imagines that the United States no longer superintends a global liberal political economy in which everybody plays by the rules. That’s happened in the past, and Latin America is key to that.But then, of course, there’s Venezuela and there’s oil. There was a split within the Trump administration between so-called moderates, who are tied to Chevron, and the war party, Miller, Rubio, and Hegseth. I think those speedboat attacks were the war party’s attempt to preempt any normalization of relationships with Venezuela.And with Rubio, it’s a confluence of two different strands. One is he was a neocon before he became America First. But he’s also from South Florida, and he’s got deep ties to the Cuban community. And Venezuela is seen as the first step towards taking out Cuba, denying it its oil. So he’s doing it under the rubric of the War on Drugs, which of course is not Donald Trump. That’s a fifty year war. Behind every single horror that Donald Trump represents exists a long train of U.S. presidents that had first put in the policies that make what Trump does today possible. And that’s nowhere clearer than in the Drug War, which started formally with Richard Nixon in 1973. So there’s many things flowing into it.Useful Idiots: Do you think Trump will succeed with these plans in Venezuela?Greg Grandin: The momentum to get Maduro out is quite strong and surprisingly orchestrated, which included the Nobel Peace Prize Committee giving María Corina Machado the prize, and she immediately fulfilled her role as everybody’s worst expectation of what could possibly happen. I can’t imagine any other Peace Prize winner immediately embarking on an alliance with Donald Trump to stage a coup. But that’s where we are.I think that Trump wants Venezuela settled. That either means Maduro’s gone and some provisional government favorable to the United States is in power, or it means the Chevron faction within the Trump administration keeps Maduro and establishes some semblance of normalcy and keeps the oil pumping. Now deportation flights have restarted after being halted for a little while. That’s where I’m a little bit dubious about whether Trump is going to go all in on Rubio’s visions. They don’t have enormous support in the United States. It doesn’t have support in the MAGA base. And obviously Hegseth is having all of these problems. The leaking of the footage of that double-tap speedboat killing suggests there’s deep discontent within the military…Subscribe to watch the full interview with historian Greg Grandin. (Or watch it free with this deal. You’ll also get our Friday Free-For-All: Stephen Miller Says What He’d Do With Pete Hegseth’s Children)

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This week’s interview with Jasper Nathaniel is free to all. For our news of the week segment, check out our Friday Free-For-All: JD Vance Can’t Stop Laughing at Trump’s al-Qaeda Joke. Thanks for supporting independent media!If you’re wondering about how the so-called ceasefire in Gaza is going, look no further than this BBC News headline:Some ceasefire. And if you want to know about the even-less-reported-on West Bank, where settlers are committing unwatchable atrocities as you read this, listen to this week’s interview with Jasper Nathaniel, a Jewish-American journalist who is just back from the olive harvest, where IDF soldiers set him up for a violent mob attack from Israeli settlers. The videos he took are horrifying.We asked Jasper about the situation in the West Bank, to describe the settler attack in which he caught on video the moment where a settler beat an elderly woman in the head with a stick, and the US State Department’s response to his plea for rescue.Useful Idiots: Tell us about your own government’s response to the settler attack. You contacted the US Embassy, what have your elected representatives told you?Jasper Nathaniel: They immediately sent out Marines to rescue me from the oil fields and put me on a private plane back to... No, they did nothing. I actually did speak to two people at the US embassy who saw the video and they expressed horror and sympathy and fear. And when I told them we needed protection, one guy says to me, ‘Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to protect you. It is the responsibility of the host government, meaning Israel, to protect you.’And then I point out that it was the host military that led us into this ambush. And he says, ‘Well in the instances where the host government can’t protect you we pull our embassy, like Venezuela and Syria.’ So I say ‘Okay, so you’re pulling the embassy from Israel?’ And that was the last I heard from them.Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, all completely ignored me.Useful Idiots: It’s not surprising, it’s kind of predictable, and yet it’s still shocking. Can you talk about the outcome of your reporting on this and what effect it had on the people living there?Jasper Nathaniel: People started to tell me that this might be one of those rare instances where something so heinous is caught or documented that Israel can’t spin it and might have to issue some sort of a response.And sure enough, the next morning, there was a story in the Times of Israel where the chief of police in the West Bank, who is a far-right Ben Gavir acolyte, said ‘We must arrest him and demand justice.’ The next day I was back in the oil fields and there were Israeli soldiers there patrolling, protecting the Palestinians. And it was clear to me and to all the Palestinians that they didn’t suddenly grow a conscience and decide they wanted to protect these people. They understood that they had a PR disaster on their hands and they had to save face by preventing another attack.Thanks for supporting independent media. It’s moments like Jasper’s video that couldn’t happen without your support.To join the community and get our analysis on Bari Weiss, John Fetterman, JD Vance, and Trump’s al-Qaeda Oval Office visit, please subscribe for $6 a month. 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:*Don’t miss our new segment, the Friday Free-For-All: Elon Musk Short Circuits on Joe Rogan Over Zohran Mamdani*In 2018, Ross Barkan ran for New York State Senate. His campaign manager was Zohran Mamdani.This week, after an unprecedented surprise campaign, which began polling at 0% on announcement day, Zohran Mamdani pulled off an upset to become New York City’s next mayor. Ross Barkan explains how this happened, the forces and money working against Mamdani, and why this signals a tailspin for Israeli influence campaigns over US candidates.Useful Idiots: The ADL has announced that they’re launching a comprehensive, citywide initiative to track and monitor policies and personnel appointments of the incoming Mamdani administration. And earlier, Jonathan Greenblatt said that Zohran wasn’t meeting with “the right Jews.” What is your response to the ADL’s effort against Zohran Mamdani?Ross Barkan: It really backfired on them. They made this a referendum on Israel. And that helped Zohran.Zohran himself did not make this election a referendum in Israel-Palestine. He did not talk about it in his campaign ads. He was not talking about it on the stump. It really was a locally-focused affordability campaign. And again and again, because he is pro-Palestine and has a long history in activism, he was attacked on it. And they lost the referendum bad.They lost the primary by 13 points, they lost the general election by 9 points. Put into context the amount of money spent against him by the super PACs from the primary and general and you’re talking almost $60 million dollars, plus Cuomo’s own money. So they poured in $70 million dollars against him collectively and they were beaten.Useful Idiots: Let’s look at what happens when Zohran takes office January 1st. Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed him, but yet she’s opposed a centerpiece of his campaign, which is a bit of a higher tax on the ultra wealthy to help fund some of his social programs: free buses, universal child care, and other measures. What kind of challenges is he facing on that front to actually push his agenda through?

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