I've always learned that home is where you feel safe and loved, and those who surround you there are your people and you are my people. [00:00:23] For once, we actually have a good update. This morning, a judge ordered the release of Columbia University Student Motion Mahdaoui after he was detained by Ice agents earlier this month for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. On April 14th, Badawi, a legal resident and green card holder, was arrested by [00:00:42] immigration officials during a scheduled appearance at an immigration office in Vermont for a naturalization interview. Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified his detention, saying his presence and activities in the United States would have serious [00:00:57] adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest. According to the DHS notice for Madawi to appear in the government's opposition to release releasing Madawi. It said that law enforcement records indicated that Madawi had it has [00:01:17] admitted to being involved in and supporting anti-Semitic acts of violence and an interest in and facility with firearms for that purpose. According to court documents reviewed by NBC news, [00:01:33] Madawi helped lead the pro-Palestine movement at Columbia until last spring, which is when he shifted gears and started to focus on building bridges with Jewish and Israeli communities at the university. He's passionately spoken out against antisemitism in the past. [00:01:51] During an interview with 60 minutes, he recalled that during a walkout on November 9th, one person was yelling Death to Jews and this is how he responded. I was shocked and I walked directly to that person and I told him, you don't represent us because this is not something that we agree with. [00:02:09] And I took the megaphone and I gave a speech and I said, we we here are conscious, educated students and we want and we know how to separate right from wrong. What this guy has said is clearly anti-Semitic against Jews. [00:02:25] To be anti-Semitic is unjust. And the fight for the freedom of Palestine and the fight against anti-Semitism go hand in hand, because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. But the Trump administration is still claiming he's anti-Semitic. [00:02:42] The government included two exhibits with their filing, which have been filed under seal. One of the exhibits which NBC news has reviewed is a 2015 report from the Windsor Police Department in Vermont, where a gun shop owner told officers that Mahdawi supposedly [00:02:59] told the owner that he used. He used to build machine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine. Mahdawi recalled visiting the gun shop, but stated in his declaration, I am absolutely certain that I had never expressed the words [00:03:16] the report falsely attributes to me in that exchange, or ever. I am a peaceful person and would never express wanting to harm or kill anyone. I am heartbroken to have such appalling words, which stand in complete contrast to my philosophy on life and spiritual beliefs. [00:03:34] Misattributed to me. And the judge thankfully saw that in his ruling. Judge Geoffrey Crawford, citing his, cited his extensive ties to the community. He noted that the court had received more than 90 submissions [00:03:50] from community members, academic experts and professors who know Mr. Badawi. Many of them Jewish, attesting to his character and consistently describing him as peaceful. Judge Crawford found Badawi did not pose a danger to the public and was not [00:04:07] a flight risk, so he was released on bail. Now, this isn't the end of the fight, as the immigration case against him will continue. But Badawi can fight it from the outside, from outside the detention center. He is also allowed to attend Columbia's graduation next month. [00:04:23] Following his release, Badawi sent a message to the Trump administration from outside the courthouse. I'm saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his cabinet. I am not afraid of you. What we are witnessing now, and what we're understanding, is exactly what Doctor Martin Luther King has said before. [00:04:39] Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Keep in mind that yes, you might think I am free, but my freedom is interlinked to the freedom of many other students, including from Mesa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil. [00:04:56] We must stand up for humanity because the rest of the world, not only Palestine, is watching us. And what is going to happen in America is going to affect the rest of the world. So, Brett, what do you make of his release? And I guess some of these claims that the government is making, [00:05:14] can we believe Rubio and the State Department on some of these claims? Well, regardless of whether you can believe Rubio or not, there is a massive contingent of Trump acceptors, if not supporters, who are abandoning him over this issue, period. [00:05:33] Like there was this one amazing moment. I forget what it was specifically, but like the Joe Rogan and that crew are looking at this and being like, that's weird. I thought we were all, like, vaguely libertarian free speech absolutists here. [00:05:48] And you've got your arresting someone who protested. But like in a way that's way over the top and the video doesn't look good. And the folks that are just like kind of casually observing this are like, why would you do that? I thought the best ideas won. [00:06:06] The counterargument that they make from the from the Trump side that I've seen, that's pretty hilarious is like, let's say that there was someone here on who's a legal resident, green card holder, and they started saying stuff like, black lives don't matter and we should like kill all black people. [00:06:24] The answer is like, well, it's still a free speech thing. Like some of my favorite people to listen to are neo-Nazis because they're hilarious and they're horrible. And I think if they do something bad that's actually legally actionable, [00:06:40] we should act on that. But if they're just being stupid in public, like, let them speak. They'll give you enough rope to hang themselves with. And then also generally, like with protests, the smartest thing to do if you're the powerful group is to let them do it. [00:06:58] Because protesters are loud and it's in the middle of a plaza, and everybody kind of hates that because they got to walk through the plaza and they're like, all right, enough with this. Wrap it up and stop with the megaphone thing. Someone do something about this. But you end up typically hating the protester. But one thing that you shouldn't do if you're Marco Rubio, [00:07:16] is start arresting people in this way and and making statements in this way. Even if you arrest them, you should write your statement and be like, all right, this is not this is not what I thought it was. You're going and it becomes public, just how tenuous your claims are [00:07:32] against someone and how widely refuted they are by people that aren't. One gun shop owner who apparently it seems, wasn't accurate in his characterization of this person. When you juxtapose that against people who actually knew the guy and have no, [00:07:52] identitarian reason to contradict him. Yeah, it is so blatantly unconstitutional the way they're going about this, because any sort of limits on speech must be content neutral. [00:08:09] And now you have them invoking national security, a bogus national security claim. To what threat to national security? Does a college student having a protest on campus? Like what threat does that pose? What threat does Miss Öztürk at Tufts University coauthoring an op ed [00:08:29] a couple of years ago. What threat does that pose to national security? And it's all a lie. As we talked about in other stories this hour, they're willing to lie about anything. But we there's nothing about what they're claiming that we should believe or trust [00:08:47] because it is so patently bogus. And while this is a good development, his immigration status is still ultimately in jeopardy and they may still try to deport him. It's good that he is not in a holding cell somewhere, but Mahmoud Khalil missed the birth of his child because of these policies. [00:09:06] And like you're saying, Brett, even some of his biggest and most loud and prominent supporters can't even stomach this kind of stuff. And shockingly, on on immigration at large or deportations at large, you're even seeing people like Alex Jones who would defend anything Trump did. [00:09:26] Watch him wrinkle his nose and his stomach turn over the potential deportation of citizens to El Salvador. These people are so brazen with what they're doing that some of these people can't even defend him anymore. [00:09:42] And that, to me is shocking. Yeah, like and the optics are just so creepy. Like, watching Trump's 100 days rally in Michigan. It was like a six minute video of people getting their heads shaved [00:09:58] because they were deported for, quote, being an Ms. 13, even though we have essentially the Supreme Court saying like, bro, you just you, you jumped the gun on a lot of this and, and and it's really creepy to me that they want you to be like, look at these people [00:10:13] that look different from me. We should arrest them all and round them up and kick them out. Put them on a train somewhere. Like, those are the scary things. Oh, this person disagrees with the powers that be. Let's lock him up and put him on a train somewhere like that. [00:10:30] Stuff's horrifying. The only upside is that this is America. We don't really have very fast trains, so you could probably catch it and get them back. Every time you ring the bell below. An angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.