Jim Acosta 2

0:00It is Ryan C. Crest here. There was a recent social media trend, which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to chumbacaceno.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumbacaceno has over a hundred online casino style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at chumbacaceno.com. Sponsored by Chumbacaceno. No purchase necessary VGW group void prohibited by law, 21 plus terms and conditions apply. All right, welcome to the Jim Acosta show. It's another day that ends in why in the mess that Donald Trump has made in the Middle East. It is a hot mess. We will get to that. But it's also another day that ends in why and Donald Trump freaking out about the midterms. He's having a meltdown over James Taloriko, winning the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat in Texas. He defeated Jasmine Crockett,

1:00who has graciously conceded in that race. And now Trump is telling the world he's going to choose a candidate between the two Republicans, brawling over that Senate seat, the incumbent John Corden and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is a maggot darling. Speaking of darlings, Molly Jungfast is here. She's the best. Molly, great to see you. I mean, there's also breaking right now. The House Oversight Committee has subbed the Attorney General Pam Bondi speaking of hot messes. And there are five Republicans who cross the aisle and joined with the Democrats to issue that subpoena. There's a lot to talk about. Yeah, I mean, I think that Texas, let's just go through Texas for a minute because it just happened. Yeah, let's do that. So last night, Democrats are really overperformed in Texas. They were really big numbers. And if there are a lot of indies in Texas. So you can't look at the primaries as a one-to-one with the general because a lot of the indies

2:01don't vote in the primaries by the function that they're independent. So we don't really know. But it seems as if you look at just like Democrats versus Republicans, Democrats way overperformed. And they overperformed in a bunch of those seats that Donald Trump had gerrymandered in the hopes of Democrats not being able to flip the House or four seats where Democrats overperformed because they were Latino voters that Donald Trump thought he would have in the bag, which he does not have because. No, he does not. Any number of ice crises. So I think that what happened in that text I saw it earlier today was remember Donald Trump or that tweet or that truth or that whatever. What earlier today, we'll remember that Donald Trump had earlier in the contest, had endorsed all three of the candidates, made the coveted all three endorsement. By the way, not a thing, in case you're wondering, not a thing that you could have-

3:02You should pick the person who's gonna win anyways. It's something like that. Well, he doesn't like to lose, right? He doesn't like to be wrong, which is why he loves our mayor's oran, but he likes to win. He likes to win. Here's the thing. Cornen, who is the sitting senator and who was in leadership and is pretty popular in the Senate. And then you have Paxton, who is the Texas AG, who is like Trumpier than Trump, has been impeached, was almost removed, has is a flander. I mean, he has all of the Trumpy- It's kind of like Trump. Yeah, he's basically Trump. And that guy is much more popular in text. You'll be shocked to hear that the guy is like Trump, much more popular in Texas. So Cornen has been spending spending spending a gazillion dollars, and he's still like, there's still pretty much neck and neck. And Paxton has not really been spending. So look, Trump has a real problem here, because if he endorses Cornen,

4:05which is what the Republican establishment really wants, there's still a chance that Cornen doesn't win. That's right. If he endorses Paxton, who I think has sort of more momentum behind him, he has just like pissed off all of the Republican establishment, which historically has been fine, but because Trump has like 10 wars going, and his polling is as bad as it's ever been, and the economy is pretty much in freefall, I'm not sure he can do that stuff as much anymore. That's right. And we should show the truth social post from Donald Trump having a meltdown over this. I can't read the whole thing, because my brain will explode. But somewhere in the middle. A lot of capital letters. That's a lot of capital letters. But it says it must stop now, the fighting between the Republicans. We have an easy to beat radical left opponent, and we have to totally focus on putting them away, stuff like James Elrigo, who is not radical left in a fight. He is clearly freaking out about losing a Texas sentence. Because you know, I mean, if you think about Donald Trump,

5:07who is only thinking almost always about Donald Trump, there's a world in which, remember, he's been impeached twice. And the only way that you get removed is if the Senate removes you. That's right. At most times, they were the votes. They were not the votes in the Senate to remove him. There's a world where he gets impeached, and there are the votes in the Senate to remove him. Yeah, because I mean, we have not really gone to the room where he is fucked up the most. It's possible that we have not, I mean, you would think that January 6th would be that thing. But I just want to just prepare the American people and folks of listening around the world that he may fuck up even worse than that. But one teeny little part of that true social plan that back up is key here. He says, I will be making my endorsement soon and we'll be asking the candidate that I don't endorse to immediately drop out of the race. Absolutely. Exponation point. Is that fair?

6:07Inspeculation is not fair. It'll be packed in that he has to drop out of the race and Maga's freaking out about that. They're pissed that he would go with a rhino like John Cornyn. But that's what makes the most sense if you don't want James Talleriko to win. It seems to me at this moment. But I mean, Trump is expected to endorse John Cornyn. This is according to our friend Ashley Parker and Michael Scher over at the Atlantic. I mean, if you want any chance of stopping James Talleriko and Molly, I mean, the other discourse that if Talleriko wins, he's in kind of the driver's seat or one of the driver's seats for 2028, although my hot take on all of this lately when this comes up is, he's young, he's like 3839. But if he wins a Senate seat in Texas, how does the Democratic party allow him to run for president and then open that Senate seat again? Don't you want him to hang on to that Senate seat for the next 30 years? If he's 38 years old? I just want to pull back and go to Paxton from it because Paxton, no one has done more for Trump

7:08than Ken Paxton. Okay, Trump loses the 2020 election. Ken Paxton is out there, you know, he is litigating and litigating and litigating and trying to overturn the election results. He is Trump's biggest cheerleader. So the question is, if he betrays Ken Paxton A, I'm not convinced Ken Paxton drops out because this guy does not really care one other people think. And then I'm also just like, what is the message here to other people who are willing to burn themselves at the alter of Trump's arm? Like, you saw a Crenshaw go down last night. I mean, they're, you know, Chip Roy, I think he lost it. No, Chip Roy isn't a runoff now for Texas A.J. It didn't look good though for him last night. That didn't work. But maybe he'll be okay in the run. But it's a runoff is going to be either way, it's going to be super expensive. I mean, Texas expensive state, these runoffs are expensive. I mean, the reason why Trump is saying

8:08that he wants people to drop out is because he sees that another three months of this is not going to be good for the Republican in Texas. Yeah. But going back to the point that you made earlier, if the Democrats can win the Senate and with James Tallerico, that becomes a real possible. You can't say, oh, they'll never win the Senate. You have to stop having that conversation now. Because James Tallerico puts them in a position to win the fucking Senate, that makes life much more difficult for Donald Trump. Lindsey Graham has the tantrum because he does not have the gavel and he's not the chairman of the Judiciary Committee anymore. I mean, it's all of these dominoes that fall, Democrats have subpoena power in the Senate. That's much more serious and craved than the Democrats having the subpoena power in the House. If Democrats flip this Senate, it will be a completely different world. I mean, Donald Trump will be able to do nothing. He will spend the next two years just blowing up for hearings, putting his name on shit.

9:11Right, decorating. Mostly he'll just decorate and play golf because he will be so, it will be impossible for him to do anything. And by the way, good, because he's done in two years this been. I mean, we're not even two years where a year and a half into this thing and we're in war with, you know, I mean, just every which way you look, there's a war. Drew McIntyre here from WWE. Wheeled in the Claymore can be a life of chaos. When I'm not dominating in the ring, Chumba Casino is how this warrior takes a rebrate with hundreds of online social games and new weekly releases. There's always something fresh to try. And those daily boosts, next level, even my free time feels like foul-halla. So when life feels like a battle, pick up your feet, have some fun. And let's Chumba. No purchase necessary, VGW Group, Void were prohibited by law, CTs and Cs, 21 plus sponsored by Chumba Casino. Yeah, there's Ecuador, which I didn't even have that on my bingo card in the 2026, you know. And then let's talk about Pam Bondi.

10:12And I know I use this joke and it's very low brow, but she reminds me of Ricky Bobby's wife and Taladega Knights. But anyway, that's beside me. No idea. I know that doesn't work on you, but it works with, sorry, it's right to be audience. The audience like it, like me. Are we live? We are live right now. They can be right in and tell us they don't like it. Are you talking about me? Pat, Matt and Sam will tell us what the comments say, which is probably not good. But, no, Pam Bondi, I mean, what do you make of that? Five Republicans crossing over, joining the Democrats to make Pam Bondi testify. That's not good. I mean, that says to me, and you and I were having this conversation on your show about Christy Nome. My sense of it is that her polling is dog shit. She is not a dog in the dog scenario. Pam Bondi's polling must be dog shit too, if they are putting her up like this. I mean, if there doesn't seem any consequences or hauling her ass in. Wait, we're just talking about the people who voted for it. So this is an amendment, a Mace amendment. So Nancy Mace has is all over the place.

11:14She's all over the place. All over the place. But she did, in fact, she did, in fact, set this up. She's sort of the driver here. They were, I think, seven Republicans. Let me go back and look at this. Let's look at this little article here. I would love to just look at who voted for it. Yeah, I'm with you. No, I think the Hill says, let's, I want to make sure we have this accurate. Nancy Mace put forward the amendment then Lauren Bobert of Beetlejuice fame, Tim Birchett, Michael Cloud, and Scott Perry. So this is an interesting, yeah. It's a really interesting group for any number of reasons. Bobert and Mace, while both being obstreparous and weird have been quite, yeah, 24 to 19, baby. Is that, is that because the Epstein files is a powerful potent, Tim Birchett, and Maggie.

12:17People, Maggie still really care about it. It's like they haven't been Z-programmed five times. Though, I mean, they say, well, put it on Fox, but this is, yeah. Remember, Marjorie Telegreen left Congress over this. She broke with Donald Trump over this. Marjorie Telegreen, like Donald Trump's biggest person, I'm not surprised to see Bobert on there and I'm not surprised to see Nancy Mace because they both have been really involved in the Epstein stuff. I also think, like, and you saw also Nancy Mace wanted to really, you know, Nancy Mace and Bobert are also extremely upset about Tony Gonzalez, who is a member of Congress who had, who was sexting and harassing his district staffers. She set herself on fire. Yes. And, you know, there's a story. There's a feeling you're, I want to pull back. There was a really good reporting by Annie Carney in the New York Times about how a lot of these women in the Senate are really furious.

13:18How it was just, it's just been a terrible time, I mean, in the House. It's been a terrible time to be a woman in the House that my Johnson has treated them terribly, that the only woman that's on that heads a committee, you'll remember is Virginia Fox, who's 10,000 years old. Right. One of the other women are allowed to head committees. I mean, I just think these women have had enough. They've had enough. They totally had enough. I mean, just like what's happening with the Epstein files, the Wall Street Journal, which I've been saying, they're sort of like the second paper in the country after the New York Times. It used to be the Washington Post, now it's the Wall Street Journal. After a journal analysis identified more than 40,000 files that appear to be missing from documents posted to DOJ's website, a Justice Department spokesman said that 47,635 files were offline for further review and should be ready for reproduction by the end of the week. It includes documents that detail women's unverified allegations of sexual misconduct by Donald Trump.

14:20I think, and you and I talked about this on your show, I think people have all kinds of theories. It's about the oil, it's about Israel, it's about Trump's senile and BB Netanyahu's dog walking him. There are all these. I think it's the Epstein files. That's what I think it is. I think it's what wag the dog to get. It's wag the dog to distract from the Epstein files. I think that's right. And it happens so suddenly, they don't even know if it's a war or not. I don't know if we have them like Johnson Sound, we can play them like Johnson Sound. What about the, there was Mike Johnson said it and also we saw Mark Wayne Mullin. Mark Wayne Mullin, they were sort of an abacus fellow. Yeah. Mark Wayne Mullin, by the way, has never served. Did you know Mark Wayne Mullin has never served, but he loves, no one loves war like Mark Wayne Mullin. He's like a smell of roar and all this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's made Tom in the morning and everything's clearly, he's clearly seen apocalypse now,

15:21which is pretty much the same as serving in the army. Yeah, I mean, but I mean, but there's this whole semantics game going on over whether or not this is a fucking war. And I mean, Mike Johnson got into it today. I don't know if we have that sound, we can play that sound if we have it, but those are sovereign territories of the US, they have declared war on us. I don't believe in the semantics. We've talked about the language this morning. We're not at war right now. We're four days in to a very specific war is a very long clear mission, an operation, Operation Epic Fury, which has two components as you know. Yeah, I mean, that's it over. So he says we're not at war right now and he says war has been declared on us. Both of those things are false. War is not declared on us. I don't know what he's talking about. That's bullshit. That is that is a great a Louisiana bullshit. And we are at war. We're bombing the shit out of Iran. I don't know if we have any of those pictures. I'm sure we have our producers have been gathering some of the images coming out of Iran. It's absolutely horrific.

16:23Yeah. And a girl's school with bomb. I mean, Jomio, that is Jomio. You may be kidding me now. I mean, look at this video right here. It's bad when the video, the guy taking the video also gets bombed. It is totally. No, it's totally out of control. The UAE apparently reigns their US allies across the region that are taking incoming on a regular basis all the time. Yeah. And Donald Trump ran on ending forever wars. He said he was going to end forever wars now. Here we are. And it's just absolutely. I mean, there's no. Yeah, what are your thoughts on that, Molly? That Tucker Carlson has pissed at Donald Trump. Marge Taylor Green has pissed at Donald Trump for violating his no-new wars pledge. My favorite thing was, and I mean, favorite, not favorite, but my favorite thing was watching Marco Rubio up there say, like, we went to war because Israel was going to I wanted us to. And then the next day, be like, how dare you ask me if I'm

17:24going to... And then the group, the reporter goes, wait a minute, but that was me that you said that to the previous day. I mean, even Marco Rubio can't get this shit straight and he's supposed to be one of the grown-ups. No, I mean, it is, it's just literally ran on two things. He was going to make things cheaper, and it was going to end for him wars. So now we have gases, you know, $3 a gallon. We're heading into the summer. Just heard Donald Trump do this very slowly press conference where he was talking about how that there's... We're going to need even more energy for these giant data farms. We would use so much water, which by the way, nobody wants. Nobody wants. It's like a nice detention center. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. Nobody wants it. It's detention. This is an ice has billions of dollars, and they're buying up like every single warehouse they can find.

18:24I was just protecting the sales. And I saw one of these detention centers that they want to build that they've purchased, and these warehouses are massive. People have no idea how large they are. They are like the size of several football fields, and it's scary, scary stuff. And speaking of ice, I mean, Christy Nome had another day of crazy grilling. Unvulvably. Unvulvably. She brought her husband today, which is awkward, but I don't know if we have that video, but she... In case we have to defend our homeland. I also want to take a personal privilege, and thank my husband for being here too. He's going to have to go catch a flight in a few hours, but I'm glad he could be here today. And then... Quite too, but maybe not in the plane with the bedroom, I guess. But, you know, yesterday... Maybe she brought the husband, because yesterday they were showing the plane with the bedroom. Well, today, what are the people asked her if she had had sexual relationships with Corey Lewandowski? No, did that happen? Yes, do we have the video of that? I don't think we have the video of that. I would love to find that video. Oh my God.

19:25It was unbelievably... This just happened. I mean... That just happened? And I'd say, no, she just got offended. Okay, wait, hold on. Okay, hold on. If you find it, send that to Matt and Sam, or send it to me, and we'll put it on. I'll see you downstairs. You guys... Send it to me, and I'll send it to them. This will happen live. That's where I'll be here. I mean... I realize... Are you serious? The online command team is here. It's going to my very online producer, but send it to me. Oh, here we go. Moscow, it's my man, Moscow, it's, picks it up because, of course, he dies. I'm sending it to you right now. Jared Moscow, he says, I want to give you a chance. Will you just play it? I'm going to send it to the guys. They'll play it. I think we can do this. I think we can turn it around that quickly. But, I mean, but this is... I mean, this started yesterday when Sheldon White House pulled out the giant poster board. You bet Sheldon was very...

20:27She's very dope Friday. Very sort of, you know, he was like, I'm a classie guy from Rhode Island who is a member of a country club. Like, let's just put the picture up. You know? It's hard to get where it's here. Just the location. But Congressmen just go. Congressmen just goes for it, yeah. Yeah, they just are like, have you had sex with Cory? That, but I want to talk about... There are two things I want to talk about. One is, I really want you to play that video. If we can, we will. Wait, hold on a second. Yes. And what's the other thing? Okay. And the other thing is they kept asking her about the blanket. Oh, the blanket? But I want to talk about the blanket because the blanket is actually, according to the Daily Mail, a bag. Right. What I have heard is that there was something in the bag. Or something in the bag. And she has a thing with bags. There was the bag that had the money in it at the burger place in DC. That was a whole thing for her.

21:28Yeah. But I don't know if the guys have the Jared Moskowitz. My producers may have just you and I are just so out of control. Here we go. Here we go. This is the... Can we... I really want them to play this. Hold on. We're cutting it now. Apparently we're cutting it now. We have the viewers. I was going to say titillated, but I'm not going to say titillated. Hello, it is Ryan. And we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chamba Casino. Chamba Casino has all your favorite social Casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So sign up now at chamba casino.com. That's chamba casino.com. No purchase necessary VGW group void for prohibited by law, 21 plus terms and conditions apply. We're bad. This is another one where she said this is the original one. So at any point in your tenure at DHS, have you had sexual relations with Cordy Lewandowski?

22:32She says, I'm surprised we're peddling tabloid garbage in this hearing. And then she says you should be able to answer if someone asks you or any federal official is sleeping with their subordinates. And then no one says it's garbage. Wolf. Yes. That hearing went to the dogs you could say. Yeah, it's pretty, this has been a pretty amazing. I mean, I look, it's a horrible, it is a horrible moment in America. Oh, yeah, there it is. Especially. So come and employee, I understand what government means. I understand what employee means. Okay, but I don't know what makes it special. Now, I want to give you an opportunity to answer on the record to Miss Camelogger Dub's question. I know you said it's garbage and it may be, but I really think you need to say the word no into the record so that you can clear that up. I think the ridiculousness of this and the tabloids that you are quoting and referencing are insane. And this has been something that I've refuted for years, and I continue to do that.

23:37So it's not. So it's not. We can move on. Hold on. We can move on. I'm not going to belabor it. This is what you do. Hold on. I'm not doing anything. Liberal left. Okay. You go off and you pack. Wow. Still you'll notice one word. She did not say she wouldn't say no. I think I guess she kind of said I continue to refute it. I don't know. It's so easy. It's so easy. Even if you're lying, Christy, just say no. Like the fact that you wouldn't say no. Yeah. I mean, how many people lie in front of congressional committees now? I mean, I don't. She probably lied like 15 times during that hearing. She didn't know anything about the subcontractor that was started 11 days ago and was staffed up by her staff that doesn't have an address. I mean, like every question, nobody had even cooked up a way to do, you know, like there's so much fraud waste and abuse going on here that they can't even pretend that they're

24:38not doing fraud waste and abuse. No. And Christy, you know, is the poster child for waste, fraud and abuse inside the Trump administration? And maybe, maybe not as much as Donald Trump or his children, but she is. She's right up there. She's right up there. Still my favorite moment from all the Christian home hearings has to be Tom Tillus. Tom Tillus. You're curious about dogs. I know. And God bless them for doing that. Now we can say, Tom Tillus, wherever you've been all these years, yada yada, yada, yada. I'm just about to retire. I'm just about to retire. But you and I both love our doggies. And so I do appreciate that somebody finally gave her some shit for shooting a dog, which is for a cricket, which means you're a cricket, yeah, I believe the dog was cricket. And she said it was because he wouldn't be trained or he couldn't be trained. I mean, that's just like that makes the dog even more adorable. My dog doesn't do anything.

25:39I know. Your dog is really bad at the table with him. He will jump on it. If there's food on the table, it does not matter. He won't get in trouble because I feed him all the time from the table. That's what we love. We love Duke. Well, Molly. Duke is a rescue. More importantly. Duke is a rescue, or as I like to say, he rescued me. So it's true. It's very true. And I did that for the odds, but you know, it's really cute. He's the best. And right now he's up. There's being a good boy. When dad is using his podcast for voice, it's time to, you know, just hang out and do nothing. So we'll hang out. But love you, Molly. Great to see you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Have me back. I will. And go back on mine too. Okay. I'm good. Good to see you. Take care. And I'll be on Molly's shirt too. So you got to check that out. And I mean, Molly and I had so much to talk about. There are so many political headlines flying at us right now that we really have only scratched the surface in terms of what's happening in the Middle East right now. I mean, there are several big headlines happening.

26:41I can't think of a better person to talk about this with than my old colleague and friend Elise Labet. There she is. Veteran Global Affairs correspondent, the author of Cosmo Politics on Substack. Elise, great to see you. That's great to be with you, Jim. I love joining you. Oh my gosh. Well, and we'll try to be a bit more serious than Molly and I would. That's okay. Look, you know, Jim, I have had a week of serious. It's been a week. So we can mix a little serious, but I mean, it's not fun stuff and it's not. But I mean, some of it is comical, some of it is really comical. What's going on? I mean, Elise, you've covered this for a long time. Is it a war? Is it a not a war? I mean, to me, like, you know, I want, I was like talking to the computer when you and Molly were going over. And this is like how I see it, right? Yeah. You know, Democrats are falling over themselves to say, oh, nobody is, nobody's crying. The Supreme Leader is dead. We hated him. He was a horrible man and Iran, like, the regime is horrible and it needed to go, but yeah.

27:45And the Republicans are falling over themselves to say, it's not war. It's not war. Even though the president and the secretary, the, let's just call him a Hegseth. I'm not going to call him a secretary of war. I worked. You know, I saw him last, I saw I was talking to someone last night and he was like the secretary of war. I said, please, so call it. When they call it the secretary of war on television, it pisses me off to no end. Yeah, pisses me off because it's not supposed to be about war. It's supposed to be about defending. So, you know, I digress, but, you know, everyone, it's all about the messaging we're out war. The regime was bad. I really do think eventually some US, and we're going to talk about all of this. I do think eventually some US president was going to do it. I'm not sure. I, you know, you could say, OK, Donald Trump had the cajonis to do it. I think we would have seen this sooner or later. I'm concerned about the end game and where we end up.

28:47But, you know, the messaging is like, I mean, it's, it's a joke. And I mean, I mean, but we should just sort through some of the mess that we're in the middle of right now. Yeah. There are Americans trapped in the Middle East right now. The State Department has no reliable information for getting people out of the region. Right. With that. Yeah. I mean, but I just, I mean, you also, you've got to be between, I'll round a little, you know, between the US and Spain over whether we can use Spanish airbases. And the White House said, oh, no, it's all been cleared up. We're going to use them. Spain just said a little while ago, no, that has not been cleared up. You cannot use them. Apparently, we blew up an Iranian destroyer. I got this statement, and you probably did too, at least from the UAE. They're getting rained on with missiles and other armaments from the Iranians. It says the UAE has been subjected to more than 1,000 attacks, a number exceeding the total face by other targeted countries combined.

29:50And it says all of which were intercepted and neutralized by the UAE armed forces and so on and so forth. I mean, that's where Abu Dhabi is. That's where Dubai is. This is a very important partner of the United States. May not be the best regime, but that's the way it is as Donald Trump would say. And I mean, and the list goes on and on. The region is in utter turmoil right now. It's on fire. It's on fire. And look, I mean, I just want to show the video again of the bombing that is going on in Tehran right now. We were showing this earlier, unreal for anybody to say this is not a war. This is what's happening in Tehran right now. Give me a present. I mean, if it's not war, what is it? What is it? This is like, this is like, you know, for everybody that was criticizing the Russians for saying, this is not a war. This is a special military operation. Correct. Right? I mean, it's it's a war, man. It's a, you know, if it looks like a duck, it's not going to be sound like the Kremlin. Right. Right. That's the problem. And the other issue that is, I think similar to the situation with Russia is the Iranians

30:53are learning by using drones and so on, at least that they can engage in asymmetrical warfare in the way that the Ukrainians have with the Russians. And that, that to me says that there is really no end in sight unless, unless the Iranians just wave the white flag. There is some reporting from Reuters that maybe there are some secret talks going on between the U.S. and Iran. Apparently, the president knows with Netanyahu and has denied it. Let's start with the Americans because this is something that I've covered over the years and that, you know, I'm really, I mean, where do you even start? So the American State Department has always said there's this like phrase that goes in every press place. There is nothing more serious than the protection of Americans overseas. There is no responsibility. We take more seriously, okay? If that was true, and they blamed Biden for not doing more planning for getting out of Afghanistan with all the Americans and look, Biden deserves, I, he deserves all the

31:53criticism he got for that. Okay. But there was clearly no planning that went on about how the State Department was going to take care of the thousands and maybe tens of thousands of Americans overseas. And you know, maybe that was about the element of surprise or whatever. But if the American people are your greatest responsibility, and this is all about protecting the American people, they did dirk digler, as I like to say. Yeah. Zippo. Zippo to try and get them out. And it just shows that the lack of planning that was involved. And I think at least lab, it was asked, not at least lab, I want to say, Caroline Levin was asked about some of this in the briefing room earlier today. I know I think we have some of that sound. She was being pressed on some of this. Who called the State Department hotline as recently as last night were being told, we can't help you. You have to make your own plans.

32:54Well, the line was updated. And I expect every single person in this room to report on that accurately. So that information can be relayed appropriately to your audiences and to the American people. I think as journalists, you all have a responsibility to let them know that the line has been updated accordingly with the. I mean, she's just getting snippy and stumbling all over herself. Let me tell you how it usually goes in an instance like this, whether it's a conflict or whether it's a natural disaster, okay? The State Department first sets up, you know, a hotline. You're supposed to register with the embassy that you're, you know, your local embassy. There's like security messages that go out to everybody about what's available, what they could do for you, what they can't do for you. Those type of things, numbers that you can call. And then there's a task force at the State Department that is set up to, you know, basically deal with all of this and they're coordinating with the consular fares people on the ground

33:55there. And I, you know, it's strange to think that this is what's going on because you have Americans that don't know what the hell is going on. And the State Department would give briefings and they would give special briefings by consular fares. This is what Americans can do. You know how we found out that the U.S. was doing a travel warning for 14 countries in the Middle East and it was like, depart now using commercial, it was like, depart now. Do you know how we found that out? Usually it's a travel warning that goes out. It went out with a tweet, with a tweet by the, by the newly minted, um, kind of consular affairs. Right. I put it out on, you know, I said there'll be plenty of time to discuss, you know, how ridiculous this was, but right now get this to your friends and family, you know, get the numbers, get everything, get, get it out. There should be, I would hope by now that there is a State Department task force that's

34:58at state in our agency working with the Pentagon, working with allies to try and get Americans that want to get out out. And I mean, the other thing that we have to get into at least is, is the why in all of this. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing, another checkered flag for the books, time to celebrate with Jamba, jump in at Jamba Casino dot com. Let's Jamba. No purchase necessary. BTW Group. Boy, we're prohibited by law. CCNC, 21 plus sponsored by Jamba Casino apparently Trump does not like the Israel storyline. That it was Israel that dragged the U.S. into this war and they've been going back and forth over this Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. He said to reporters, I guess it was yesterday or the day before that the U.S. was facing this imminent threat, because Iran was about to be attacked by Israel that Israel was going to strike first. And so they anticipated that Iran would strike back and hit U.S. targets. And so the U.S. just went in with Israel anyway. And then he backed away from that and let's be honest about what's going on here, please.

36:05We are not running this war. We may have the firepower. We may have the guns, the big guns, but we are not, we are supporting players in this war. Wow. That's in Yahoo. We are working for Israel. Is that what you're saying? We are working for Israel, but Israel is dictating what the end game is going to be. And I would really like for this administration to take a little bit more control, because he has his own agenda, and I'm not sure. Look, I don't think President Trump gives a damn about regime change. It would be nice. Sure. But I don't think that's his goal. Okay. So listen, you know, we'll get Rubio in a minute. I don't even think he knows what he wants. Right. He doesn't. Well, get to Rubio in a minute. You had Rubio, but then you had a bridge Colby, who is the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. He said it yesterday in a Senate hearing, and he said it today, again, I was at a meeting

37:09at the Council on Foreign Relations. He said that there are two different military objectives. Military campaign of the Americans is to go after the Navy, is to go after the, you know, missile sites and all, and to go after nuclear sites. It's more of a military campaign. Yeah. This, the Israelis, are much more focused on the leadership. Right. Right. And the Israelis, at least, you and I both know this, we've covered this a long time. I mean, they have wanted this forever. I mean, since the nursery for BB Netanyahu, he has wanted to take out the Ayatollah and the regime in Tehran. And the reason why the Israelis are running this is because after October 7th, which was absolutely horrible. And I think, you know, with all of this stuff about the war on Gaza, we forgot what really happened on October 7th and how this all started.

38:11Okay. Israel was attacked in the worst attack in one of the worst attacks in modern history on anybody. Right. So, but Israel said this is never going to happen to us again. And so Israel, we shaped the Middle East. They went after Hezbollah. They went after Hamas. They went after the Houthis. They went after Iran. And again, it was Israel that decided to strike in June. The President just jumped on because he saw it was going well. So Israel shaped the battlefield and part of shaping this geopolitical landscape is to get rid of the Iran in regime. Yeah. It is regime. Now what comes out of them? Anyone can say it's not regime change. But if you were joining forces and you're joining the US, the head of their drill, it's a regime change. Exactly. The US objective is not regime change, but it will be a result of this major military campaign. The Iran, the Israelis, this is a regime change war.

39:14But if the President, you know, the President, you know, this pottery barn rule, remember Colin Powell? Yeah. You break it. Yeah. That's the way it is. Yeah. That's the way it is. And so I don't think he, you know, I don't think he realizes that what comes next, and there's talk that the Supreme Leader's son could be the next Supreme Leader, which might not be as bad as actually the Supreme Leader himself, but, you know, what comes next could be more dangerous for the Iranian people, could be more dangerous for the region, could be more dangerous for US interests. We don't know, but I really think the lack of, of kind of planning and thought towards the endgame before this all went down is what my biggest problem, honestly Jim, my biggest problem is not the military action against Iran. It was inevitable that eventually this was going to happen. But how it happened, when it happened, the way it happened, and the messaging, the half

40:20ass backwards messaging around it, you know, there's this woman, and I encourage everybody, she has a substock, it's called spin class. It's her name is Emily Horn, and she has, she asked me about messaging. Yeah, she was at the NSA, and it's all about messaging. And she said something that I'm going to quote to the cows come home, you know, you shouldn't be able to yada yada yada your way into war with Iran. And that's what's happening. Yada yada yada, you know, right? It is. No, I agree with you. And, but as you and I both know, it is easy to get in, not so easy to get out, and that's where we are right now as a country. And this is, this is what you get when Donald Trump is back in the White House. You have chaos, and you have non-stop uncertainty. And no one discussion with the American people about, you know, what's going on? I'm, you know, what everyone's talking about, this war power is resolution, and they're voting tomorrow, successive administrations on both sides, you know, Obama didn't get it

41:25for, okay, so I'm less concerned about the authorization, and more about the public debate and the consulting with Congress, and the kind of leveling, leveling with the American people about the fact that we are at war. The country is at war. I know. This isn't going to be, I mean, it may not be as long as Iraq, but you don't think in terms of like the monumental, and I mean, you know, hopefully they're not going to put troops on the ground. But this is a BFD. I was on with Tara yesterday in Jojo, from Jersey, and they have this show, The BFD. And this is as BFD as it gets, and then last night, you know, last night I went to this airspace, if Tara, the Baranis, you know, held this interfaith, if Tara, and I went because you know, the whole region is like, these ambassadors were like, from the GCC, they were all like shell-shocked. Yeah, of course. And you know what? You couldn't wait two weeks for Ramadan to be over before you set the region on fire.

42:28And anyway, so at the embassy, at the if Tara, I'm sitting in all of a sudden, and I look and I say, we just bombed what, Ecuador? Yes. We haven't even gotten into that. I know. Well, and that's where we are right now as a country, Elise, is that, I mean, it's a BFD, but we have somebody who, you know, can't put words together these days, in terms of communicating with the American people. Doesn't understand, I feel like they're, you know, we always talk about the lack of empathy and he's so mean and he's so rude. But there is nothing more serious than sending the country and our troops to war. Even like, look, George Bush is looking better and better by the day, by the way. Yeah. But, you know, I never thought for a minute that he didn't understand like the gravity of what we're doing. The gravity of the moment and the way this is being, you know, when you have a speech about Iran and then you talk about, you know, the ballroom or this is not, you know, and people die, but that's how it is and they may be more, but, you know, yeah, we need

43:33more than that in this moment, the American people deserve it and the families of the fallen. Let's show, I think we have the pictures of the, you know, if they call the, do you know if the president called their families? We, I don't know if we know that at this point. Do we know that? But here they are. Cody Cork, Nicole Armer, or Amher, I believe, Noah, Tegins, and Declan Cody. Look at these faces. I mean, they have died in this and there are two other service members who were killed. They have not been identified as of, as of right now. But that is the gravity of this moment. That is why this is so very important. That is why it matters who is sitting in that chair in the Oval Office, who is at that resolute desk that Donald Trump likes to talk about. It's because they have the commander in chief has. Commander in chief. Commander in chief. Hands. That's right. The preferred commander in chief, the job of commander in chief is the most serious job that the president, the serious poor role that the president has.

44:38And you know, Pete Hagseth, you know, um, yeah, what can I say? What can we, well, I'm about to say something, but at least great to see as always. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Perfect. Perfect. Good to see you. Thanks, Elise. We'll talk again soon. Segway to what I want to get into next. And that is the, the self-described secretary of war, uh, in the briefings, these having over at the Pentagon, you'll recall that they kicked the press out of the Pentagon because members of the press here in Washington would not sign on to these forms that said that they would agree to submit their stories to the Pentagon, press shop, uh, in order to have access to the building. So there was that scene that we saw several months ago when all of these reporters walked out, they turned in their press badges and they walked out. Um, now we're at war, we're at war with Iran and the region is on fire. And the, the secretary of defense, not secretary of war, secretary of defense, Pete Hagseth.

45:41Step into the world of power, loyalty and luck. I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse with family, conoles and spins mean everything. Now, you want to get mixed up in the family business. I'm using the Godfather at chumpacacino.com. Test your luck in the shadowy world of the Godfather slot someday. I will call upon you to do a service for me. Play the Godfather now at chumpacacino.com. Welcome to the family. No, just necessary VGW group void for prohibited by law, 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Has a press briefing and he is, uh, apparently, I rate over how the media, how the, how the press in Washington is covering the deaths of these US soldiers. And let's play a little bit of that and talk about it on the other side. Let's listen to this. Misses. We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. We control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front page news.

46:47I get it. He wants to make the president look bad, but try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step. Pete hexeth or as I told Pete keg stand. This is not a few drones getting through and tragedies happening as you put it. Let's put the, the faces of these four fallen soldiers back on screen. These are four US service members who made the ultimate sacrifice. They are not just some oops, it happens sometimes in war as the secretary of defense tried to put it. These are American lives. These are American heroes. These are sons and daughters and fathers and mothers in some cases. And look at the sergeant first class, Nicole Amor, a mom to two children, loving wife

47:52to Joey, 39 years old. Those two kids don't have a mom anymore, Pete hexeth. Look at Declan Cody, a son, a brother. He talked to his parents right before the strike to tell them he was okay, 20 years old. He got down on the prime of his life. Pete hexeth, that is not just things happening. That is not just because a few drones got through and that tragedies sometimes happen. These are human beings. And I, you know, I just think it's a disgrace what is happening in this country right now. When we are at war, there are real questions that need to be asked. And the Pentagon, the people at the top of the Pentagon are apparently so thin-skinned that they can't have real reporters in the briefing room, real reporters from real news outlets to ask about this, to ask about the deaths of service members.

48:56And for Pete hexeth to say that these questions are being asked just to make Donald Trump look bad. He does that all by himself, Pete hexeth, as do you. As do you. You do it just fine on your own. And so does Donald Trump. The press is not bringing up the deaths of service members out of some conspiracy to make Donald Trump look bad. They're doing it because this is serious stuff. This nation is at war and the American people deserve answers. Why did we go in? What was the reason for this? Why was there no planning to make sure that Americans can get out? Why is it still a shit show in getting these Americans out of the region? And how does this end? I think those are real questions to be asked. And in the meantime, we have Pentagon briefings with Pete hexeth where he has the daily

49:57collar. He has Tim Poole podcast, whatever the hell that is. He has the gateway pundit. He has Lindell TV. Did you hear that? Did you hear that at the press briefing? He had Lindell TV asking questions. Mike Lindell's, the my pillow guy, his TV outlet was asking questions, not the members of the traditional Pentagon press corps who should be in that briefing room. So that's because Pete hexeth thinks that when we ask questions about U.S. service members who are being killed that we're just doing it to make Donald Trump look bad. It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace to the title of Secretary of Defense. It's a disgrace to the men and women who work in that Pentagon every day. And it's a disgrace to this country. The American people deserve more than some too-bit, low-rent version of Trump state TV.

50:59But that's what they're giving them over at the Pentagon right now. And it's appalling. It's appalling. We deserve a Secretary of Defense who can just level with the American people. Talk about what the costs are. Talk about what we're going through as a country right now. Talk about the real concerns that Americans have about how long this is going to last, how it's making the price of gas go up, how it's probably going to affect the costs of just about everything. Real questions to be asked. And real reporters should be in that room to ask those questions. My thanks to Molly Zhang, fast today. My thanks to Elise Labbitt, my thanks to all of you for watching. Make sure you do what you can to support independent media. If you can support this program by liking, subscribing, sharing, it does make a difference. So we can continue to bring you stories like this. We're not going to call Pete Hegseth. I'm not calling Pete Kegstand, the Secretary of War.

52:03It doesn't matter how much acts body spray he puts on, I'm not calling him the Secretary of War. I'm not calling the Defense Department the Department of War. The American people deserve seriousness. They deserve straight talk when it comes to matters of war and peace. You'll get that on this program, even if you don't get it at the Pentagon. My thanks to everybody for watching. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing, another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chamba. Jump in at chambacacino.com. Let's Chamba. No purchase necessary, BTW Group, voidware prohibited by law, CCNC, 21 plus sponsored by ChambaCacino.